I’m a product of the 60s (sort of – I was a grade school kid), so I’m well schooled in the emergence and impact of The Sexual Revolution. Women on birth control became bolder in making their desires and availability known; men were cagily advised not to buy the cow when the milk was free.
All hell broke loose in subsequent years and today we have a society in which sex sells everything from razor blades to all variety of alternative lifestyles. That’s nothing new, of course, but our preoccupation with body parts and innovative couplings carries an opportunity cost with regard to other aspects of human development.
This saddens me and I’m hoping the pendulum swings back soon.
What irritates me, keenly I might add, is the time I waste each day clearing my email of soft-porn messages encouraging me to consider fantastic bedroom adventures through enhancement of the "male package."
Since when does the name Susan suggest that particular anatomical structure? Yeah, I know it’s blast email junk that cares naught for who receives it. But I truly resent the time and energy I invest in ridding myself of this crap, not to mention how disgusted I am to see so much of it.
Are men so worried?
After months of being inundated with such garbage, I was feeling pretty indignant. Why should I invest my hard-won resources to provide unintended receptacles for this nonsense? Worse, I started grieving our superficial and meaningless preoccupation with body parts at a time when the world really needs each of us to develop our greatest talents and gifts – our true character – to haul our increasingly dark world back from the brink of savagery.
Comic relief came today in the subject line of one of these messages and, with it, some perspective. The subject line said, "Grow a monster in your pants by New Year’s." I laughed out loud.
The Sexual Revulsion is underway, not because human beings will ever turn their backs on natural and sometimes urgent desires. But we are more than our base urges and we have more to do than to pump up, get down, and turn out prodigy that no one is interested in teaching, guiding, or helping to shape the future.
Let’s reinforce this revulsion by showing people, young and old, how the fire inside, whether it leaps in great flames or smolders with quiet intensity, is the true attraction factor. Let’s remind people that what’s between the ears and behind the eyes will always be more intriguing and have longer-lasting value than what the body can offer, no matter how many ways it is enhanced. A monster indeed.
Susan Marshall is a consultant and founder of Executive Advisor LLC in Oconomowoc. She also is the author of "How to Grow a Backbone." For additional information, visit www.executiveadvisorllc.com.
