SOME INITIAL THOUGHTS ON CHARLOTTESVILLE

A battle of different psychological types.

by Keith Preston

I’m still trying to find out more about what happened in Charlottesville on Saturday. But from reviewing news reports on the incident from across the ideological spectrum, and speaking with people on “both sides” who were present at the melee, here are my initial thoughts.

FIFTY SHADES OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

by Alex Fontana

"I know very well that these transgressions are not really transgressive, but are just artificial coloring serving to re-emphasize the grayness of social reality." 

Slavoj Zizek

I admit it, I caved. Curiosity peaked, and the phenomenon of "mommy porn" just would not go away, so I admit it: I watched Fifty Shades of Grey, and now I have to take a long, long shower, mostly for the tackiness and hammy acting, which I'm not sure will ever wash away.

I was not scandalized by the film; it was rather a tamed and unimaginative version of La Belle et la Bête. For the mature, emotionally stable adult, the film was a flop as a stimulant, neither appetizing sexually nor artistically; it was just a dud, hardly worthy of review. The dangerous and noteworthy thing about the film lies in its tipping point as a cultural phenomenon, and its influence on younger people or those with immature minds.

WHIP IT BAD: PLANNED PARENTHOOD AND THE PLANNED SEXUALIZATION OF YOUTH

by Andy Nowicki

There is a video making the rounds right now, causing mounting consternation and furious indignation from some of the taxpayers who unknowingly helped to fund its making.

In this video, a PSA sponsored by Planned Parenthood and geared toward the teenage set, a chirpy young woman named Laci Green mentions the kinky bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey, and enthuses about the activities pertinent to BDSM—that is to say, “bondage, domination, sadism and masochism”—but hastens to add that there “certain rules” which ought to obtain when one chooses to partake in such frisky role-playing (i.e., “safe words” and such).