Passion leads inevitably to murder:it cannot be extricated from death.Passion will destroy domestic security,just as surely as domesticity will smotherit. There is no possibility of union, nohaving it both ways. One must chose.Either/or. Passion or home (Conlon, 1988; p.153).Passion is death. Or so said mainstream media during the 1980s. This why film characters were not allowedto enjoy sex without paying for it -- often with their lives.This is the virgin-whore mythology at work: the censorship of passion and sexual love in our culture. This is what is used to control both men and women -- to keep them ever pursing the nymph that can never be captured. And this censorship unites with racism and sexism to keep us apart from one another.There were many films this during the 1980 -- films like A Married Man, in which a mistress (whore) murders her lover's wife (virgin).Yet this mythic beast had many other disguises as it twirled its tenacles through our culture. One such guise was the beauty backlash (Wolf, 1991). The media has always used the fear of ugliness to control women. But during the 1980s, beauty became a national obssession. Popular culture taught women that to feel loved, sexual, to have a man, to have an orgasm they had to be beautiful: so said videos, films and magazines while cosmetic revenues soared.For men the attack was different:When aimed at men it's effect is useful inkeeping them from finding peace insexual love. The fleeting chimera ofthe airbrushed centerfold, alwaysreceding before him keeps the manalways in pursuit, unable to focus onthe beauty of the woman -- known, lined,familiar -- who hands him the paperevery morning (Wolf, 1991; p. 145).Copyright Valjeanne Jeffers-Thompson 1997, 2009 all rights reserved
Comments