Adults Only
If y'all haven't already noticed, the sidebar profile has changed.
I realized that being frank about the places I've been and the things I've done can be somewhat offensive to those with what I might call cautious or traditional sensibilities. The profile is now a bit more subtle in its descriptions of the multi-faceted worlds I've visited.
Yet these revisions, and how to execute them, brought me back to mysterious childhood. I never fully understood the term "adult" as it was and still is used to describe certain aspects of entertainment, literature, and a part of most grown-ups private lives. What was so "adult" about Adult Entertainment? What was so "adult" about certain magazines and books? It was hard for me in my pubescent and, later, adolescent, mind to reconcile the application the euphemism "adult" for certain kinds of movies rather than being more accuate about it and using the term "ertoic."
Kind of like the term "exotic," the implications of "adult" were never clear. Things like investments and money management, tasks like finding a job, marrying and creating a family, all seemed to me to be "adult" acitivities. And "exotic," to me, could have been applied to Middle-Eastern food and pretty Indian saris.
But that wasn't what the euphemismers meant at all. Silly me for thinking otherwise.
So when I revised my profile, I thought alot about using the euphemisims "adult" and "exotic" to describe the fringe worlds that I have been priviledged to explore, survive, and understand. I realize that even though I believe these two terms to be highly inaccurate for descirbing those worlds, alot of people would indeed understand what I was obliquely describing.
I reasond that, if I continued to be frank at this career juncture, I might risk being taken not all that seriously by the cautious and traditional set--the ones who might decide whether or not I get a story, or a job, or get published.
Sometimes discretion is important when one desires to retain the identity of a subculture shape-shifter rather than allowing oneself to be subsumed in the lifestyle of that subculture.
I think, though, I have found a successful way of describing where I've been without using the euphemisims of "exotic" or "adult" and thus conveying Too Much Information. "Darker realms of human experience" conveys a sense of mystery, of places strange, wild and possibly troubling to some, without revealing just what exactly those places are all about. I protect myself as well as others.
And if anybody has a question, they can ask. What I answer, though, will be in my own Best Interest.
I realized that being frank about the places I've been and the things I've done can be somewhat offensive to those with what I might call cautious or traditional sensibilities. The profile is now a bit more subtle in its descriptions of the multi-faceted worlds I've visited.
Yet these revisions, and how to execute them, brought me back to mysterious childhood. I never fully understood the term "adult" as it was and still is used to describe certain aspects of entertainment, literature, and a part of most grown-ups private lives. What was so "adult" about Adult Entertainment? What was so "adult" about certain magazines and books? It was hard for me in my pubescent and, later, adolescent, mind to reconcile the application the euphemism "adult" for certain kinds of movies rather than being more accuate about it and using the term "ertoic."
Kind of like the term "exotic," the implications of "adult" were never clear. Things like investments and money management, tasks like finding a job, marrying and creating a family, all seemed to me to be "adult" acitivities. And "exotic," to me, could have been applied to Middle-Eastern food and pretty Indian saris.
But that wasn't what the euphemismers meant at all. Silly me for thinking otherwise.
So when I revised my profile, I thought alot about using the euphemisims "adult" and "exotic" to describe the fringe worlds that I have been priviledged to explore, survive, and understand. I realize that even though I believe these two terms to be highly inaccurate for descirbing those worlds, alot of people would indeed understand what I was obliquely describing.
I reasond that, if I continued to be frank at this career juncture, I might risk being taken not all that seriously by the cautious and traditional set--the ones who might decide whether or not I get a story, or a job, or get published.
Sometimes discretion is important when one desires to retain the identity of a subculture shape-shifter rather than allowing oneself to be subsumed in the lifestyle of that subculture.
I think, though, I have found a successful way of describing where I've been without using the euphemisims of "exotic" or "adult" and thus conveying Too Much Information. "Darker realms of human experience" conveys a sense of mystery, of places strange, wild and possibly troubling to some, without revealing just what exactly those places are all about. I protect myself as well as others.
And if anybody has a question, they can ask. What I answer, though, will be in my own Best Interest.
posted by Tish Grier at 10:31 AM
3 Comments:
I must admit, much of what is labeled "adult" entertainment ends up appearing quite juvenile to my eyes. I find this humorous in an odd way.
-Soli
Shalom Tish,
When you mentioned the change I took a few minutes to scan your whole profile. I'd never noticed before that you liked the original Rollerball with James Caan and John Houseman. I was just running down my list of best SF movies two days ago and Rollerball was in my top 5.
B'shalom,
Jeff
Like alot of euphemisms, the implied meaning of "adult" seems to vary even from state to state! I think for awhile in NJ they were calling retirement communities "adult communities" too....strangely, there was a time when "adult" apartment complexes meant that it was for single swingers. What happened there??
And I have to agree about the low-brow inherent in "adult entertaiment." To wax nostalgic over a time I never lived in, there was a period when "erotica" was classy--but I think that was back in the 1920's when D.H. Lawrence and others were putting their hand to it. That was with lit...with film, there were a few "adult" films made in the 1960's that were more than just purient. Take I am Curious Yellow for instance, which wove in a strange little manifesto about Swedish politics along with the sex (which seemed very natural and normal but was, I'm sure, quite shocking to American audiences).
Even in Fellini's 8 1/2 there's a press interview where the main character, a filmmaker, is asked if he would make pornographic films.
With the proliferation of porn on video, most people have forgot that there was a time when people wanted to take sex in film seriously, and that they really didn want to make films for adults that did not censor sex--because sex is part of adult life.
But it certainly isn't the way it's portrayed in the germaine "adult" film!
Rollerball (along with Pulp Fiction and Midnight Cowboy) is a fave for many reasons. It was, when it came out, the most violent film of that time. The filmmaker, Norman Jewison, also directed Jesus Christ Superstar, and was known for having an eye for the avant-garde and for capturing the zeitgeist of young people. The violence of Rollerball, however, is not mindless...the world that Jonathan E. inhabits is very, very violent in a sort of iron-fist-in-velvet-glove way. I think of the tree being shot at, and the way his wife and subsequent concubines were just taken away from him at a moment's notice. (not to mention the subtle sadomasochistic overtones to his relationship with the blond). Strangely, Jonathan E. is also something of a Christ figure--who triumphs over adversity to demonstrate to the world that one man can make a difference.
I am also a huge fan of 50's and 70's sci-fi. The low techness of those films, I think, stimulated imagination. Nowdays, CGI merely dazzles without engaging imagination. I think that's kind of sad.
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