Youth Fascination With Technology

Youth fascination with technology

Halloween Film Frightstival Day 9 Triple Feature: The Fog (1980), The Blob (1988), Evil Dead II (1987)

I felt like watching a bunch of classic 80s style horror movies and since I watched so many at once (and was also doing an overly complicated sims build at the time, so I may not have been paying attention), I have few thoughts, so I'll give one sentence reviews

The Fog: The premise felt like a Scooby Doo episode, which would be fine if it was also scary, but it wasn't

The Blob: So so goopy, pretty good, kind of scary, but the scariest part was that, like in real life, it's the government's fault

Evil Dead II: I always like a good background, appreciate the random gore, not super scary, the ending made no sense, but the intro connection to the previous film was good and a chainsaw for a hand really fucking slaps (Leatherface should take note)

So to recap: meh 🫤, good👍, good👍

Why should public sex be legal? It seems more like there just needs to be a redefinition of the laws of what's considered public sex

Maybe I'm just a bigot but I don't think the idea of some guy being able to legally jerk it in a public park where children are very comforting

Good question! (Anon is referring to this post, for anyone wondering.) Get ready for a fucking essay I'm afraid, because I want to be very clear and its not simple.

TLDR: Public sex is about the fact sometimes in public, people are having sex. Not "people are going to all be having sex in front of you and children!". No one is hurting you by having sex in a public bathroom, or in their parked car, or in the woods.

But you are hurting people [specifically queer minorities and homeless people who cannot have sex anywhere else] by falling in line with logic so closely related to fascist ideology, it might as well be hand-in-hand.

It's about sexual autonomy. This isn't just a situation where "hey, being anti-public sex can easily be interpreted and used by fascists to be transphobic/homophobic" but it's also a "hey, the logic you're using is related to fascist ideology and removes bodily autonomy from other people."

You've made up a scenario in your head (a guy jerking it, children seeing) and decided public sex being legal means this could happen, so you don't like the idea of public sex.

Let me make one thing clear first: the scenario you just described already happens. Mostly because homeless people happen to exist and often don't have "private places" to have sex in. And guess what, some of them do get arrested!

But that's not because public sex is illegal [cishet couples, specifically yts be doing it all the time], it's because cops will take any excuse to fuck up someone they assume is homeless/non-white/mentally ill.

And yes, masturbating in a park could be public sex. What is also public sex is having sex in a bathroom at a bar, having sex in a car [outside of a garage], having sex in the woods, masturbating in any public bathroom, ect. Those are actual common types of public sex that almost only minorities get in trouble for.

The truth of the matter is, you're talking about public space. Public sex isn't about someone dropping down in front of you to have sex with their partner, it's about the fact that sometimes in public, people are having sex. And that's okay, people are allowed to do things with their bodies you don't approve of, even in a public space.

Unless they're dropping in front of you or having sex in a children's school lineup, they're not doing anything wrong. Someone masturbating in a bathroom stall is not hurting you, someone having sex under a blanket in a corner of the beach is not hurting you, someone humping at the club is also not hurting you.

(Also a child seeing someone else off-TV having sex literally happens at home. That does not mean their parents are child abusers, it just means that home is their parents home as well and they're allowed to do things in that space that their kids shouldn't be watching.)

Your idea is that public sex should be illegal. Let's play that out for a second. Someone has to enforce that law! So cops have to answer any call claiming someone is having public sex, which obviously puts minorities at risk but also means they have to check the clubs, have to check cars, have to check public bathrooms and do what?

Put people on registries? We've already done that, doesn't work. Put people in prison? Yes, let's lock people away indefinitely and make them do prison labor for having sex in a bathroom. Oh, what about fining them? That way we can target poor people! What about community service? Yes, surely that won't put people in danger of being outed, losing jobs or be considerably worse for disabled people.

It's not just ridiculous. It's cruel. Homeless people, so many LGBTQ+ kids and people in general who aren't out/can't be out to the people they live with rely on public sex as literally the only way they can have sex. Do you know how much of LGBTQ+ history is built by people who regularly had public sex, largely through necessity?

You might say, "well its okay for those who have no choice" but how do you know who has no choice? Are you going to knock on the bathroom doors, go "hey, I'm sorry, I just want to make sure you don't have another spot you could be doing this?"

You can't separate "folks who need this" and "folks who are just doing this for fun" without not just making an actual nuisance of yourself but also being a bigot.

People deserve the right to do what they will with their bodies. And sometimes, yes, that means public sex. Unless they are literally dropping down in front of you to have sex, it's not your problem. It can be triggering for some people, or just uncomfortable for some people but that does not mean they're hurting you.

Often public sex literally isn't even visible. And all you do when you restrict bodily autonomy is make it riskier and more and more unsafe [not just for people having sex but for everyone's bodily autonomy]. Does that sound like a step in the good direction to you, genuinely?

Though if you want to bring down public sex rates, Anon, by all means, try advocating for free housing, end homelessness, end racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, cults, bring about general sex positivity and blow up a landlord or two.

But focus on the heart of the issue. Which is not public sex.

NO WAY

Halloween Film Frightstival Day 7: Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

To preface I was ridiculously tired yesterday and I never posted which film I watched, so this is yesterday’s, I’m still going to watch something today and post about it later

OKAY moving on

I have seen Rosemary’s Baby before but it’s been a while and I legitimately love this movie. Obviously having seen it before, I have fewer thoughts on plot revelations because I knew what was coming but I do have thoughts on some deeper stuff

One surface level thing that’s maybe too silly to mention but I’ve never looked very closely at the movie poster and only just realized I’ve been seeing it wrong this whole time. I’ve only ever seen it small at a distance on the tv screen, and until now I guess I didn’t notice that it was her face in profile because I thought the shadow of her nose and eyes was her in her nightgown reaching down towards the pram. I feel a little silly now

Rosemary’s dream (should that be in air quotes? “dream”?) sequence is honestly an amazing piece of the movie, it’s unsettling but you’re not exactly sure why until towards the end of it, some of it still doesn’t make sense even when you’ve seen the whole film and it really messes with the viewer’s sense of reality as far as is she dreaming and what’s part of the dream or what is she seeing for real. The first time I saw the film I remember struggling to determine if it was one of those films where it turns out the horror is that it’s all in the main character’s head (I won’t spoil if you haven’t seen it which way it goes, but also go watch it right now)

That last paragraph was long, but it’s not even what I wanted to mention the most. This film is incredibly feminist, obviously it’s a horror movie and not a realistic one at that but if you watch it from a lens of feminism, it draws some parallels to real life that make it scarier than the plot itself.

I’m trying not to spoil because I legitimately think everyone should watch this movie, but it touches (albeit in a supernatural way and sometimes only briefly) so much on bodily autonomy, medical autonomy, the concept of “hysteria”, mental illness (especially if you think about societal views of psychosis), the right to educate yourself and informed consent, toxic politeness/advocating for yourself, stalking, isolation (as an abuse tactic), and even marital rape.

The world has a really fucked up history concerning women’s health, obstetrics and gynecology of course being one of the centers of that, and obviously Rosemary’s Baby isn’t a documentary and centers on the unrealistic, but watching it, especially in today’s political climate, definitely feels like watching the collective trauma of anyone and everyone who’s ever been mistreated by the medical industrial complex.

Mia Farrow’s acting is wonderful too, which certainly makes the terror feel even more real. I occasionally felt like I’m missing some nuance from not being personally familiar with the 1960s since it’s actually a film from the 60s and not a period piece but it’s easy to ignore because of how much I like her costuming, the pixie cut is sublime

Okay I think that’s all I have to say. Really good movie, I still like it 👍 I also think you should go watch it