Friday, March 28, 2008

On another note, there was afterwards a documentary on Arte, the cultural TV channel (very good one too) about women's pornography, made by women, women's perception of it, etcetera, which was quite to the point.
Pornography doesn't cater to women; in general, our image in it is humiliating and completely opposite to reality. Problem is, pornography is shaping people's sexual lives more and more. There was a study a few years ago that showed that something like half of a class of twelve years olds had already seen pronographc images, which isn't very reassuring.
Now, France is, I think, quite open about sex. A president would never be questioned about his extramarital relationships, as was the case for Clinton, because people just don't see how it would impair his capacities to govern. Even to the contrary, a politician without charm often doesn't last long. Everyone knows about Chirac's and Miterrand's affairs. As to Sarkozy, you jus don't know where to start.
I think that the pleasures of life are more valued here than in some other countries. And we can get on without the guilt that is more inherent to anglosaxon countries (my mother's opinion, who tells me that I was lucky to have been raised in France).
She has a point. I'd take the example of the States because religion is very important there. You'd never see sexual education programs here talking ONLY about abstinence, as there are there. Or people pushing their children to stay abstinent until marriage.
Now, those beliefs are all very good, but here religion and all that is part of the private sphere. Believe in what you want, as long as you don't bother the rest of us with it.
One of my teachers once told us about how when he fell ill in the US, he had to go to hospital, and had to give his religion to determine to which hospital he'd be sent to, a protestant or a catholic one. He was finally sent to a Catholic hospital because he was french.
Now, if you set that question to me or the greater majority of my friends, we'd be stumped, because the majority of people I know are atheist. I think I know about two people who believe in God, and they consider it to be their own business.
And even so, they don't believe in waiting until marriage.
I'd probably live up to a French woman's reputation of sluttiness in anglosaxon countries, as would most of my friends, because basically sex isn't that important. It's just fun. If you want a one-night-stand, then why not? As long as it's expressed clearly. If you want to hold out for a serious relationship, then do so. It's up to you. And none of us would accept anyone trying to make us guilty about it.
Note to Anglosaxon guys : please learn another sentence in french than "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir". It doesn't work like that^^ Although it's priceless when you don't know what it means, and we get to explain.

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