Defensor Veritatis - That's the definition of I-R-O-N-Y...........

That’s the definition of I-R-O-N-Y…………….

Bob Filner, the overly affectionate mayor of San Diego, is currently under fire to resign over well-substantiated charges that he sexually harassed dozens of women during the course of his official duties.  In a more elegant and sensible age, he would have resigned in disgrace immediately and served as a useful object lesson.  But these are enlightened times; so old Bob is not a creep – he’s sick – so it’s off to a mandatory arse-covering stint in rehab, while desperately trying to cling to the office he’s so completely disgraced.  Turns out the randy mayor is really a victim, and not a cad, bounder and lout.  And if the poor guy doesn’t have enough trouble, now he’s been banned from Hooters.

Really?

You bet.  The San Diego Hooters has banned the mayor for his loutish behavior and loudly proclaimed its respect for women.  One can see their point – the mayor has shown himself to be the sort of scoundrel who sees women mainly as a collection of body parts disposed for his personal objectification and enjoyment, while their clientele is……well, you get the point.  People (mainly and overwhelmingly men) do not go to Hooters for the overpriced alcohol and mediocre chicken wings, they go to oogle young women dressed precisely to reduce them to a mass of attractive body parts, rather than a human being of value.  That a large part of this clientele is composed of men old enough to be these unfortunate women’s fathers and grandfathers only serves to make their hypocrisy all the more brazen and galling.

In one sense, Bob Filner is a victim – or rather a self-victim (as are we all), of a culture so thoroughly saturated in sexual imagery and so formed by libertinism that one almost has to become Amish to avoid it.  In the past forty years, American culture has become permeated with sexual imagery in a way previously unknown.  Social scientists of real note (such as Mary Ann Layden, head of the University of Pittsburgh’s Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program) have been relentlessly and quietly (the main stream media will have none of it) documenting the awful toll of what has been termed America’s “sexual obesity.”  It’s not just high-profile cases like Filner, Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner, or even pedophilia scandals, or sexual sadism cases like Ariel Castro; this problem permeates into the lives of everyday people – the national association of divorce lawyers now reports that the use of pornography (and specifically internet pornography) is a major, if not a sole cause of between 60 and 70 percent of divorce cases now being filed.  With the explosion of the internet, pornography has become accessible and anonymous, leading experts to label it the “crack cocaine” of porn.  Patrick Carnes, a leading researcher in sex and pornography addiction, has chronicled the cycle of loss and despair – increased usage leads to a toleration of material (rape, beastiality, child porn) that would have previously repulsed the user.  And, significantly (getting back to Bob Filner), our pornographic culture leads people to believe that sexual activity and extreme sexual behaviors are far more frequent and widespread than they actually are.

No wonder old Bob is confused – he turns on his TV or his computer and the overwhelming message is that everything and everybody is either having sex or contemplating sex – little wonder he thought all those women were just waiting for him to put the septuagenarian make on them.  Don’t think it’s true?  Try an experiment suggested by one commentator: disconnect yourself from all media (including magazines and other print material) for a week; and then after that week, go back with an eye to material which has a sexual component – you’ll be astounded.  Or just think about this little sampler:

There are successful reality shows based solely on individuals famous for making sex tapes (Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian), eventhough (as Barbara Walters famously challenged Kardashian) they have no skills or talent.

The widely popular TV cartoon, Family Guy, features as a reoccurring character, a pedophile, whose predation for young boys is often portrayed comically and sympathetically.

We are now (in some parts of the country) teaching children as young as in kindergarten, about the mechanics and aberrant varieties of sexuality, as part of their education.

Still not convinced we’re a pornified culture?  How about this ad, now playing on television:

Bob Filner is a lech and should resign in disgrace, but he (and the Weiners and Spitzers and their legions of lesser-known compatriots) and indeed all of us, are also caught in an Orwellian  world where we’re told that everything is sexual, and that sex can have no meaning beyond the act itself – and the actual reality of sex and it consequences.  Who can swim in such a swamp?