October 27, 2012
"Embrace and celebrate" "Hetero-een."
An interesting Dan Savage rant about Halloween. Sorry there's no transcript, but click to listen and begin at 0:59. He takes on those who complain about the sexy costume for females (and females only) and argues that heterosexuals need a day to bust loose from all their usual inhibitions.
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"...and argues that heterosexuals need a day to bust loose from all their usual inhibitions."
Uh, yeah, sure.
Because unwanted pregnancies and STD's aren't a problem in America.
Because sex is just sex - no emotion involved, whatsoever.
Dan Savage lives in a savage world, guided only be the wants of his penis.
"Because unwanted pregnancies and STD's aren't a problem in America."
He's talking about going out en masse for Halloween revelry, not sex acts in private.
Please actually listen to the rant.
Is there a transcript, because I hate listening to people talk, unless I'm in the car, driving.
He's talking about going out en masse for Halloween revelry, not sex acts in private.
--And once again, a leftist thinks that visual stimulation of sexual appetites, degrading social mores, and egregious social interaction have nothing to do with STDS, unwanted pregnancies, AIDS, child-killing, and the disintegration of families.
Sigh. Obama voters. So stupid. So the seed of our destruction.
@EMD The post itself says there is no transcript.
I do think it's healthy for a society to have 'carnivalesque' occasions, like the Roman Saturnalia.
It was an interesting listen; I don't know anything about the guy talking (that I can readily recall), so, on its merits, it is pretty much what a lot of people have been saying. Halloween, like many things, gets co-opted by adults. I have the feeling this has happened long, long before recently, but, yet again, the Internet lets us figure it out.
I can remember when a grownup wouldn't have worn a costume for Holloween. Maybe the elites attended masquerade balls but regular people treated it as a kids' thing.
Now, they try to shame you into dressing up. Or you're uptight. Which has the same effect on me as trying to shame me into sharing a recycled Facebook post.
Heterosexuals are not inhibited. The distinguishing characteristic is self-moderating behavior in context. For example, at the beach, there are few people who would disagree with wearing a swimsuit. Another example, there are few people who would agree to wear a provocative or obscene outfit to a children's party. So, there is physical and social context to consider when moderating individual behavior. There are few fanatics in our midst, despite efforts to change the critical character of individuals in a free society.
"it is pretty much what a lot of people have been saying. Halloween, like many things, gets co-opted by adults."
Don't most people complain Halloween has been co-opted by adults?
I don't give a rip about Savage's sex life.
What defines the man for me is that he licked doorknobs in an effort to spread the flu to Gary Bauer and his staff in 2000. Then he bragged about it - which made him even more popular among leftists.
Savage is completely unihibited by any considerations of basic decency or adult behavior.
He is certainly in touch with his inner child - or, more precisely, his inner 13 year old.
I don't think Hallowe'en's been "co-opted" by adults so much as it's become two distinct events.
Kids still trick-or-treat, don't they? I don't see any intrusion on that by adults having costume parties. Especially if it involves women dressed as naughty nurses.
But from my point of view, every day is sexualized. Everything has to be about sex, except sex. Halloween is fun. Pranks and a little fear. It wasn't until Hollywood made Halloween about satanic worhsip.
My house Halloween is fun. Having fun without sex. I know the horror. It isn't that I hate sex, I just perfectly functional with always having to make sex the focal point of enjoying myself.
My house: Jack o Lanterns Halloween lights games maybe something gross and yicky for dinner. Fun, it is like we forgot to have fun.
The guy has a lot of problems.
He can't differentiate between having fun and Freudian angst.
Problem is, he hates himself and projects on happy people all his conflicts.
Halloween, like many things, gets co-opted by adults
Of course, "Halloween," a linguistic/dialect modification of Hallows' Eve, that is, the evening before the Solemnity of All Saints' Day, was started by adults. Only later did they include the practice of children going door-to-door to collect certain goods.
It is believed by some that placing All Saints' Day on the Church calendar on November 1 was in part to displace and co-op various pagan practices in certain areas at the time. Of course, the modern pagans of today have long co-oped the vigil of All Saints' Day, that is, All Hallows' Eve (Halloween), for their own purposes. In so doing, like many of the things they have sought to co-op, they haven't made things better, only boring and dull and tedious.
You only need a Saturnalia if you're as disciplined as a Roman centurion the rest of the year. The proof of Savage's contemptible decadence isn't that he wants to be a narcissist clown on October 31. It's that he's no less in costume and trick or treating on the remaining 364 days of the year.
There isn't a single day or time of the year, or in a man's life, when Savage would urge temperance, self-discipline, chastity, patience, work, or the delay of the least particle of self-gratification. His adherents needs a burst of whoop it up like a glutton needs another helping of potatoes with extra gravy.
If only there were some way to persuade gay people to dress up in flamboyant costumes and go to elaborate parties.
boring and dull and tedious
You're upset at adults having Hallowe'en parties b/c they're boring?
If that's what's bothering you, I think you can relax.
Every citation to Dan Savage requires (a) a counter-citation to his misdemeanor vote-fraud conviction, along with (b) his oddly shifting story about trying to infect a Gary Bauer campaign office (as well as Republican primary candidate Bauer) with his saliva, and (c) the unforgettable "Gay Pride Parade" story from The Onion.
Dan Savage has a nasty habit of wishing death on Republicans, and then having to retract his comments. It's happened several times. It doesn't seem to get better, with Dan Savage.
I don't listen to Dan Savage, because I will be offended. I don't listen to him, in the same manner I don't want to witness a train wreck.
He's just a miserable man. He isn't happy, and assumes it is us who are all messed up. He makes a living being a bully.
I could be angry or have pity. I try to have pity, because I acknowledge I'm not the person I wish to be and can be angered by his harassment.
The guy has a lot of problems.
And most sound like they're of the First World variety.
"Please actually listen to the rant"
Sorry, I do not listen to people I find detestable.
I gave it a try once, but I felt so bad about the human condition I promised myself I would not knowingly do it again.
So, my apologies for failing to understand his point.
But this won't change my policy.
I never trick or treated as a child. I hated Halloween and I hated dressing up in a costume.
tits.
There are some awesome streets in fab Cambridge though that have beautiful old houses (with Liz Warren signs) all cobwebbed out.
tits.
beautiful old houses (with Liz Warren signs) all cobwebbed out.
Now that's scary.
I need a day to bust loose from a world where the only fucking thing that matters is sex. Don't get me wrong, I love sex, with my husband, but for Christ sake, do we need to go so far that we dress little girls up as hooker kitty cats?
Dan Savage is free to be a gay man, but it is just annoying that he is trying to make the rest of us in to gay men too.
There is more depth to life than fucking all the time.
"You only need a Saturnalia if you're as disciplined as a Roman centurion the rest of the year."
It just now occurred to me once upon a time the yearly Saturnalia for adults was the office Christmas party. I remember attending a few doozies myself back in the '80's. For a few weeks afterward, there were people who couldn't make eye contact with certain other co-workers without blushing.
The few office Christmas parties I've attended during the last decade were crashingly dull. Nobody drinks too much, nobody makes passes at anybody else (sexual harassment suits), nobody tells dirty jokes or lets their hair down at all. It might hurt their career.
Holding an "adult" Halloween party with friends is less risky.
"beautiful old houses (with Liz Warren signs) all cobwebbed out."
Wouldn't it be more appropriate to pitch a teepee on the front lawn?
Rustling Leaves said...
I need a day to bust loose from a world where the only fucking thing that matters is sex. Don't get me wrong, I love sex, with my husband, but for Christ sake, do we need to go so far that we dress little girls up as hooker kitty cats?
No. That would be wrong.
But cab we get their moms to dress up like hooker kitty cats?
On the flip side of the coin, perhaps flamboyant gays need a day to dress modestly or in tune with cultural norms with their natural gender, just to experience one day that does not revolve solely around their sexuality.
I hate to tell you Rusty, they do have little girl versions of the sexy kitty cat look. I think the one I saw at Walmart was called the "Fun Kitty Cat" that was the extremely short cut one that resembled the adult costume. There was also "Nice Kitty" with a long skirt and modestly structured.
Thinking there is a shortage of sexy in our culture is on par with think there is a shortage of debt. Sexy is everywhere. There is so much sexy, that when I invoke my inner rebel I am inclined to channel Michelle Duggar instead of Madonna or Lady Gaga.
Yeah, no thanks on listening to the rant. I outgrew thinking that Dan Savage had anything worthwhile to say around age 22 or so. When I was 16 and reading his column in the Stranger in Seattle, boy howdy was that guy cool, wow listen to him say fuck fuck fuck faggot fuck how awesome!
Meh.
He's an ass and normal people don't need his approval to have fun.
I'm of two minds with women dressing slutty on halloween. On one hand, being a guy, I welcome it. There should be more days in the year where women dress like sexy french maids or slutty demons in red leather.
But, I do wonder why SO many women feel the need to show off their sex. Is it all just biological imperatives, or are women (in general) just really needy and looking for constant attention. There is something off putting about so many putting themselves out as whores or sluts, where you do have to question the psychology a little bit.
And, being a guy I do have to register a complaint for those who dress like sluts but then get mad when guys step up to them as if they are easy. I'm not one of those guys by the way. But that doesn't mean I don't notice the inequity.
Rustling Leaves said...
I hate to tell you Rusty, they do have little girl versions of the sexy kitty cat look. I think the one I saw at Walmart was called the "Fun Kitty Cat" that was the extremely short cut one that resembled the adult costume. There was also "Nice Kitty" with a long skirt and modestly structured.
Well what do expect from a culture that's given us ,"Honey Boo Boo"?
In what part of the universe is that entertainment?
Now voluptuous young ladies of a legal age dressed up all slutty for Halloween? That's what made America great.
I'm very sexy this year. I am Sarah Palin (just found out that my house is having a party). My Mexican roommate doesn't know who SP is.
I would not waste one second of my life listening to that lunatic PMSing about anything.
Why do you?
I can remember when a grownup wouldn't have worn a costume for Holloween. Maybe the elites attended masquerade balls but regular people treated it as a kids' thing.
My parents have pictures of themselves and their friends in costume at a Halloween party in 1970 or 1971, before I was born. They *met* at a Young Republicans meeting in suburban Pittsburgh. There might have been a time when "the Silent Majority" wouldn't do such a thing, but it had to have been a very brief time. Of course, it wasn't exactly a bacchanalia, not even by Nixon-era standards.
That being said, Dan Savage is a repugnant creep, who really oughtn't be given any cultural credence whatsoever. A decade or so ago, PJ O'Rourke was writing up "A New Blacklist", which was a hell of a thing from the guy who wrote Republican Party Animal and used to brag about how he had done way too many drugs to ever run for public office. But he did have a point that post-Cold-War America has often indulged in years-long Marti Gras festivals, and not observed nearly enough days of repentance and solemnity. Censoriousness ought more often to be the order of the day.
Of course, the so-called good old days tolerated and even celebrated Gore Vidal and his malignity, even in the heart of the allegedly puritanical Fifties. The difference today is the lack of a Billy Graham in the mainstream heart of the culture, to offset the Gore Vidals and Dan Savages of the world, who always will be with us in one form or the other.
No way I'm listening to his rant.
I don't hate myself; merely a bit disappointed from time to time..
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