Other projects have gotten in the way of blogging, not the sex mind; just the chronicle.
Recently had a friend point out the critical (yet invisible) referent of 'sex-stocks', when scrolling for a hookup. These massively pivot on ones profile image, a careful selfie being a make and a clumsy one being a break, generally. And the selfie-genre being so established now (Kardashian's 'Selfish' perhaps fully realising the auto-deification of such practices), it isn't surprising many profile pics are 'professional' ones, maybe recycled from various art/modelling portfolios or (more desperately) captured (paid for?) with the express purpose.
This conversation came about perusing profiles together (out of curiosity, not recruiting for 'group-fun', though I'm into it), when we came across a pic of a guy recently featured in LYC's Gear Up campaign. We knew this because he'd used the image as his profile pic. I won't mention which in case there are patent-clauses being breached, but I will say this;
Drool.
Admittedly, after finally collating a selection of selfies I'm happy with, my sense of personal security plummeted. I don't have the time, money or metabolism to look like that, but lord knows I want to. But then why should I? If sex is all, do I have to look like some porn-god to satisfy someone I'll know for twenty-four hours or less? I mean, they're not paying.
Having said that, before reiterating my stale tirade against the commodification of sex, I'd like to pose grindr is a discursive platform where the fantasy narratives and desire objects proliferated by pornography can be explored and potentially refuted. Certainly the Gear Up campaign is abetting the normalisation of a certain silhouette as desirable, and I don't blame that guy for capitalising on it albeit obtusely (shamelessly?).
I only think that playing with eroticised image should be exactly that; play. Especially when it comes to casual sex. When appearance is thusly regimented the game becomes elitist and overly serious, and not fun.
Everyone should be allowed to ride.
(Also, when did the know-how to objectify one's self to an acceptable standard become a valuable life skill? And a fucking knee-jerk one at that? I feel like I've been sneak-attack assimilated into some garish double-think, lured fatally by sex. Oh well).
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