Sex as Self Discovery
Sometimes I am exposed to messages via the radio, TV, or books that disturb me but that cause a light to go off.
Such enlightenment happened Friday when I was listening to an interview Terri Gross of Fresh Air did with Lena Dunham, she of the TV show "Girls" and the creepy, bizarre pro-Obama commercial when she implicitly compared voting for Obama the first time like the first sexual experience.
She is the writer and star of the show, which is about four girls who have graduated from college but, like most young people today, can't find decent jobs and have to live according to their meager means. So far, so good, but apparently instead of finding jobs these girls have a lot of sex with various and sundry men.
At one point in the interview Dunham said something about sex being a means of self-discovery for her character, and one has to imagine, for her. This struck me first as odd, then sad, and then meaningful--in the sense that it means one of three things, or perhaps a combination.
--In the post Roe v. Wade world, in a world where the Democratic Party stands primarily for the belief that there aren't enough abortions in this country already, that her statement is a natural outcome of the "this is my body" philosophy. If this is my body, and mine alone, then I am free to do whatever I want with it. Abort, cut, tattoo, abuse, and have sex with it with whoever I want. As much as and whenever I want. And it's the government's job to allow it and also pay for it. If Roe v. Wade is right, then this is logical, though sad. I am not sure why cutting and self-abuse is bad if it's my body and I can do other things with it.
--Saying "sex is a means of self-discovery" is simply a rationalization for hedonism. The girl doesn't want to sound like a slut, so she has to have a philosophical justification for what she does.
--The person saying so has incredibly and tragically low self-esteem, which I think is the case for Dunham. She mentioned that she had ex-boyfriends who turned "gay" and laughed, but I don't think it's just a joke for her. She is chubby and plain. She wants to now she is desirable to men, so she does actions that would prove it. She wants to find the real, permanent one--so she gambles by sleeping with various types. I have seen this all my life, girls who are uncomfortable with their looks or who they are and pursue boys or men and try to manipulate relationships and so on and so forth. Does the man like, love, or commit to her--maybe he will if she ........, and if not, well, she can say a man thought she was desirable enough to sleep with.
What struck me the most if that 1. in the church we have not traditionally had serious conversations about these matters. In a sense, we should have to, but in this super-charged society we somehow wink at the fornication levels of our young people. We do not argue with "let him who stole, steal no more" but we ignore, debate about all the verses, of which there are many, about sexual abstinence until marriage. We know we cannot justify it Biblically, so we don't talk about it.
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2013/01/07/the-millennial-generations-acceptable-sin/?fb_action_ids=4760467782627&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=246965925417366
The second thing that strikes me is that girls who are happy in who they are don't have to look for acceptance in men, and at least they can just admit they want sex for the pleasure of it instead of trying to say they are learning something about themselves from it. Girls whose fathers affirmed them don't have to chase boys to feel better about themselves. Even more, girls who have spiritual maturity know that their bodies are not their own, never were, never will be. They do not have delusions that they have a right to unlimited pleasure or pain, that their body is a temple, not to their own goddessness but for the Holy Spirit to live in.
In the end, Dunham is playing a role in her real life and in the TV show. She plays an arrogant, spoiled, connected writer who got attention because of who she is as much as what she writes (although it does resonate with many young people who share her values), and she plays the quintessential Julia, the young, liberated sexually free woman who depends on the government (AKA Obama) for her meaning and future. Her real self is a chubby girl who tattooed her arms with childhood stories and writes about her life instead of coming up with something original.
Such enlightenment happened Friday when I was listening to an interview Terri Gross of Fresh Air did with Lena Dunham, she of the TV show "Girls" and the creepy, bizarre pro-Obama commercial when she implicitly compared voting for Obama the first time like the first sexual experience.
She is the writer and star of the show, which is about four girls who have graduated from college but, like most young people today, can't find decent jobs and have to live according to their meager means. So far, so good, but apparently instead of finding jobs these girls have a lot of sex with various and sundry men.
At one point in the interview Dunham said something about sex being a means of self-discovery for her character, and one has to imagine, for her. This struck me first as odd, then sad, and then meaningful--in the sense that it means one of three things, or perhaps a combination.
--In the post Roe v. Wade world, in a world where the Democratic Party stands primarily for the belief that there aren't enough abortions in this country already, that her statement is a natural outcome of the "this is my body" philosophy. If this is my body, and mine alone, then I am free to do whatever I want with it. Abort, cut, tattoo, abuse, and have sex with it with whoever I want. As much as and whenever I want. And it's the government's job to allow it and also pay for it. If Roe v. Wade is right, then this is logical, though sad. I am not sure why cutting and self-abuse is bad if it's my body and I can do other things with it.
--Saying "sex is a means of self-discovery" is simply a rationalization for hedonism. The girl doesn't want to sound like a slut, so she has to have a philosophical justification for what she does.
--The person saying so has incredibly and tragically low self-esteem, which I think is the case for Dunham. She mentioned that she had ex-boyfriends who turned "gay" and laughed, but I don't think it's just a joke for her. She is chubby and plain. She wants to now she is desirable to men, so she does actions that would prove it. She wants to find the real, permanent one--so she gambles by sleeping with various types. I have seen this all my life, girls who are uncomfortable with their looks or who they are and pursue boys or men and try to manipulate relationships and so on and so forth. Does the man like, love, or commit to her--maybe he will if she ........, and if not, well, she can say a man thought she was desirable enough to sleep with.
What struck me the most if that 1. in the church we have not traditionally had serious conversations about these matters. In a sense, we should have to, but in this super-charged society we somehow wink at the fornication levels of our young people. We do not argue with "let him who stole, steal no more" but we ignore, debate about all the verses, of which there are many, about sexual abstinence until marriage. We know we cannot justify it Biblically, so we don't talk about it.
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2013/01/07/the-millennial-generations-acceptable-sin/?fb_action_ids=4760467782627&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=246965925417366
The second thing that strikes me is that girls who are happy in who they are don't have to look for acceptance in men, and at least they can just admit they want sex for the pleasure of it instead of trying to say they are learning something about themselves from it. Girls whose fathers affirmed them don't have to chase boys to feel better about themselves. Even more, girls who have spiritual maturity know that their bodies are not their own, never were, never will be. They do not have delusions that they have a right to unlimited pleasure or pain, that their body is a temple, not to their own goddessness but for the Holy Spirit to live in.
In the end, Dunham is playing a role in her real life and in the TV show. She plays an arrogant, spoiled, connected writer who got attention because of who she is as much as what she writes (although it does resonate with many young people who share her values), and she plays the quintessential Julia, the young, liberated sexually free woman who depends on the government (AKA Obama) for her meaning and future. Her real self is a chubby girl who tattooed her arms with childhood stories and writes about her life instead of coming up with something original.
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