This essay first appeared on Cliterati on April 28th; I have modified it slightly for time references and to fit the format of this blog.
The ancients believed that there was power in names, and that they could be employed in spells designed to control or harm the thing so named. Beings of power were believed to know when their own names were spoken aloud, and might turn unwelcome attention upon the speaker (hence the expression “Speak of the Devil…”); similarly, evil spirits who overheard a topic being discussed aloud might take glee in ruining something good or exacerbating something bad, which is why people still knock wood or say “God willing” after talking about a positive development, or speak about disease and misfortune in hushed tones or euphemisms. Given the traditional importance of offspring, it’s no surprise that taboos developed around the act which creates them, nor that our ancestors couched everything related to that act in euphemisms and evasion and hid the generative organs from the sight of malign entities who might hex them.
The world has changed a great deal, and children are no longer vital helpers for our farms, caretakers of our twilight years and inheritors of our property; furthermore, few of us believe in evil spirits or magic words any longer. Yet the superstitions around sex continue; we pretend that it is magically different from all other human behavior, that the normal rules do not apply where it is concerned, that doing it in the “wrong” way or for the “wrong” reason is somehow ritually unclean or even harmful, that rules and laws are necessary to control it, and that violating such rules is a Very Serious Matter indeed. The most atavistic among us even claim that the sight of pictures of humans engaging in sex is “harmful” to those for whom the apparent position of the sun has not yet returned eighteen times (a number of great cabalistic significance, no doubt) to the same astrological orientation as it was at their birth; moreover, the very existence of these pictures is claimed to inflict magical harm on women, whether we gaze upon them or not!
Given the enduring popularity of these fantastical beliefs, it’s no surprise when politicians and others who pander to the lowest common denominator embrace them. But when a commercial enterprise does so, the results can be absolutely ridiculous; it’s not possible to please both those who are sexually mature and those who believe that their salvation depends on depriving other people they don’t even know of sexual entertainment, but by Aphrodite they sure will try! Take Amazon, for example:
[In April], without warning, Amazon removed the ability of anything rated “adult” to show up in a search on its main website. Upmarket porn is still there; but to find it, you have to…search specifically for the title…Previously, this sort of filtering had only been applied to books which contained things like incest…but now it’s…all erotic fiction. Even 50 Shades of Grey, one of the most ubiquitous books in the world right now, is caught by the filter. Obviously, this makes it much harder to find very ordinary smut…This level of prudishness, of trying to protect adults from themselves, is pathetic. It’s yet another example of pre-emptive, absurdly risk-averse censorship, appeasing a probably non-existent offended user...
It’s not just Amazon, of course. Plenty of other tech companies are ludicrously prudish. Apple is notorious for maintaining a “no porn” rule in the app store, as well as banning smutty books from its iBooks store chart, even joining repressive Middle Eastern regimes in refusing to publish books because the covers display female backs and bottoms. PayPal has refused to accept payments for “adult” purchases of books...
You can also add Hitachi to that list:
…the classic Hitachi Magic Wand…has always been marketed as a “muscle massager” and currently features lovely pictures of 1980s-era models on its box, innocently placing the wand on their necks or shoulders…it has been a perennial bestseller in sex toy shops across the country and has been used in hundreds, if not thousands, of pornographic films. It’s so popular that a number of companies not affiliated with Hitachi create accessories for it—especially caps that pop over the head to turn the wand into things like a male masturbation sleeve or an insertable g-spot stimulator. Why do people love it? Simply put, it’s one of the strongest vibes out there. Most vibrators are battery-operated or rechargeable, but the Magic Wand plugs into a wall socket for maximum power. Its long handle houses a relatively large motor, and its tennis-ball-sized head shakes so vigorously that prolonged use can leave body parts numb and tingling. For some people, this supercharged toy is the only thing that can ensure an orgasm…It is also extremely sturdy and will last for decades.
Despite its popularity, its…manufacturer has been growing increasingly uncomfortable with the Magic Wand’s reputation as a sex toy. Hitachi…also makes…many other products, and it doesn’t want its brand name to be primarily associated with orgasms…[so it] had decided to stop manufacturing the Magic Wand altogether. [US distributor] Vibratex, sensing the wailing, gnashing of teeth and possible rioting that would ensue if this came to pass, convinced the company to keep producing it, but remove the Hitachi name..in June, the Hitachi Magic Wand will be re-launched as the Original Magic Wand, with new packaging and a slightly different design…
Unlike ultra-puritan Apple and Paypal, Amazon and Hitachi are more than happy to profit from sex; they simply want their connection with it to be obscured. Like writing “f**k”, this will fool exactly nobody and just makes those who indulge in the practice look juvenile and rather pathetic. Obscuring or avoiding words while maintaining the reality to which those words refer is no different from my grandmothers whispering words like “cancer” or Harry Potter characters referring to Voldemort as “He Who Must Not Be Named”; it’s a primitive attempt to hedge off evil by keeping a taboo subject behind a veil.
I have always been amazed by peoples reluctance to talk about sex in any context. Every person we meet is a product of sexual activity and yet we act like it is something abnormal. Being a religious professional, I have to use a lot of tact, but I still have raised more than a few eyebrows with my candor and with some of my blog posts. It is pretty amazing how we all turn back into 12 year olds when we talk about sex or sexual activity.
Hitachi makes a sex massage wand? I did not know that. I’m a huge fan of Hitachi power tools … however, I did a search for this … “magic wand” and found it was not colored in the familiar bad-ass green and black motif that Hitachi uses for it’s power tools. 🙁
Hitachi, you just lost a sale!!
You know, aside from the veritable hermit crab – we’re about the only species on earth that covers ourselves up with some kind of clothing. I’ve always wondered if the aversion to sex came about because most people are not comfortable with their naked bodies. Then again – there are some primitive cultures in warm climates that use minimal covering but they aren’t subscribers to any of the world’s great religions.
By the way – I wear U.S. Navy Diver’s shorts when I work out and those things are so short they’ll cause traffic accidents. I don’t care though – because they’re comfortable. Today men have to wear “kulaks” or it ain’t cool. LOL – you can’t get a tan above the kneecap wearing kulaks so … wtf?
Unfortunately, as private companies, they are perfectly within their rights to not carry certain types of books; or to make searching for those books difficult. Collectively, Hitachi and others have decided that the attendant loss of sales due to not offering certain materials is better than the potential loss of sales to others who would protest and boycott their sites if such materials were publically displayed.
This is aside from potential prosecution under various laws. Even if the company was certain of winning every court battle; every court fight means a loss of revenue.
Companies exist to make money. You don’t make money by fighting with the public. This is why most major companies are conservative; what they are doing works, so why change?
Except that they ARE changing, to the more puritanical from their previous less-puritanical policies. Nobody’s arguing they don’t have the right to do that, but I also have the right to ridicule them for it.
Absolutely. Free speech does work both ways, as much as those in power really wish that it wouldn’t, and are trying to fix the ‘problem’.
And if enough smaller companies start generating revenue from the discards of the larger fish, then perhaps the big companies will re-think their policies. With the advent of e-publishing, this isn’t as fantastical as it once was…
I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand; I am, in principle, against censorship. On the other; as a male, hardwired through the lizard-brain to react to a certain class of visual signals, I get a little tired of being titillated by images that have no connection to any female that has any intention of doing anything about it. I’m not talking about porn here, or not about porn that I seek out, but about images in advertising designed to trip the same switches, porn on open display that I happen by, and attractive women whose dress carbonates my hormones. Hell, ladies, if your street clothes include printed messages of sexual innuendo, or display practically everything in loving detail, and you aren’t ready to negotiate with me (fat, greying, bad teeth) over a quickie in an alley, you are teasing. I won’t argue that you don’t have the right, but its IS rude.
If small localities (say, no bigger than counties) wanted to place limits on the kind of images that could be openly displayed EXCEPT WHERE SPECIFICALLY AS A PERSONAL MESSAGE (like the lady who, every year, is allowed to set up a creche on the steps of the Capitol building, because it is HER message, and she stand with it the whole time), I would be cautiously in favor. This is for a wide variety of reasons, but the one that sticks out is that I fine much of the homoeroticism used in certain fashion ads creepy (because it is the wrong message for me, but set in terms that I find hard to ignore), and this is sympathize with women who feel the same way about hetero-eroticism.
And Amazon is in a tight spot; people simply WILL NOT police what their kids have access to on the internet (for which I hold them in contempt), and WILL hold Amazon (rightly or wrongly) responsible if Missy and Junior get an eyeful on an Amazon page. It shouldn’t be that way, but it IS. IS always trumps should.
So where I come to is; I am flat out against any level of government telling people what they may print, sell, or buy. I am provisionally (until someone convinces me I’m wrong) ready to allow restrictions on what is openly displayed in public areas (with the exception I mentioned; if a porn start wants to stand by a billboard of her sexual plumbing, as a personal statement, I’m fine with that). Anything a private person of group does to protect themselves from annoyance is their business. If their policy strikes me as wrongheaded or silly I will say so, LOUDLY, but I don’t see where they can or should be clubbed with The Law.
“…I get a little tired of being titillated by images that have no connection to any female that has any intention of doing anything about it. I’m not talking about porn here, or not about porn that I seek out, but about images in advertising designed to trip the same switches, porn on open display that I happen by, and attractive women whose dress carbonates my hormones. Hell, ladies, if your street clothes include printed messages of sexual innuendo, or display practically everything in loving detail, and you aren’t ready to negotiate with me (fat, greying, bad teeth) over a quickie in an alley, you are teasing. I won’t argue that you don’t have the right, but its IS rude….”
And yet, even in this, it’s “eyes of the beholder”: what to one man is rudeness to another man (me, for instance) is pleasantry.
While I am annoyed if not sometimes angered by advertiser’s injections of sexuality into products and services to which sexuality has little to no intrinsic connection (it’s not the sexuality that annoys me, but rather the advertisers’ superficial resort to sex to peddle their ware); and while I’m indifferent to media imagery, including deliberate erotica, of any sort (some psychological quirk I have about realizing it all being mere pixels I suspect); I happen to enjoy seeing women showcasing themselves publicly.
I don’t consider women doing so to be teasing me; rather, I consider it the privilege of visually enjoying their attractiveness and physical attributes.
As I’ve told my three (all-now-adult) daughters, “A public museum distinguishes between the enjoyments of looking at the works of art and the handling of those artworks; an invitation to view does not equal an invitation to touch.” I
But, then, I can’t say that I become uncomfortably stimulated, neither physically nor psychologically) by provocatively-attired women. Perhaps it’s different for me not only personality-wise (human males seem to exist across a range of intensity of reaction to stimuli; and some men seem born with less sensitivities to unexpected stimuli) but also because, as a long-time open-married, I’ve been fortunate enough to, generally, always have my libido satisfied?
Anyway — I do see cspschofield’s predicament and realize it’s valid; but, as I’m confident he’d also acknowledge, I consider the question of “provocative women in public” another in the myriad complexities of human viewpoints that ultimately cannot be resolved by lawmaking.
Well, since we’re talking about taboo words: CTHULHU! Now I get to be eaten last.
No, no. You want to be eaten FIRST!
I noticed this when I look at products, particularly products marketed to adolescents, in the United States versus those marketed to the same demographics in Japan. I believe this has to do with the ideas that we have here that “sex is ritually polluting” and “children (including teens) are icons of purity.” This is why you get the absurdity of cartoons aimed at middle schoolers in Japan rated 18+ or else bowdlerized in the United States. This is also why I see be shelves full of Japanese comics in bookstores, even though we are perfectly capable of making comic books in the United States. (Oddly, American comic books do tend to have more adult content these days, but for years they languished under the restrictions imposed by the CCA and I believe that damaged them commercially.)
You mentioned Hitachi’s Magic Wand, is it possible they are only worried about it being perceived as a sex toy in the West? I’m surprised by a Japanese company being so prudish
Geek response here; the CCA hasn’t been influencing American comic books since the mid to late 80s, thanks to direct marketing. Which is why even the major companies are flirting with formerly taboo topics (such as Superman being friends (platonic) with a hooker in JMS’s Earth One. But you are correct that until then, the CCA exerted a chilling effect on comics, as well as ending EC comics (its real target).
Yeah, I’m not really up to date on modern comic except for the odd, weird title. I used to read Batman, Spider-man and the Hulk sometimes. I used to be a big Babylon 5 fan too, since you mention JMS unless there are two writers with that acronym.
Yes, the same person; I’m not sure he sleeps. He writes comic books, tv scripts, movie scripts…probably mows his onw lawn, too.
Re: Harry Potter and the hex on Voldemort’s name. In the First Wizarding War, the magical community had a definite misplaced fear of speaking Voldemort’s name, which is why Dumbledore’s oft-repeated phrase “Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself” became Harry’s own mantra concerning speaking Voldemort’s name. During the Second Wizarding War however, Voldemort placed the Taboo Curse on his name. This allowed his henchmen to instantly transport themselves to the location of the person saying his name and disposing of the person however Voldemort saw fit. Usually death. Harry’s (and his associates, including the Order of the Phoenix) insistence on speaking Voldemort’s name is what lead to the placing of the curse on his name.
Later, Harry’s utterance of the name lead to Harry, Ron, and Hermione to be captured and subsequently tortured by Death Eaters, namely the Malfoys and Lestranges. I assume with Voldemort’s final death, the community returned to using his name once more with some understandable hold-outs, in my opinion, amongst those who would point out that the community thought he was dead for good last time too.
Ok, I’m torn here between tenting my fingers and saying “excellent” and a standing ovation.
I’m not sure which brings more boys to my yard: my milkshake or my extreme geekiness.
I think a lot of guys would swoon after reading that… In a manly fashion of course.
Best. Comment. Ever. As a pretty geeky woman, myself, I’ll be happy to come to your yard. Awesome. I’m laughing.
Come on over! 😀
squee!
Amazon doesn’t want us amature/semi-pro/unestablished writers publishing smut on the Kindle, either. Except when it’s OK. Which it isn’t if even one character is even one nano-second under the Age of SHAZAM. Probably.
If you’re an established writer like Stephen King, though, don’t worry. They’ll cheerfully sell It on Kindle, and I suspect they didn’t make him take out the pre-teen gang-bang in that book.