Sex Education

Here's news for you, buddy - sex within marrige leads to those things, too.Because those issues are based on who you're having sex with, not in what context you're doing it. If your sexual partner is a person who makes you feel guilty or angry, or has a disease or is going to get pregnant, those things are going to happen regardless of the two of you having rings on your fingers and cake in the freezer.I mean, do you really believe that a little gold ring is going to cure you of STD's, advance your maturity level about 10 years, prevent you from ever being angry or guilty, and magically act as a perfect contraceptive? Cuz, man, if so, I need to send my wedding ring back in, cuz it must have been broken when I put it on. It never has before. Keep in mind that we did it your way for about 2000 years, and the result was teenage pregnancy, overcrowded orphanages, society's ostracism of young mothers and raped women, rampant STD's, backward, dangerous sexual practices, and the casual dismissal of hurtful male promiscuity.If it's rigid sexual mores that you think will save us all, why don't you take a look over in the Middle East at how well those work? How's that working for them? Oh, right. Fathers kill their own raped daughters, abuse of women is endemic, AIDS is out of control because condoms are viewed as sinful, and men marry 12-year-old girls, regardless of the girl's wishes, in legalized pedophilia.In our own culture, clerics (and yes, that word refers to the authority figures of any religion) of the most sexually restrictive Christian sect sexually abuse young girls and boys and, reliably, are shielded from prosecution by their superiors at all levels, including the feted religious leader who often meets with our President.Abuse of women and the restrictive, ignorant sexual practices you describe go hand-in-hand. They're inextricable, being born as they are of the same attitude that sex needs the imprimatur of religion.

Never has for me. Actually, I only did it once. Turns out that unless you're willing to mug for the camera and adopt some rather uncomfortable, unenjoyable postures, you wind up with some rather boring footage.Oh, and lighting? Always crucial.

What's exploitative? Is it exploitation any time you hire someone who needs a job? Isn't that just about everybody?It's unquestionably exploitation to (for instance) run a website where I pay bums 20 bucks to fight each other in alleys. (This was actually done, once.) Is it still exploitation to pay a bum 20 bucks to pass out advertising? Or to mow my lawn?It may be exploitation to hire a woman to strip, but is it exploitation to hire a woman to be the nude model for a figure drawing class?I don't think exploitation is the clear line that some people claim it is. There's undeniably exploitation in the sex industry, but can't someone be a sex worker because they enjoy the job and money? Or just the money? (Who hasn't had a job that they hated?)

Well, I disagree. There will always be some jobs that nobody loves to do, yet need to be done. (Call them "dirty jobs" if you will.) I don't think it's exploitation when a person says "my desire or need for money outweighs my distaste for this job"; that's a choice that they made freely, as far as I can tell. And I certainly don't think that preventing them from taking that job, from making that choice, somehow preserves their freedom.I mean, I'm certainly offended by the idea of a man offering the homeless a pittance for them to debase and injure themselves - and at some websites I heard about, the "compensation" was sexual - twice the exploitation for your money. But it's difficult for me to determine a really reasonable basis for my offense. So too with the sex industry. I guess the only thing I find truly exploititive is the traditional strip club business model - charge the patrons for entry and the dancers for dancing, and the dancers hope they make enough from tips to get by. You shouldn't have to pay to work, no matter what.