Day 44: Going Down On The Economy

There was an article in the paper about how an adult store which has been there since the 80s, behind a plain exterior, is having to close in the current economic climate. I'd link it, but I can't find it again now. It began though with something like;

"In the current economic downturn, even sex shops are feeling the pinch."

...To which my first thought is "Even?"

The kind of seedy, backstreet, furtive sex shops that we are talking out is an anachronism. It is a product of an age when pornography was illegal, rather than available at the push of a button on the internet (sometimes whether you like it or not). When sex toys were something to be ashamed of, rather than available off the shelf at your local supermarket.

A confession; I've been a shopper in these kind of shops. Visual pornography was never that satisfying to me, though I confess to curiosity, but the, ahem, physical goods they sell have been a magnet for me. Back when I used to write erotica, my preferred method of auto-stimulation (I do hope my dad isn't reading this one) I even set a story in one, with, I believe, the shop in question a setting I had in mind.

But a shopper isn't a customer. The prices in these places are hideously high. In an era when they could be closed down for even considering selling such things that kind of made sense, the premium for illegality. Now, in an age where we have largely gotten over such things, it makes no sense at all.

During my marriage, and through my childhood, I had it drilled in to me by two batshit crazy repressed women that I should be ashamed of my sexual urges. That wanting to have sexual contact with someone else was a thing that we should try and get over. It is a lie that is sold to us by society as a whole, with occasional pockets of 'alternative' culture celebrating sexuality.

I guess my point in this post is to say that they are the ones in the minority. That those who are asexual, or otherwise uninterested in sex, are the unusual minority. We get fucked up by this denial of a basic human need and it's fucking ridiculous. Don't deny your inner desires, or they really will get diverted into things that genuinely are bad for both you and others around you.Embrace your sexuality, whatever it is (as long as it doesn't hurt or damage anyone else), and if you don't have much of one, know that is is you that is the weird one.