SHOW ME YOURS

I went to a topless bar last night. It was my first. I can’t hold strong opinions about the sex industry without firsthand knowledge, right?

In a nutshell (as I've said before) I regard the sex industry the same way I regard the meat industry. There is nothing inherently evil or shameful about eating animals and there is nothing evil or shameful about getting your rocks off. Both impulses are intrinsically human and they should be celebrated. It’s industry that warps these two basic pleasures. Once you start to mass produce things like lamb chops and pornography for profit, the essential components are objectified and exploited until they are unrecognizable.

Now I don't consider my friends cads, but I really couldn’t get behind their arguments defending this kind of entertainment. If those women weren’t getting paid for stripping, I wouldn’t have a problem. I mean, why can’t we all just get naked at the bar? Think about it. What a great time that would be! You'd show me yours, I'd show you mine, and we would spend all those dollar bills on beer!

But my friend insisted women don’t want to see men naked. I laughed at the absurdity of a straight man telling me what women want and don’t want. A straight man who hasn't been laid in a really long time. I poked him in the chest and said, “I want to see men naked.” But where can I go to glimpse set of cock and balls? Why, another establishment designed for and by men: a gay club. I did the whole, we live in a sexist society song/dance, but I think my anecdotes were lost on him. Later in the conversation he admitted he doesn’t want women to want to see men naked. I had to cogitate on that one for a bit. I have since arrived at the following conclusion: Men feel uncomfortable when it comes to women’s sexuality and in order to make up for this insecurity, they are more strident about their own.