This Is My Rifle: Sex, Love & Nipple Clamps Posted by Jason James on 01/19/11 | Filed under Top Stories, Features, This Is My Rifle

Last Friday I went to a sex convention. No I’m not a freak, gay or a pervert. On the contrary my attitude towards sex is more conservative than most people as I believe that intimacy is something to be appreciated and kept private. But after a close friend invited me to come along with him and a group of girls, and since it was Friday and I didn’t have shit to do, I quickly downed 9 beers (seriously, I would’ve never made it through the door on anything less) and made my way to hedonistic bliss.

Upon my arrival I was surprised at what I saw. Amongst the crowd there were weirdos of all shapes and sizes dressed in head to toe S&M gear, but the majority of people in attendance were just regular folks walking around looking at vibrators and whips like they were searching for fresh produce at their local grocery store.

Although I was still uncomfortable as ever, my anxiety about being surrounded by a bunch of perverts slowly wore off as the night progressed. Once I was able to think clearly and get back to being my usual analytical self, I came to the realization that while sexual liberation is generally perceived as being a good thing, it’s actually quite the opposite.

As I walked around the sex convention I was shocked to find that most of the people there were under the age of 30. The reason why this struck me as odd was because of how loose their attitudes were towards sex. Groups of friends strolled along together openly sharing with each other intimate secrets normally reserved for the one person in our lives that we trust completely and love unconditionally. Their level of comfortability in doing this was disturbing.

Over the past 50 years the western world’s perception of sex has become increasingly liberal. Our willingness to “push the envelope” has now brought us to the point where the topic of sex is no longer taboo but instead is something that we openly discuss with little to no regard for the intimate value of it. In fact, it’s impossible to not be bombarded by human sexual perversion on a daily basis. In virtually every form of entertainment and advertising, it’s overbearingly relevant. The scary part about this is that almost all of it is created with the intent of influencing young people between the ages of 13 and 25 years old.

There’s really no way to narrow down the moment in which our libido began to take control over our morality but one could theorize that it began with the hippie movement in the 60’s. In this era, social injustices and political corruption created a counter-culture of people who refused to go along with the program. In effect, these people were open to alternative lifestyles and what developed was the idea of “free love” or sexual exploration. And so it was during this period of time that the people became empowered and broke free from the chains of sexual oppression.

While this counter-culture was the first, and possibly last, generation of truly liberated people, what occurred in the years after the movement was the general public’s application of the alternative lifestyle. Mainstream America took what they felt was beneficial about the hippie perspective and threw away the core ideals. In doing so, our attitudes towards sex and drugs became more liberal but there was no social or political reasoning behind it. It was about feeling good rather than being free.

As the years progressed we maintained the liberal approach to sex and drugs. While drug use was and still is taboo in most circles, sex has become something that we celebrate and openly encourage. In the media it has been presented as empowering and educational. But there’s a thin line between empowerment and enslavement, education and exploitation.

I could go on forever listing the instances in which celebrities and the media have used the empowerment argument to sell themselves and products that they are pushing, but I think the result of this proves otherwise. The companies involved are well aware of what they are doing and they use the liberal perspective to condone it. Regardless of the young minds they are influencing, they have a “by any means necessary” approach and the sexual liberation or educational smoke screen they use is perfect to push their agenda.

We can all see in plain sight what’s really going on. Through a slow and carefully imposed progression we have all but removed anything sacred or significant about a sexual relationship between 2 people. Sex is now treated as more of a hobby than an intimate experience. Most notably in music, sexuality is pushed at such a high level that it’s hard to find even the slightest resemblance of anything artistic. And the “artists” hiding behind the curtain of sexual empowerment are complete and total frauds interested in nothing other than financial gain. If they were truly interested in enlightening the people, they would devote their time to highlighting the less positive and more negative aspects of frivolous sexual behavior.

It’s no secret that the media has more influence over young people than any other presence in their lives, including their parents. We can all pretend that it doesn’t but it does and the end result of our sexually exploitative media culture is evident all around us. When I come to think of it, for every 100 women I meet, I find maybe 1 or 2 that I would honestly consider entering a committed relationship with and I’m sure it’s the same situation for the reverse.

Our liberal approach to sexuality may have helped us to better understand who we are as people but the problem with it is that we did it irresponsibly. We created excuses and politically correct phrases to put a positive spin on it, but we just ended up with a bunch of fatherless children and single mothers and until we take responsibility for our actions, this cycle will only continue.

What we have to do is stop down playing real life issues. It’s easy for everybody to act like we’re open-minded on the subject of sex but there are standards that have existed for thousands of years and will continue to exist until the end of time. As men we instinctually look for women who are best suited to be mothers to our children and women search for men who are best suited to be their life partner. All of this “monogamy is not naturally correct” nonsense that people talk about is a bunch of bullshit perpetuated by idiots who have never truly been in love.

And that’s just it. When all is said and done, political correctness aside, we can’t ignore the instinctual human being that exists inside all of us. Sex is what drives most of us but there is one common fact that lies beneath it; the search for temporary physical satisfaction is really the pursuit of a stronger, deeper bond between 2 people. Whether we like it or not, love always has and always will be undeniably supreme.

(Jason James is an artist, freelance columnist and writer for RefinedHype.com. You can listen/download his most recent album, "Marvelous World Of Color", here and you can contact him here and here.)