Or, “Mommy, What’s a Cock Ring?”
Further to this comedic excursion from September last year, Zombie visits San Francisco’s latest radical nude-in, where a coalition of “nudists and leather folk” unveil their big ambitions:
From the Castro District they seek to expand the nudity zone outward to
all of San Francisco; if the movement gains momentum, could it expand to all of
California, and then eventually nationwide?
Viewer discretion advised.
Update:
In the
comments, David Gillies captures the protest’s essential neediness: “Look how
transgressive I am!” We can, I think, assume that
the ‘activists’ aren’t trying to share a glorious aesthetic experience. Even many of the locals, whom I’d guess are
fairly accustomed to juvenile displays, are finding the ‘activism’ a little
intrusive and annoying. Zombie cites an article in the Bay Area
Reporter, in which the protestors’ need for attention and provocation is pretty
obvious, if not actually pretty:
They have become more
aggressive in the Castro. Some don cock rings – euphemistically referred to as
‘genital jewellery’ – to simulate an erection. Others, according to witnesses,
shake their dicks at oncoming traffic, obviously seeking a reaction.
Unsurprisingly, local
businesses and other residents, especially those with children, aren’t terribly
impressed. As Zombie says,
Although the Castro may be a gay mecca, it is not exclusively populated
by single gay men, nor are the surrounding neighbourhoods gay. Many families with
children live in and around the Castro, which means that children are out in public,
occasionally encountering the nudists. In fact during the protest itself families
with children needed to get from Point A to Point B along Market Street, and
had no choice but to navigate their way through the crowd of naked penises.
Which may
strike some as funny, at least initially and from a distance. But imagine
you’re out shopping with the kids in tow and having to weave your way through
large groups of unattractive men waving their tackle at you. And the standard
blather about “civil rights” and “body image” isn’t very convincing. One
doesn’t have to have “unrealistic issues of body shame” to find the
exhibitionism tiresome or inappropriate. And the denials of any sexual aspect
are also unconvincing, especially given that so many of the participants are
enthusiasts of fetish clubs and websites catering to people who like public sex
and scandalising others, and for whom the whole point is to have an audience, whether
titillated or repelled. It’s rather like how the people at last year’s
‘protest’ claimed they just wanted to be left alone - while
squealing for attention on a traffic island in the middle of a busy
intersection.
A
supporter of the exhibitionists pops up, as it were, in the comments at
Zombie’s place and insists,
It’s only your selfish control freak streak that
wants to dictate what other people wear; your disrespect for the opinions and
lifestyles of anyone whose opinion and lifestyle doesn’t match what you
consider ‘proper’… Your statement reminds me of how selfish, childish
and disdainful of anyone else’s rights so-called ‘conservatives’ are.
It seems
to me this is more than a little dishonest. Setting aside the issues of
exposing oneself to children, the impact on local businesses, etc., I think
what’s objectionable is that random people are being made participants in the
exhibitionists’ psychodrama, whether they wish to be or not. For many, if not
most, of the ‘activists’, this isn’t even about an enjoyment of being naked per
se. It’s about confronting other people with unsolicited nakedness. That’s the
enjoyment – it’s a juvenile kink. Being nude in private or among consenting
nudists in dedicated bars, clubs, spas, on nature trails, at specialist beaches, etc., of which San Francisco has plenty, doesn’t give the ‘activists’ enough of
a thrill. Because the people there are willing. Hence the demand to display
their genitals in front of random passers-by. An audience is required in order to feel transgressive and it’s pretty obvious that’s what
matters. They want to be naked near
you. They want you to witness their daring. It’s essentially a kind of challenge - an
imposition on others, and the act of imposition is, for some, the whole point.
And so the source of the “selfishness,” “childishness” and “disrespect” is also
pretty clear.
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