It is said that taboo was created by the early Victorians, and that they decided certain elements of life ought to be considered with care; sex, as an obvious example. Because sex is clearly vulgar, unnatural and not to be talked about. I personally have been brought up to get an uncomfortable twist in my stomach when people talk about it…something that is being heartily beaten out of me by my beautifully open uni pals. (I still maintain that Wetherspoons in Canterbury may not be the best place for debates of this nature…especially when a family with smalls are at the next table.) But why is sex hush-hushed but something like violence isn’t? Drinking and smoking aren’t either, yet these are behaviours and activities far worse than sleeping with someone you love.
Lady Gaga. Fashion inspiration (to some) vegan, celebate and quite openly crazy. Her music videos are on the tellybox before watershed and she lashes about, in vicious bikinis and in weird attire. In the space of one video, she promotes poisoning people, wearing police tape in convenient places, getting on strangers and smoking via a pair of lit cigarette sunnies. Now I adore fashion, but wht the hell is that?! Funny how girls in prison all wear heels, designer threads, a severe amount of leather and have a make up artist on hand. I don’t have children (thank god) but I would be horrified if I knew that my little girl was idolising the woman who dances in a bra and thong or less for national telly. This isn’t sex… it’s the suggestion of it, which in modern times is now worse. The implication of violence, of dirt, of drugs and making people perceive this as glamour…All I can say is it’s no wonder the world is royally fucked.
The problem is association. People tell me I’m cruel for going shooting for pheasants when they eat the birds themselves, but my apparent association with a lethal weapon is taboo. People are more worried about kids playing violent video games than actually doing sport such as wrestling or Kung Fu. Bikinis are acceptable in public, underwear isn’t. Where have all this bizarre and conflicting rules come from? Having sex is evil but displaying 98% of your skin for the world to see gets you famous? I’ve said it before; we are hugely illogical beings. Wanting only what is bad for us, relishing in expensive things that ruin our planet. I would have thought a race that has succeeded at the top of the food chain would have had better innate instincts. Survive. A combination of MacDonalds and anorexia. Knowing how to use a gun and how they are often misused. Once non-harmful drugs and illegal backstreet cocaine cut with bleach. Billions being spent on saving the world and funding the creation of jumbo jets and Hummers. What are we doing?
The Earth is over 4.5 billion years old. Life didn’t come into being until about 2 billion years ago. “Land plants did not appear until about 430 million years ago; reptiles, 300 million years ago; and modern mammals, 75 million years ago. The first apes appeared about 35 million years ago, and the first apelike men, about 10 million years ago. Man, himself, has been on earth for only about 300,000 years.” The Roman Empire was in reign for 1000 years, the British; less than 200. At the rate we are going, we won’t last.
I just wish that I could see some form of change in my lifetime. Maybe it will become fashionable to actually be a musician before creating free soft-porn on daytime TV. People will want to learn how to use the weapons they insist protect them. A quarter-pounder with cheese will taste worse than a bowl of garden peas. Maybe eventually we will be able to talk about everything freely, without be judged or accused. No more taboo. In my lifetime though? Doubtful.
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