Beaches

I’m here writing this sitting on a Lake Erie beach. (Huntington Beach in case you’re interested) I know it must be a common thought, but sitting on a beach is somewhat odd. We’re in a culture where showing almost any amount of skin is considered a bad thing. Contrast that to the beach where people are essentially running around in their underwear. People do a double-take when I mention that I do Rocky Horror, though the outfit is just about the same as on a beach.

The oddity runs deeper though. When Ennie was taking off her shorts to reveal her bathing suit bottom, she got some strange looks. The false modesty of the society is strange. The act of taking off the shorts is considered strange even though both the beginning and end states are just fine.

Talking about boobies is typically verboten, but when talking about breast cancer it’s just fine. Breastfeeding seems to be just as taboo. Advertising with them is cool too if you’re not really talking about them. Same thing, but people can’t grasp how it’s two sides of the same thing.

Here’s an interesting experiment as a side note: take the covers of some mens’ magazines like “Playboy” and “Maxim” and compare them to womens’ magazines like “Vogue” and “Glamour.” Ignore the text and headlines. How much do they differ? Just context.

Talking about heroine and morphine is similar – they are almost the same in the addictive qualities and where they come from, but society reacts differently depending on the context.

The context that shouldn’t matter does. Sometimes it’s the other way around too.

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