Doubling Down on Mentorship

That’s a terrible title, but you’ll see where it came from later on.

I wrote a post a while ago in which I took the very brave stance that mentors should not sexually harass their protégés, and that they should do their best to remember this sage advice any time they get attention from someone of the “right” sex/orientation*. It’s probably not because that person wants to join genitals with you, it’s because you’re a mentor and people are naturally going to look up to you.

Mentorship

Today we’re dipping into the Impenitent Porn Lover mailbag and answering some reader mail. Oh look, here’s a good one:

Dear Thinking Inside Your Box:

Remember when you wrote about how porn impacts our view of women? Or your post on feminism? Or that weird post you wrote about control groups and carrots? What would happen if you were to combine those together into one post?

Sincerely yours,
Thinking Inside Your Box Pretending to be a Reader

An excellent question, astute reader! It would probably look something like this:

I’ve never mentioned what type of work I do (and doubt I ever will), but it’s one of those twenty-first century jobs enabled by the computerized revolution, where people can make shitloads of money without hardly even trying and kids in their early twenties suddenly have nearly limitless expense accounts at their disposal. Not to toot my own horn, but it’s also a job I’m pretty fucking good at.

College Hookup Culture?

There was a recent New York Times article talking about the college hookup culture in America. Based on isolated cases (which they take to be representative) and misrepresented statistics, the Times writer comes to the conclusion that the college-aged youth of the US are eschewing relationships in favour of random sex with strangers, or purely physical relationships based on sex but no romantic or emotional connection. Better still (from my point of view), it’s not just white dudes doing it, but this phenomenon crosses genders and races – everyone is taking part in the new hookup culture! Especially emphasized is the fact that girls are into this hookup culture too. (This is accompanied by a bit of hand wringing about the fact that these poor, deluded girls might not be able to find husbands.)

Line Between Fantasy and Deviant Perversion?

I sometimes write posts on this blog about Porn I Like and Porn I Dislike (not to mention Porn I’m Indifferent To). When I write about porn I dislike I usually include the following introduction:

There are definitely types of porn that I do not like – that I dislike. One could even go so far as to say that I hate some types of porn. If I ever have any blog readers there may well be disagreements; porn which they love and have a fetish for but that I think is gross or sick or disgusting. They may think the same thing about porn that I like. All I can say to that is: I’m right, you’re wrong, get over it.

That last sentence is the most important part of the introduction, even though it’s mostly (but not completely) tongue in cheek. I’m definitely going to put it to the test in this post and some future ones I’m thinking of writing.

Porn “Fans”

Once again I’m writing a post sparked by an article I read on Slate. (The article is long but it doesn’t use many big words so you should have no trouble reading it.) (Sorry, am I getting jaded with the 140-character-or-less nature of the new internet? Anyway...)

Ancient Pornography

I come across the weirdest articles sometimes, but at least it makes me feel a bit more normal. “Been addicted to porn your whole adult life? Don’t feel bad! Folks have been groovin to porn since before the dawn of history, so you are not alone!” So it was just par for the course when I came across this article on Slate, about prehistoric porn.