Pedophilia, Patriarchy & the Conservative Agenda (Part 3)

How do patriarchy and the Conservative agenda function to enable pedophilia?

To understand this, there are still a few more factors that have to be brought into the open. One of the most important being that, in North American society, children are largely viewed as the property of their parents (not at all dissimilar to women being viewed historically as the property of their husbands), and as such are already objects even before aspects of adult sexuality are projected on to them (as discussed in Part 1). As feminists understand, and have discussed in commentary on the objectification of women and rape by men, an object has no right to say no. There is, beyond any consideration of physical size, a cultural power imbalance between children and adults which is expoitable by pedaphiles (they do need to garner enough localised trust first, before they can use this power, but that is a separate issue).

On the issue of sex itself, we must come to the uncomfortable (for many) recognisation that children, as humans, are sexual beings (parents, where does the infant's hand go when the diaper comes off? -- and personally, I can remember a 7 year old blonde that I would have liked to have kissed back when I was 6, though I tend to prefer them a fair bit older than that now). We must also, and somewhat more easily, recognise that childhood sexuality is not the same thing as adult sexuality (hell, adult sexuality isn't the same thing at 60 that it is at 35, that it is at 20). Why this is important is in how it interacts with our sex negative culture.

In a culture where abstinence only sex education (for adolescents) is increasingly the norm, how much sexual knowledge can we expect even a school aged child to have? At the extreme, how many children enter school, having as their only referent to their own genitals the term "down there?" Children learn quite easily that there are some things that U aren't supposed to be comfortable talking about. In a culture where even many progressive parents find embarrassment naming body parts with three year olds, and Conservative parents (with the help of their Minister) are teaching that those same parts are disgusting and sinful and something to be ashamed of even having, how many children are actually going to be comfortable enough with their own bodies to say something when they think that they've been touched inappropriately?

So, we have a culture where all adults have (at least to an extent) an authority over all children, and where the human body is largely a source of shame. Into this we add a sexualisation of children (via transference) through a culture of fetishes -- with girls primarily sexualised though clothing and boys primarily sexualised though sport and achievement.

In other words, pedaphiles have the cultural power needed to coerce children into sexual acts, and a virtual guarantee of secrecy between private coercion and institutionalised shame, within the context of a culture that is sexually objectifying children in order to turn them into sexually objectified adults.

And all of this without even discussing the pedaphiles themselves or how it is that they became pedaphiles in the first place.

I was in to Penticton today, and went to Andres Audiotronic. They don't carry film scanners, but the Assistant Manager called his Nikon rep. and, subject to stock, can get me my scanner. There's a reasonable chance that I'll have by 8 Septembre.

Also, it's very smokey here in GF. I have a moderate headache and can barely think straight. So, instead of finishing the Pedophilia, Patriarchy, & the Conservative Agenda posts today, here's a pic. It's "Solstice Sun," shot this past February (I know). I increased saturation and reduced sharpness to get the effect I wanted (check out the full size).

Pedophilia, Patriarchy & the Conservative Agenda (Part 2)

An important thing to consider when talking about the Conservative agenda is that sex is something bad -- and by extension nudity is also bad because nudity=sex.

But why is sex bad? Why do Conservatives -- in every country and in every time -- fear sex (unless it's going to result in a new generation of little Conservatives)?

When we peel back the various layers of moralistic rhetoric and dogma, we find, at the core, that this is actually about choice and autonomy. The most basic of freedoms is the freedom to control one's own body without outside interference, it is the ownership of one's physical self (my body, my choice). Moralistic philosophies, on the other hand, are universally about controlling the actions of others through some external authority (U'r body, God's/King's/Slave Owner's choice). Moralistic philosophies exist to support systems of power by some people over others.

Now, we can all agree that sex is a very powerful force within human existence; and, that sexuality (who we want to do it with, when, and for what reasons) is one of the most fundamental parts of human individuality. What this means is that if U can control sex -- that is, determine what are 'acceptable' manifestations of sexuality, and by extension what is an 'acceptable' identity -- then U can control the entire (non)person. Conversely, when a person manages to liberate their sexuality from external control -- when they become sexually autonomous -- the potential exists for that liberation to permeate into other areas of life. What this means on the most basic level, is that the individual starts to question an Authority which requires blind obedience in order to maintain a system of power. Worse, that questioning individual may inspire others to question the external Authority and a Power which cannot get its subjects to do as they're told, is powerless.

I won't spend much time discussing how sexuality is controlled, except to say that it usually includes mechanisms of social shaming, victim blaming/separating 'deserving' victims from 'nondeserving' victims (I am especially thinking of rape victims here, but the principle applies to other areas of life), and terror actions (institutionalised rape, criminalising acts between consenting adults, etc.).


*This should be finished up next time, when I talk about how pedophilia interacts with patriarchy and the Conservative agenda*

Pedophilia, Patriarchy & the Conservative Agenda (Part 1)

It seems like it's time for me to do one of my transcendental Integrationist things, but first the pic. It is another one of my early shots, taken in Penticton near the Penticton Rose Garden and the S.S. Sicamous (shown previously).


Over at Feministe, Jill brought up The Sexualization of Girls, by quoting part of a Rosa Brooks Op-ed article in the L.A. Times, the gist of which is that it is all but impossible to find clothing for young girls which doesn't make them look like street walkers, and that the sale and manufacture of provocative kiddy clothing (among other things) is being used by pedophiles to somewhat justify their predatory acts. While over at Pandagon I found out that the son of an Evangelist was busted for trafficking child porn.

So, where are the connections? Well, we can talk about patriarchy and how within this system a woman is supposed to derive her own sense of worth through being an object of male desire (being sexualised a la Girls Gone Wild and that ilk), while the Conservative precept that nudity=sex, that skin=sin, has become ingrained in North American culture (I previously touched on both points here).

developmentally speaking, the earlier in life a person is indoctrinated to a way of thinking or behaving, the more difficult it is to break the habit (brand marketers rely on this to manufacture lifelong customers). From a perspective of Patriarchy, the sooner a girl gets indoctrinated into wearing makeup, and pretty (or revealing) clothing, in order to feel good about herself (having won male and, in general, societal approval for wearing such things) the more difficult it will be for her to reject these everyday trappings of patriarchy later in her life.

Now, in and of itself, the clothing and makeup and whatever else could be quite innocuous -- tank-tops, bikinis and thongs have no inherent meaning outside of a cultural context -- but, in North America, where nudity=sex, those items of clothing which show more skin become associated with sex and are imbued with sexual meaning by the culture at large.

In short, in North America, nudity=sex and (some) clothing=sex. Since children are usually either clothed or nude (and either state is considered sexual), children become sexualised objects.

Back from Jewel Lake

Well, I just got back from Jewel Lake. The fishing wasn't too bad. We caught a lot of five inchers that we put back, but only one fish worth keeping, at 12.5 inches long.

Re-read Candide, although I still have some of criticisms left to read.

I also managed to spend a bit of time wandering around, shot a couple pictures, relaxed.

Now I have about two dozen blogs to catch up on...

(no pic this time either, next one, promise).

The Waitress

No pic this time (so sue me). I just got back from the Winnie, and as I half expected, the waitress I'm interested in was there. We chatted a little and shared some laughs, and I learned pretty much everything I needed to know about her in order to figure out exactly how I feel.

I'm gonna lay it out here and now for myself (and the one of U reading this, who probably stopped after the first sentence). And, if I manage to grow a set of balls by next week, I'll be telling her.

I like her. She's funny and intelligent and has great ass -- and I probably couldn't have been bothered to notice her ass if it weren't for her great personality. I want to be her friend, and I want to fuck her (and if she doesn't want to fuck me, well that's just fine too). She's crazy enough to be a muse (I know, I've found one or two muses whom I regret not having balls enough to tell them that they were/are wonderful people -- and I regret blowing any chance I may have had to fuck them, Tao knows I deampt about it often enough), and as soon as I can gather a couple of pieces of equipment, I want to photograph her without any clothes on. I want her to be my first nude model.

AND

Yes, as far as I know her, I love her, unconditionally, unreservedly and non-exclusively. I'm not expecting any sort of happily-ever-after-Hollywood/Disney-false-romantic-crap. If anything does come of this, I want her -- I expect her -- to fuck anyone that she wants to, any time she wants to.

And now I'm going to bed, because I'm tired.
Goodnight.

Jewel Lake

I'm going fishing with my grandpa this weekend at Jewel Lake -- well, one of the hundreds of Jewel Lakes I assume are scattered around, this one's all of about an hour's drive away. I took this shot of the place last Septembre, just as the sun was coming up behind the mountains. I'm looking forward to going (and to spending some quality time with shot once I get that damned scanner), the old man needs a bit of rest from work, and things are only going to get more hectic as things start to cool down as people start using their furnaces again.

We'll probably leave Friday, around noon. I might post again before that, if anything tickles my fancy, but no promises.

Win, Lose, Draw sorta Day

Went to the Winnie tonight. The waitress I'm interested in wasn't working tonight, but I had a few beer anyway. Her and I have chatted a bit here and there over the past couple of weeks, nothing spectacular, but there is the feeling of progress. She has been working the past several Thursdays, so... Other than that, I shot a few frames, and now I'm home.

Learned something interesting today, seems humans start rudimentary tool use fairly young. By 11 months, children seem to know that if a toy is on a towel, but too far away to reach, that they can retrieve the toy by pulling the towel towards them (what were U expecting, rocket science?). By comparison, we don't show self awareness until about age two.

This is a shot of the S.S. Sicamous, in Penticton. Another one of my early shots. I only had a table-top tri-pod at the time, so I positioned it on a public litter-barrel. It was probably May or June. Warm country, but U gotta suffer for U'r art ;)

(man I can't wait to get my scanner)

35 or 50

I've been thinking a bit recently about what my next lens should be. Of course this tracks back into the question of "what type of photography do I want to do?" or more exactly what will be my 'normal' lens? When U start to think about it, just about anything between 35mm and 85mm has a close-enough-to-normal-perspective, but that's still a pretty big range. 85mm is about 7X magnification over 35mm, or to put it another way, 35mm has about 3.5 times the angle-of-view of an 85mm. Luckily my current lens is 28-80mm zoom, so I at least have an idea of what these focal lengths are like.

Over the past year-and-a-half, I've found that I generally like to get close to my subject if I have that luxury. The other night, I was goofing around a bit, just seeing how close I had to get to this big ol' chair I have in order to fill the view finder. At 80mm, I was more than half-way across the room (about 12 feet away), so if I were shooting at an intimate location with an 85mm I know that I become pretty much limited to close-ups. 50mm isn't to bad, but I really like the ability of 35mm to bring a big chunk of the room into the scene -- to provide context.

Another thing I'm looking for, is that the lens has to be fairly fast -- I want an f2. But then we get into issues of cost. Nikon makes (made) both a 50mm f1.8 and a 35mm f2. The 35mm is only about two-and-a-half time the price (I won't be buying new, but still, I can expect a similar spread). Add to that that the 50mm is a more common lens, and the choice is between the lens I can easily get and afford, and the lens I want but might have trouble getting and is going to take longer to save up for.

But I do really like that 35mm perspective.

(this shot was taken in Penticton last summer, down by Okanagan Lake)

*edit*

Another thing I'm looking for is a manual body -- something that won't drain overly expensive, non-researchable, batteries -- maybe a Nikon FM3A, or really just about anything with a cable release mount. Of course, the lens is more important, especially since my current zoom won't work on a manual body.

And I still have to find somewhere that actually has the film scanner I'm trying to get. I'll keep my fingers crossed about Andres in Penticton.

Old & New

Well, I dropped those three rolls of film I've been sitting on, off at Photo Arts yesterday, when I went to see about a scanner. Just got the prints back toady, and some of them are really good (U'll have to take my word for it, no scans until I get my scanner), others I'm going to have to wait and see with (I shot some planning on contrast masking, etc. in post). Unfortunately, the cost of developing with Photo Arts is prohibitive. The bill was $36 for three 24 exposure rolls.

This shot is one of my early works, taken last summer in Penticton at a great little bar, Voodoo's. Great spot, lots of live music and jam sessions etc, reasonably priced beer. The owner seems to be a bit of a (camera) gearhead. We didn't get too much of chance to talk, but she was encouraging of some of my early work. Next time I get to spend a few days in Pen, guess where I'm watering.

Bloody Nikon

Well, Contact Photo Arts in Grand Forks doesn't carry film scanners. I should have guessed, given that Nikon Canada on their web site lists Photo Arts as an authorized Nikon dealer, specifically of the LS-50 and LS-5000 film scanners.

I already knew that the Nikon Canada site was a joke, but this is too much.

I'm going to have to try Andres Audiotronic in Penticton, unfortunately, they're listed as an authorized Nikon dealer, so things don't bode well. Having cheked Andres site, it really doesn't bode well.

2nd Street and Work

I pulled another three and a half hours working in that cellar again. Thankfully, that job shouldn't take more than another two hours to complete. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't cramped conditions and working at odd angles and positions, it probably wouldn't take as long either.
So, already I have 15 hours this week, with more to come. The only bad thing about all this work, is that I haven't had a chance to get in to the camera shop and buy my film scanner yet. I'll find the time pretty soon, I hope.
Tomorrow starts at 9am.

I shot this back on 24 April, it's 2nd street in Grand Forks, BC. It took me this long to figure out how I wanted to post process. Decided to go with a medium contrast mask, just enough to pull the sky. The nearest bit of road is actually the driveway to the Grand Forks Wildlife Hall, and Washington state is just over the hills.
Shot f16 for 15 seconds, on Fuji Superia ASA 200, using AF Nikkor 28-80mm 1:3.3-5.6 G series lens set at 50mm.

Tired

Man am I tired. Spent eight hours yesterady, installing an air conditioner. Then today, I spent another three and a half hours, continuing the installation of furnace in a space that maxes out at five feet tall. I hate cellars now. At least I should ring up some decent hours this month.

This shot has sorta been nagging me every time I go though the few scans I have on my computer. Right now I like it because I didn't have to fiddle with contrast or anything in post. Taken f8 1/500th of a second on Kodak ASA400 C-41 B&W, June 23. (I had around 500 Wal-mart scans on board untill a hard disk failure a couple months ago. I could re-load them, but can't be bothered since I'm getting my own scanner soon).

*edit: photo was taken near Rock Creek, BC*

Nudity & Sex

In the past little while, I've come across a number of interesting posts dealing with nudity and sex(uality), and how these manifest within culture.

An excellent, if long, post (here) talks largely about the differences between Europe and America with regards to attitudes toward nudity. In Europe, nudity is largely viewed as a part of the human condition, it can be seen on television and at beaches and is generally no big deal. Even sex is viewed as something normal and natural. In the U.S., nudity=sex and sex is either (depending on who U talk to) something dirty and bad to be hidden away from the eyes of decent folk, or something to be flaunted in what can only be called a pseudo-liberation. Ironically, both American views are part of a single anti-sex ideology (link).

Both of these views rely on the objectification and fetishisation of the human form, particularly the female form -- women are either reduced to two tits, an ass, and a pussy which must be covered up in order to preserve moral decency; or women are reduced to two tits, an ass, and a pussy which must be to some extent exposed in order to fulfill (highly fetishised) adolescent male sex fantasies. Of course men don't come out very well in either one of these anti-sex cultures either. In the former, a man is eternally fighting temptation and the impurities of flesh and isn't free to explore balanced and healthy relationships (however he might define them); and in the latter, a man has to live up to the machismo standard of bagging every piece of tail he can find -- whether he wants to or not -- and once again isn't free to explore balanced and healthy relationships (however he might define them).

Behind the ideologies we find two groups, both seeking power over the masses. Conservative nut jobs on the one hand, and the people predominantly responsible for the fetishisation of the human form -- namely advertisers and generally speaking "business" -- on the other.

No New Photos

Between the slowness of my mother to get going in the morning (which means it was about quarter past seven by the time we left home, plus extra traffic for being later in the day), which meant it was 10:40 before we got to Wal-mart; and, my grandmother's insistence on hurrying home for the purposes of doing nothing (which can be done anywhere) so that we left Penticton by 1pm, I didn't even bother trying to get my film developed.
It can be considered a fundamental fact of nature that if U don't get U'r film into the Wal-mart photo-center by 9:30 at the latest, it is going to be at least a three to five hour wait for one-hour processing, especially if it's summer and doubly so if there happens to be one of those touristy summer events going on like, oh, I don't know, Peach Fest.

I'm fed up with waiting. Some time within the next week or so, I'm going to visit the local camera shop and get myself a film scanner. According to Nikon, Contact Photo Arts is an authorised Nikon dealer of the film scanner that I want -- well, the one I can afford.

Slowly onward

My grandparents got home today, around noon. We'll be taking my mom and her two cats back to Penticton on Thursday, and, Wal-mart willing, I be getting three rolls of film developed.

Other than that, things have been pretty slow. I shot a total of six frames yesterday, three of which involved a blood red sun (it's been smokey), and none of which are on finished rolls (so it could be the end of the month before I even get to see them).

This was the Kettle River, in Grand Forks, back in February. I can't remember exactly what I did to this, but I'm pretty sure I exposed for the shadows, then applied a contrast mask in Photoshop to pull back the highlights (sounds like something I might do).

Dugald Christie

Dugald Christie was a lawyer, killed in a traffic accident while bicycling to Ottawa in an effort to promote affordable justice in Canada.

I found this excerpt interesting because it shows just how fucked up north american society is How Lawyers Get Rich :: thetyee.ca: "It's interesting to note that Japan, a free and democratic country, highly industrialized, with 127 million people, has 17,000 lawyers. B.C., with a population of 4.1 million, has according to the B.C. Law Society about 11,000!" (put another way, by BC standards, Japan is short about 323,000 lawyers, which would suggest that if lawyers are so vital to society, that Japan should then be a smoldering pile of rubble by now).

Night Photography

I just got in. Did some evening and then some night shooting, which I havent done really any of in almost a year. I also went to the Winnie. (this shot was taken last Octobre, from part of the Trans Canada Trail overlooking Penticton, I dont have the details handy)

Now for the real reason behind this post. I think I'm starting to fall in love with one of the waitresses at the pub. (I won't tell U her name, because, honestly, I don't know how to spell it). She has a stunning backside, tonight she was wearing this little pink dress that came about to the middle of her thigh and tended to cave in and under at the back, cupping her butt. I've also seen her in jeans, yum.
I know that she's older than me by, I don't know, but she's still a long way from drawing a pension or anything like that, so...

I think she might like me, but I know that she may just be being friendly, waitress and all that.
I'll have to broach the subject the philosopher I mentioned last post. He's apparently her cousin, and He and I talked a little about going hinking (and maybe having a shamanistic experience) within the next week or two. It's a full moon next week, right?

*edit* I forgot to mention that this waitress also has a wonderful personality. I meant to, but at 1am after a few beer my train of thought gets derailed more easily than a CN freight in the mountains of British Columbia.

Deer & Beer

Lastnight was kinda interesting. I left home around 6pm, and shot a total of 1/3 of a roll of film including two shots of whitetail (probably a yearling, judging by size) that I was able to get within about 4 metres of, near the local railway trestle on the Trans Canada Trail (more about that when I actually post the pic). I know Diana must have been smiling on me to get close enough to 'fill the frame' with a wild animal while using something as short as 80mm.
The other shots were just my typical landscape crap, we'll see if anything turns out.

Around 9pm, I went to The Winnie and had a couple pints.
Met this bloke, Yuri, and discussed some philosophy. His understanding of the nature of God is similar to mine. I suspect that we have much to teach eachother, although getting him to shut-up long enough to listen may be a problem (I wonder how many beer he had had by the time we met. He wasn't wasted, but may have had enough to be the cause of his verbal diarrhea).

This shot was taken in the small wood near my house, back on 28 April '06. Using a 28-80mm zoom, f8, AP, and a Kodak C-41 400ASA B&W that I haven't used much, (and lightly sepia toned in Photoshop). It was about 5pm, with the contrasty late afternoon light that U get in wooded areas. This is one of only two decent shots that I got of these two does chewing their cuds (I took six shot total).

Kitties and Coupland

Well, how's that for synchronicity. I just finished re-reading Douglas Coupland's Generation X, for the first time since college, at about 1:30 this morning. If anything, it may have become more relevant with the passage of a few years, with the further acceleration of culture. (I couls spend some time decontructing the book, but since I'm no longer in academentia, I don't really feel the need). Anyway, when I logged on this afternoon, the first thing I see is this, an interview with said author at the Tyee, an online BC news source.
Sure, it wasn't anything grandiose, no secrets of the universe or anything, but still...

On the kitty front, Roxanne has accepted me. I caught her in my bedroom lastnight around 4am, rolling in some dirty shirts. Apparently she has a laundry fetish, does the same thing at home and every now and then get tangled in one of my mother's bras.
Buddy is a differnt story. He had somewhat accepted me on the first day, let me pet him and he nosed me (claiming me as his), but now whenever he sees me he gets that I'm-not-goining-to-let-U-eat-me look and runs away.

Cats.

Delays

Went to Penticton yesterday, but between my gandmother's blood tests, breakfast and going to the bank, it was almost eleven by the time we got to Wal-mart. Needless to say, the one hour photo was about four hours behind, so I couldn't my film developed.

I'm back into Penticton in about a week. So, hopefully, I'll have new stuff to show then, probably about 2 rolls worth.

Anyway, we picked up my mom and her two cats, Roxanne (11 1/2) and Buddy (3 1/2). They only howeld about halfway home... Roxanne has pretty much accepted me, but Buddy is the original scaredy-cat, he's never really been socialised to humans that much.

The photo is "22 Carat Maple," shot last Octobre on Okanagan Lake beach in Penticton. 1 minute exposure at f8, using an AF Nikkor 28-80mm 1:f3.3-5.6 G set to 28mm, using Fuji Superia ASA200 speed film. I knew that the neutrals of the sand and bark would pick up the orange of the tungsten steet lamps, and that the fall colours of the leaves would also be accentuated.