Proud to be a Prude, Part Two

Does anyone remember the blog post I wrote over four years ago, in which I said that I was proud to be a prude? If you're wondering if what 26 year-old me wrote is still relevant to current 30 year-old me... well, say "hello" to the title. ;) I'll tell you exactly what prompted me to write this blog post, too: a book that was highly recommended to me.

As I mentioned yesterday, in my quest to spend less time on social media, I've been taking advantage of the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL)'s vast collection of audiobooks and eBooks. One of the books -- the first one I started reading this year -- seems to be universally beloved amongst many of my girlfriends so I decided to read it. The book? The Royal We. The verdict? Returned to the LAPL after five read chapters.

I know I'm going to get a lot of judgments for saying this (especially because of my age) but I just don't like reading books or watching shows or movies with sex in them. I'm sorry, I just don't. I made it through the first five chapters of The Royal We before I just couldn't keep ignoring how much of the "hooking up" was mentioned. While it never got explicit, I was just not comfortable reading it. In fact, I've never been comfortable reading or watching anything close to it in general.

Four years ago I wrote that my imagination was wildly vivid and it's still true. I know that once an idea is put into my mind, it's hard to get it out. If I read something, it'll replay in my mind until something else captures my imagination. Books tend to stay with me for a long time after I read them. Having said that, I knew that I don't want to go there with all sex mentioned.

I've been trying to undo the years of the "experimentation and 'self-discovery' is good" propaganda that I was fed from my pre-teens through my early 20s. I mean, I never fully bought it but it was still (repeatedly) taught that things like looking at pornography out of curiosity or self-pleasure was all "normal" and that not doing it was unusual. 13 years of public school and undergraduate education in liberal Los Angeles... you do the math. My parents fought that mentality as much as they could -- even refusing to sign the waiver to let me watch the sex-ed video in health class; I had to leave the classroom when those were played -- opting for my mom's guidance on the subject. For that I'm grateful, but you know kids. The information was going to get to me through classmates anyway. Even though pornography was seen as "no big deal" amongst my peers and even some of my professors at certain schools, I knew it was destructive.

I've seen what pornography does to people with my own eyes. I've witnessed the effects in two people I grew up with, a man and a woman. I'll keep it vague though I have the permission of the woman to share this. The man's addiction was closeted but I knew one of his children still had access to things they should never had seen. His marriage suffered because of his addiction to it. The woman ended up developing an addiction to it in her adult years -- it became easy for her to access it to the internet -- and that addiction spanned for a couple of years. She said it was hard to break but was able to do it when she shunned it and kept God on her mind (she had developed the addiction while away from the Church). Though she successfully overcame it a few years ago, it has scarred her and she still has to be careful not to go anywhere near those things to this day.

All of those books and movies with sex scenes may seem harmless to people but they can very easily manipulate you into thinking that it's no big deal. It's all fiction. It's not real. It's true... but it can become a very real thing. Maybe people will be calling me a prude... too religious... too cautious. Maybe I am all of those things. However, I don't want to put myself in a position that I'll later have to take to the confessional.

It's a slippery slope -- "no big deal" becomes "ohh, I can watch this because I'm strong enough" to viewing things that get more and more graphic. "No, I can definitely remember this is fiction," you may argue. "I'm not weak. I have a strong will that will keep me from developing an addiction." Maybe you can, but many can't. I may be able to differentiate between fiction and reality but I just don't want to risk it. I know myself, I know my mind and my will power, and I know that it's simply not worth it to me to basically tempt myself.

I gladly accept all the judgments that come my way because, in the end, it's my life and it's my comfortable level. Books and other entertainment which I consider a kind of "gateway drug" are just not my cup of tea. I'm not going to judge you if you don't have an issue with these things; everyone has their own limits. As I wrote all those years ago, I'm not against sex. It's a beautiful and healthy thing within a marriage... or so I'm guessing since I'm not married and have not experienced that part of life. lol. Still, even when I do get married, I highly doubt I'll ever be comfortable reading or seeing it. It's just the kind of person that I am.

Authors: c'mon, y'all... you can write a great book without having sex so heavily focused! Why do you think I even became a YA/NA writer (besides my love of writing)? Because I was tired of seeing so much sex in books. Yes, it's the norm with young adults but, newsflash, not all young adults are into books like that. There are some who prefer cleaner book. Shocking, I know.

Anyway, come at me (with those negative comments), bro! lol. I'm done with my little mini rant-like blog post. ;) I'm going to go read another book and hope for better results. lol.

I hope y'all are having a great week thus far!

As always, thanks for reading and God bless! :D

Music Monday: He Said What?!

This is just a quick post on something that seriously disturbed me recently.

Now, as many of you know, I'm a pretty hardcore Anglophile/Hibernophile. I like a lot of the entertainment (music, films, tv shows) that come out of England and Ireland. If you follow me on twitter than you know my love of Downton Abbey and Liverpool FC as well as the Ireland national rugby union team. Because of my love for the culture, I like to stay on top of trends which includes music. I will give most music a try. When I heard of one particular boy band that had taken the UK (and apparently the rest of the world) by storm, I was curious. I listened to their music and, despite being kind of a music snob, I liked it. It was fun, upbeat... it's a boyband. I'm not a crazy fanatic but I like listening to the songs in the background when I have things to do.

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a blurb a fan posted from an interview the boys did. I thought "well, I have a minute to spare and I wonder how these boys present themselves" so I went ahead of read it. It started off innocent enough until I came across a blurb in which two of the young men basically sang the joy of watching pornography. My reaction was "he said WHAT?!" While two of the other band members told them to be quiet and how pornography was degrading towards women, these other two agreed... but then said that it was "fun" to watch and made it seem like it was not a big deal. This worries me for several reasons.

We all know the dangers of pornography and how damaging it is to one's soul. The Knights of Columbus posted a great article on their website late last year regarding this. It's worth a read if you already haven't. Anyway, these young men (who were 17 and, I believe, 19 at the time of the interview) made it seem like it was okay despite the two other young men trying to quiet them down. We all know that this is a horrible pandemic and we know that my generation (so-called Generation Y) and the next generation are more prone to fall for this soul destroying virus as more and more young men and women are falling away from God (I will share my findings with y'all once I'm done with my Thesis -- it's not pretty). What I never expected was to see someone so young being so vocal about it. From what I've seen, they are insanely popular so you know that millions of young women who obsess (also not healthy) over this band will read these interviews and think that it's okay. Btw, I also saw another blurb in which one the young men also talks about being caught with a girl in bed by a parent. I'm very serious.

All of this got me thinking: "what is life going to be for my future children?" "Will they be exposed to this?" "Will it get worse?" "What can we do to make it better?" I am not so old that I don't remember what being a teenager was like. I'm 26 so I do... vividly. I know that as teenagers, we didn't like hearing adults tell us what to do and what not to do. I also know that most of us did the opposite of our parents told us (even if it was only once) because we didn't like being told what to do. But as I get older and think about my future children, I feel more determined to educate and prepare myself to help them. If the world gets uglier (and it just might by the looks of things), I feel like we need to arm the younger generations to stay strong to combat these issues (as well as the pro-abortion cult) and to not lose Faith in the process.

I could get into it more but I'm cutting it short on time. I have to read for tomorrow's courses (and I have to finish the first act of Hamlet for my Lit course by Thursday morning) and work on my Thesis some more. I just wanted to share these thoughts I've been having since I read these interview blurbs.

Before I go, I have one more question: if you knew the things that (some of) these young men do/think/watch/say were sinful and if you enjoy their music (but not their personal lives)... would you just stop listening to the music or would you listen to the music but ignore their comments? I'm interested to see what y'all think.

Anyway, I hope y'all had a great weekend and have a great week. Hope all your Lent preparations are in place as it starts in two days. :)

As always, thanks for reading and God Bless.