I
often hear the protest that something offensive is 'boring'. I
instantly pay attention.
One of my favorite bloggers and her
acolytes considers this Lady Gaga video 'boring'. The two most critical
and sophisticated put downs they use are 'boring' and 'the work of an
art school student'.
The two things that incorrectly describe this video are 'boring' and 'art school'. Lady Gaga music is in the ABBA tradition; very melodic and sweet with easily understood words. The graphics are among the most complex in the business, fast paced, original and dramatic. The sexuality is there and is of some sexual interest but not much. Lady Gaga wears a bra and panties. It is just a music video... a good one.
What does 'boring' mean in this context? It means 'I see something sexual that offends me but I want to discourage others from looking.... boring is my cover-up for hot and dirty'.
Look at the word dirty. It is in the same category as boring. It is designed to associate the object of the description as a negative, an uninteresting negative: plain old dirt.
Why do we do this? Look at something titillating and then behave in a way that is intended to discourage others? Because that is the core of Puritanism. Puritanism is the outrage that is felt when someone else is enjoying themselves.
When everyone is having fun, it is the Puritan who asks: 'Are we having fun yet?'
The Puritan response to puritan violations is 'boring'. Boring is to try and discourage others from knowing about the secret pleasure.
In research done in the human sexuality field at Stanford, on mature married couples (not the classically useless research on students) there were three groups who filled out sexual attitude and behavior questionnaires before and after the test. Group one saw six weeks of explicit sexual films. Group two saw travelogues in the same building on the same nights. Group three were the control group who did nothing.
More sexual activity was evident in the control group, just from the stimulus of the questionnaire. Much more sexual activity was found among the group that saw the sex films and their attitudes toward the sexuality of others was toward more tolerance and appreciation (homosexuality and other sexual behaviors were consider more acceptable after the film series).
For the record. Because someone is a Puritan doesn't mean they are bad at sex. The American Puritans strongly encouraged, even demanded aggressive sex, among married couples, under the sheets as does the Torah.
The two things that incorrectly describe this video are 'boring' and 'art school'. Lady Gaga music is in the ABBA tradition; very melodic and sweet with easily understood words. The graphics are among the most complex in the business, fast paced, original and dramatic. The sexuality is there and is of some sexual interest but not much. Lady Gaga wears a bra and panties. It is just a music video... a good one.
What does 'boring' mean in this context? It means 'I see something sexual that offends me but I want to discourage others from looking.... boring is my cover-up for hot and dirty'.
Look at the word dirty. It is in the same category as boring. It is designed to associate the object of the description as a negative, an uninteresting negative: plain old dirt.
Why do we do this? Look at something titillating and then behave in a way that is intended to discourage others? Because that is the core of Puritanism. Puritanism is the outrage that is felt when someone else is enjoying themselves.
When everyone is having fun, it is the Puritan who asks: 'Are we having fun yet?'
The Puritan response to puritan violations is 'boring'. Boring is to try and discourage others from knowing about the secret pleasure.
In research done in the human sexuality field at Stanford, on mature married couples (not the classically useless research on students) there were three groups who filled out sexual attitude and behavior questionnaires before and after the test. Group one saw six weeks of explicit sexual films. Group two saw travelogues in the same building on the same nights. Group three were the control group who did nothing.
More sexual activity was evident in the control group, just from the stimulus of the questionnaire. Much more sexual activity was found among the group that saw the sex films and their attitudes toward the sexuality of others was toward more tolerance and appreciation (homosexuality and other sexual behaviors were consider more acceptable after the film series).
The group that saw the travelogues had less sex and were much more intolerant of other's sexual behavior. When questioned, the researchers found that they knew that another group of people in their building were getting to see hot sex films.
Puritanism: objection to someone else having pleasure.
If the Lady Gaga video were not interesting, if it was repetitive, dull and unimaginative...those are the words that would be used to describe it. Boring is a clue that it is really good but offensive to Puritans.For the record. Because someone is a Puritan doesn't mean they are bad at sex. The American Puritans strongly encouraged, even demanded aggressive sex, among married couples, under the sheets as does the Torah.