Thursday, July 04, 2013

Current Pop

"...when the self become a selfie — when people start approaching themselves and others as things, to be posed, bartered or possessed, rather than as beings with rich and infinitely various inner lives —morality becomes destabilized, making it difficult to determine the difference between a playful risk and real one, or even between violation and fun."

This is from an excellent article from The Record: Music News from NPR, which includes videos, called "When Pop Stars Flirt With Bad Taste".

The article ends: "Party music creates a space where the things that do run us — whether they're good things, like ethical codes or laws protecting the vulnerable, or painfully restrictive ones, like the grind of money-making and the trap of consumerism — seem to give way, and a space opens up for exploring desire, sensuality, and the unexpected. Blurred lines can lead to exciting new places. But sometimes we need to draw them, for ourselves, again."

I hadn't seen these videos all the debates are about and a few seconds into each one is enough for me. The phrase "guarding the gates of the senses" comes into my mind. The freedom to explore one's sexuality is not something someone else gives you, it's something you claim or take for yourself. But as the first quote points out, the objectification of people isn't what sexuality is about. We lose the rich inner lives.

My partner said after I showed her some videos and read the article to her, "You know how we teased that all the old people should go onto an island somewhere? Well, now I want to go to that island."

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