The Internet has Desensitised Me. Now Nothing Shocks Me.

My friend said to me the other day that he was worried and I asked him why. He replied he was worried that after seeing so much weird, perverted, violent stuff on the internet from when he was a teenager he now no longer is shocked by it. The example he gave was that in 4chan there is a Hentai Section with normal Hentai in it and a Hentai/Alternative section with tentacle rape, dick girls and other strange Hentai related images. He didn’t realise that the Hentai alternative section wasn’t the normal Hentai section for ages. He didn’t even realise there was a normal Hentai section. To him this was just normal, he didn’t find it shocking. When he said that I realised that I too thought that /d/ the Hentai Alternative section on 4chan was just for normal Hentai too. Is it really like that? Is the fact we have been exposed to things like goatse and tubgirl and really weird Hentai from a young age mean that things that shock everyone else are just the norm to us now? I had to investigate why and how this happened.

4chan is the first thing we need to look at when thinking about why Geeks and Internet Addicts are desensitised to the horrors of the Internet. I mean it’s not the worst site on the Internet by far but like there are things in /b/ that would disgust any normal person. I don’t go in /b/ but I have been a regular on an IRC chat channel since I was about 17 that loves /b/. It’s an anime related IRC chat channel that never talks about Anime. It’s all rape, sex, violence and gross outs mostly. But the thing is every time something disgusting from /b/ was linked, or something totally racist or something about rape or Loli I never batted an eyelid. I was just like *click**look**lol**close*. Is this bad? Because I know I’m not the only person out there with a sense of humour so much in the gutter. I know many people who find things that I find funny that a lot of people would just be grossed out by. Have we crossed a line or are we just a new kind of culture? Forget the MTV Generation we are the 4chan Generation.

Another friend of mine finds Anime quite disturbing. A few years back we were sitting in Borders and I was going down the Onegai Teacher art book and squeeing at the goodness inside. He pointed out that one of the girls rolling around in her underwear very much exposed looked like she was about 14 years old. I said “No no she has a condition that makes her look that way. Like the boy doesn’t look his age. She’s actually 21 or something”. He looked at me funny because I had quite calmly explained why the fact she was an obvious Loli wasn’t actually that bad because of the story of the Anime. He responded with “But she still looks 14. That doesn’t change that” and I shrugged and told him he just didn’t understand Anime. Anime is a strange medium I think because there really are no boundaries. It’s like.. anything goes. So we watch things that you would never ever see on TV in the West and then just think nothing of them after that. Like they banned an episode of Pokemon in the West where James was in a Bikini and had huge breasts. It was ok to air in Japan to the kids but here it was too controversial.

I think now that everyone has access to the internet its pretty hard to not become desensitised to things. They worry about violent films on the TV making their kids desensitised to things but to be fair it’s probably seeing photos of people smashed against trains or the after math of car crashes on the internet that’s doing it. I don’t know if it’s such a bad thing. I mean I am hardly a bad person, I have a good moral conscience and know right from wrong. So I laugh at things some people would think are sensitive areas or couldn’t find funny. That’s hardly making me evil. I think I am hardly alone in my being desensitized to a lot of bad things and therefore that hardly makes me a freak on nature.

You never know though. I may find something shocking one day and not laugh at it.

I’m an Ex-Girlfriend. Get Me Out Of Here.

The Trials of Being an Ex-Girlfriend/Best Female Friend

I’m a girl, a sociable girl. Or should that be woman? I’m getting on in years now so maybe I should say I am a sociable woman *laughs* Either way I have a lot of male friends and at least one ex-boyfriend who I am very very good friends with therefore I have always had issues with jealous Girlfriends trying to exclude me from their boyfriends lives. You would think, due to the amount of girls who have tried to do this to me, that I was the very worst of whores who loves to steal peoples boyfriends away. I am not. Seriously, I am the nicest person and would never dream of stealing away people who are already in love. That’s just downright bad. So why do I pose such a threat to these girls? I mean am I crazy to think that if you are dating someone that you should trust them and therefore shouldn’t really be worried that they will go off with their ex-girlfriends or their close female friends. If someone loves you then they only want you and you should trust and respect them instead of causing Drama. Let’s look at the facts here about why this happens and why it’s stupid that it does.

I used to have a best friend who we refer to as Boy. Boy and I were like brother and sister, that’s literally how close we were. For a good year or so you could hardly separate us, we’d go out together and get into the most stupid situations and have a great time. Boy was dating this girl who I was also friends with, Girl and me had been friends for a while having met through one of her housemates. When her and Boy got together I was genuinely happy for them. I thought it was great! It was just after a while Girl used to confide all her worries and complaints about Boy in me. She used to say things to me that seriously scared me for Boy’s sake. She was obsessed with getting married, she was obsessed with having complete control over Boy and running his life and she was just a bit scary. The things she said to me made me seriously think Boy should not be dating her. After talking to some of my friends and asking for their advice I decided that I had to tell Boy all that was going on. I mean he was like my brother and I didn’t want him to make the biggest mistake of his life. Essentially it was up to him if he wanted to be with Girl and if he did after all the things I had to tell him I wasn’t going to be angry at him, I would have respected his decision. So I tell Boy everything I know, I tell him that I wouldn’t tell him unless I thought it was bad if he didn’t know and I really did think he deserved to know what his Girlfriend was actually like! A few months after I tell him me and him are still very good friends and so I think nothing of it. Life goes on but I don’t hear from the Girlfriend at all anymore, but by then she lived pretty far away and I just put it down to her being busy. I wasn’t too bothered. One day me, Boy and our friends go out for the day, I was meeting someone who I was crazy in love with a bit later and I needed a bit of a confidence boost. For some reason I txt Boys Girlfriend and she txts me back saying to me that I’m a liar and bitch and how dare I even contemplate texting her. She goes on to say I’m a whore and steal everyone’s boyfriends and am obviously in love with hers which is why I am trying to break them up. She says I live my life with my knickers round my ankles and the only way I can get boys is by stealing them from other girls. I am gobsmacked to say the least. I can’t believe she thinks I love Boy. That’s insane! As I said before he is like my brother. I txt her back to say so but she doesn’t listen. It’s fair to say that Boy and me don’t talk so much anymore, not that I don’t want to talk to him it’s just he now thinks I’m a liar and am in love with him because that is what she told him. At least I assume he does, we never got a chance to talk about it and now I doubt we ever will.

This is what I don’t understand. Why would that Girl think I love Boy? It’s a well known fact amongst my friends that at the time I was crazy for someone and there was one person I was interested in and Boy knew this. He had listened to me talk about the guy I was after for ages and ages and seen me try and figure it all out in my head. His Girlfriend had also heard the stories about the boy I liked and therefore KNEW I was not interested in her Boyfriend but this seemed like a good point to get me out of his life. Was I that much of a threat? I used to go out with her Boyfriend and have fun and he enjoyed being around me and my friends. We didn’t really ever invite her because she was a right mood killer but she should have trusted him to not pull any of us. Which he would never have done. Whenever I date someone I know that I have to trust them. If I don’t there isn’t much point in us dating. I can’t be all stressed because he has friends that are girls or because he has friends that he has dated because to be fair so do I! How hypocritical would it be of me to demand him to not talk to his female friends when I am still talking to my male ones? Would I want to make him feel like he has to not talkto any girls or I will punish him? I would never dream of it. I think girls that do this are setting a really bad name up for Women across the world.

I see these situations time and time again though, Girlfriends being paranoid of ex-girlfriends and close female friends of their boyfriends because they feel them a threat. They are obviously close to the boyfriends in a way these Girlfriends may never get to and they feel jealous that these girls may know things that they may never find out. Being a Girlfriend and being a Friend are two different things. If your relationship really is perfect you will probably have the best of both worlds, you will be his girlfriend but he will confide in you like he would a close friend. But for a lot of relationships I see and hear about and advise on this type of relationship hasn’t been achieved yet. It takes work you know. Being jealous of your Boyfriends close female friends just makes you look petty and clingy in his friends eyes and to be fair I think you need to make a good impression on your Boyfriends friends. If they like you then things tend to be easier! Don’t see them as a threat, try and make friends with them back! Surely if you are on good terms with them you will feel more comfortable about his having close female friends because you will know exactly what kind of girls they are and will be able to relax more when he goes out with them. That is if you HAVE to be jealous of them it is better to be jealous and try and get on with them, in an ideal world you wouldn’t be jealous at all. This brings me along to the next type of girl who gets the Girlfriends wrath, The Ex-Girlfriend.

Being an Ex-Girlfriend who is still really good friends with her Ex-Boyfriend is a rare thing in the world it would seem from what I have seen. To be able to put your past aside and to get on with things and recognise that you both actually do get along really well, love hanging out with each other and that it really would be a shame if you weren’t in each others lives after you’ve had a pretty serious relationship with someone is something that isn’t seen very often. Out of everyone I’ve date I am only really good friends and on speaking terms with one of my Ex-Boyfriends. That’s pretty pathetic right? *laughs* But from what I see having one still around is an achievement! But it’s hard work to keep him as a friend. You are forever branded “THE EX GIRLFRIEND” to anyone he gets around to dating after you, which means they instantly hate you. No matter how much you explain to your other half that the relationship you hold with your Ex is in the past and now you’re just friends they will never ever actually believe you enough to be ok with you seeing your Ex. Mine have all despised my Ex-Boyfriend who I am good friends. They have always been jealous of him and you could see it when me and him would meet up that whoever I was dating at the time would suddenly get very possessive over me and suddenly become very affectionate when my Ex was looking. I assume it was mainly because me and my Ex get along so well it makes most boys I date feel like I don’t like them as much as I like him, which really isn’t the case at all! You have to accept, especially when you date people as you get older, that they will have histories and pasts and that you have not been their only love. You have to accept that just because you don’t have any contact with your Ex’s that your new partner may really have got along with his and that you need to try and be as accepting as that as you can. Fighting over an Ex is pointless and needless drama at the end of the day. Usually what they have is in the past and as I said before, if he loves you then he won’t be looking at her and thinking about recapturing the old days. Just chill out!

My advice to anyone stressing about anything I’ve said in my post is CHILL OUT. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CHILL THE HELL OUT. Relationships are not easy, I have said that before and I shall say it again but you make them harder on yourself by causing so much drama that isn’t needed. Don’t be clingy, don’t be possessive and ACCEPT that your girlfriend or Boyfriend will have friends of the opposite sex that are really close to them and they will have Ex’s that are good friends too. You have to deal with this in a mature manner and not throw a fit about it! Listen to Nayuki, she knows the score!

Don’t Blame Your Lack Of Sex On Women.

*NAME TAKEN OUT* says:
the only thing im serious about is not dating anyone
*NAME TAKEN OUT* says:
women are tramps ^^
Nay-Chan says:
…. ooook if you say so
*NAME TAKEN OUT* says:
that i do

I hate boys like this. Who complain that all women suck just because no woman wants to date them. This boy who said “all women are tramps” is particularly bad and particularly annoying. He seems to think that if a girl likes him she can only like him. They aren’t dating or anything, she is in no way tied to him but he wants her to act like she is. The only time you need to be absolutely faithful to someone is if you’re dating. To be fair if you do really like the guy you WON’T go off with someone else because you want to be with them. He thinks girls should be obiedient and good and do what they are told. That women can’t actually date around and fuck around because that makes them WHORES. OH FOR GODS SAKE. NO WONDER NO WOMAN WANTS YOU xD

Chill out.

That is my advice to all men with these stupid expectations of having a girlfriend who dotes upon only them, who was saving herself for them and who has aspirations of being with him and marrying him and having his children and cleaning up after him. Very few women I know go into realtionships and plan the wedding. It’s scary, so why on Earth do you think about marriage before you’re even dating her? CHILL OUT! See how things go, have some fun. That’s what good relationships are like. Chilled out, free of drama, full of trust and fun.

Have you ever thought its you that is the problem and not the Women? You can’t use your past disasters against all women kind and you can’t hang on to your heartbreak. You don’t get ANYWHERE by assuming all girls will cheat on you because one of your girlfriends cheated on you. You move on and you forgive and you learn from what happened. I have very few trust issues because I deal with the problems I have head on and get the out of the way. That’s why me and James are good friends now, that’s why I don’t have issues with thinking everyone is a pathological liar, that’s why I don’t think every man is out to control me like Rob wanted too. You have to be secure with yourself to have some sort of a decent stable relationship.

Relationships aren’t easy and you have to work at them but if they work then its great. If you have something special with someone don’t fuck it up by being stupid and clingy and worrying. If your other half loves you half as much as they say they do they will not cheat on you, they will not hurt you and they will not lie to you. There are few exceptions to this though, from what I understand. Sometimes things just go mad and neither of you can help what happens. What I’m saying is don’t stress about women and love. Let go and just go with the flow. You will be so much better mentally for it.

Your lack of sex, lack of girls, lack of girlfriend is YOUR FAULT not Womankinds fault. Grow up and sort yourself out.

I guess this would be most closely called ‘a mere manifesto’.

The following is a writing I’m reproducing for PinkDomino, but is originally something I simply put up in the ‘about me’ section of my user account at myspace.  I am indebted to Bertrand Russell, Charles Darwin, C.S. Lewis, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Douglas Adams, Spinoza, and Einstein for how I’ve come to think.  Those are simply the ‘famous’ names, the more tangible individuals who I owe for my perception of the world are those whom I speak with on a regular basis and call friend.

    I am an atheist. I’m not ‘mistaken’, ‘a part of the church’, a ‘child of god’, ‘backslidden’, or any other euphemism for someone devoid of theistic belief. Atheism is not synonymous with nihilism, satanism, hedonism, Stalinesque Socialism, Hitler, Nazism, Hatred, Antichristian rhetoric, dystopia, depression, mental disease, insanity, nor idiocy. I am capable of penetrating self-knowledge and empathy for others. I bare no hatreds to any person based upon their beliefs, skin color, gender, sexual orientation, opinion, or mere existence. I am not, nor have I really ever cared for, proselytizing. I merely am what I am. I learn from, laugh with, and love christians, muslims, agnostics, atheists, and all those that carry the spark of life.

I love my life and living. It isn’t easy, but nothing worth doing is done without difficulty. I believe in just and unjust, right and wrong, goods and evils. They exist for humanity, but the universe cares not of our concerns. It simply is. If anything were to be labeled ‘god’; the universe, life, love, friends, family, you, me, would be most appropriately labeled as such. However, taken to that extent, the need for such a label becomes superfluous and highly likely to be mistaken.

This is my atheism, this is me, and all that I try to be. I am not overbearing, overzealous, or obnoxious about it. I have been in the past, and I’ve been self-critical about that and have altered my behavior because it was something I did not like. This is in fact what everyone does to varying degrees of success and failure.

Live your lives. They are all fragile, fallible, and precious. That life ceases does not make it depressing, it makes it that much more beautiful. The limitation of time in which we are conscious of the universe in which we reside makes each day, each moment, each hour, each friend, family member, and love-interest that much more important.

Enjoy Life, if only because some died unfulfilled, unloved, unliked, abused, belittled, ridiculed, villified, persecuted, and rejected. Live and love as fully as you are capable, despite your successes and failures in it. Hope is not lost for humanity, it is only lost if we choose to be apathetic towards our fellow creatures.

Change yourself, others will change when they want and when they see fit. Do not expect or force them into change. Change must occur with self, before others change. A life lived beautifully speaks more than any painting, poem, song, or impassioned speech. It is the only real thing that can ever be known.

On the Possibility of a Deity, in reguards to the refutation of atheism and condemnation of a person with atheistic view: If any real deity, of which I feel there is none nor need of one, were to condemn me for this very human state I would not desire to commune with such a deity. The human state in which I refer to is the questioning of the existence of a supreme being to the point of unbelief.

On Faith: Mine is nonreligious and a faith in myself, those whom I love, and humanity despite flaws, fallibility, and frailty.

On Morality: Morals live outside of any one text or person and are collectively and individually agreed upon, enacted, perfected, and reformed. Morals and ethics, as we understand and use them, are applicable only to humanity, as ‘lesser’ creatures and the universe have no need of them.

On the potentially inaccurately perceived hostility or egotistical nature of this ‘personal sketch’: I am flawed and fallible, but I have a natural right to be who I am and speak upon myself when the opportunity exists without fear. I know myself more accurately than anyone else as I’ve spent the most time around all that pertains to and constructs what I define as ‘me’. This is not to say I know everything, am always perceived as I am, or that I know how others feel about me without questioning them. I’m not in the business of conversion, exclusion, witch hunts, prejudice, or hatred. I am a unifier, friend, and lover.

No Longer Afraid.

I am no longer fearful to an unhealthy degree of being myself and letting others be aware of who I am;  my thoughts, my fears, my past, my present, my goals, and all that is about me.

It is the most liberating way to live that I have ever known.

I would encourage all to try the same.  The world becomes so much more beautifully open.

Fight against the overwhelming apathy ever present in our culture.

SHUFFLE!

Having got my way through Air TV and Kanon I thought it was time I tried my hand at watching Shuffle (god bless you TVlinks). I think I am developing a thing for animes that start life as Hentai games. This post that is about to be written is FULL of spoilers so if you are planning to watch Shuffle and don’t want it spoiled I suggest you DO NOT READ ANYTHING PAST THIS PARAGRAPH. Seriously.

I liked Shuffle but that is mainly because it didn’t turn out at all how I had expected it too. It revolves around a boy (Rin) who lives with his child hood friend (Kaede) after his parents and her mother are killed in a car crash when the two of them were both 8. Rin is meant to be the ideal man, well you assume he is because every girl in this series wants to get in his pants. Not only is Kaede in love with him but so is Sia (the daughter of the Lord of the Gods), Nerine (The daughter of the Lord of the Demons), Asa (an uppclassman) and Primula (A loli girl). Kaede however is the only one who has devoted her life to serving him out of Love and does everything for him. You assume this anime will end with him falling for her, the girl who loves him so dearly. Hell no.

Shuffle starts off innocent enough, to be honest it’s your typical high school romance comedy to begin with. Its only until you get really into the series things start to take a twist. I’m not sure all the girls after Rin needed to have some strange and slightly dark back story (Nerine was almost dying when she was a child and her clone called Licorice used her life to save Nerine and therefore lived in her spirit, Sia has her dead twin as her alter ego, Rin is a genetically formed human with super duper magic and Asa is part human part demon and will die if she doesnt use her magic) but it cut through the cuteness and the innocence nicely when you found each one out. But those girls are not the ones you are so shocked about when hearing of their dark backgrounds. It’s Kaedes past that really gets you.

You assume Rin will end up with Kaede because of her devotion and obvious love of him even when all her rivals start to appear you still back her because she is the one who seems purest. The rest are all a bit silly and grabby. So when you watch her meltdown as Rin goes off with Asa you can’t help but feel for this poor girl. She seriously loses it. From the start of the anime you would never picture Kaede with having this violent temper. During her meltdown we are taken to a flashback of when her mum and Rins parents died. She is in hospital and has lost the will to live and Rin tells her while she is lying in a sort of waking coma that he is the reason her mum died. He says he wrote to her mum and told her to come early and that’s why she died. He thinks telling her this will give Kaede a reason to live and that it does, she comes out of her coma and straight away tries to strangle Rin. We then see Rin move in with Kaede and her dad and Kaede making Rin’s life hell. She at one point drops a knife on his head that cuts the entire side of his face. The whole thing climaxs in her shouting at Rin in the rain that people like him should be dead.

Of course she finds a postcard from her mother in Rins room saying she will be coming home, but Rin wasn’t the one asking her home, she was coming home early because Kaede was getting ill and her dad asked her back. Kaede blames herself for her mothers death and now has the guilt of her horrific treatment of Rin on her mind too. So she convinces herself that her devotion to Rin now is to pay him back for the horrible things she has afflicted upon him and not because she loves him and wants him near her. When Asa is bought back to the house Kaede finally loses it and pushes Asa against the door causing her to have a heart failure (she is sick btw) and sends her to hospital to what seems like her death. The thing is you feel for Kaede because if Rin didn’t notice how much Kaede loved him Asa did. Asa knew that Kaede loved Rin more than anything in the world and yet she STOLE Rin from Kaede.

This anime struck a chord with me, I know it sounds a bit Emo but it did. I felt for Kaede, even though she had done terrible things I felt for the pain she was feeling when she saw Asa and Rin together and knew he wasn’t hers anymore. I think Primula was the only one who saw her pain, noone else knew it existed or that she existed for that matter of fact. She was treated like a doormat when she deserved Rin over them all. I did have one of those Emo Girl moments thinking if Rin is meant tobe like such a great guy why is he such a retard when realising he is hurting Kaede by staying in her house all that time and taking advantage of her devotion to him. It was like he took no notice of her and that pissed me off.

I reccommend Shuffle even though I’ve ruined it now for you because it really is a good watch. That and well if you don’t like the emo storyline there is enough bare breast and naked action to keep you interested. At least two good boob shots per episode xD That and all the girls in it are such hotties!

Atheist Holidays?

I have been reading The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and have recently finished it. I enjoyed it a lot and read up on the man behind the novels. His death, friendships, and such.

Which inevitably brought me to … Towel Day. Towel Day is a day that was begun in 2001, the year that Douglas Adams died. It occurs annually on May 25th, the reason being that the first year it was that date and they held it again the next year on that same date.

It was held on May 25th in 2001 to keep it in close proximity to his death to maintain a high enthusiasm for the project. Some criticism, including my own after recently discovering the holiday, has come forward as to whether it would be better to have the day on the anniversary of his death, a date more attributable to Douglas himself, or something more “Hitchhiker-like” as a date like April 2nd (4/2).

As far as I can tell the “official” Towel Day site gives this amusingly very “Hitchhiker-like” reason for keeping the date as May 25th.

• Open up Windows calculator, or use any calculator that allows you to switch between Hexadecimal and Decimal modes.
• Set windows calculator (calc.exe) to scientific mode if it already isn’t in that mode
• On the row of options that lists: Hex, Dec, Oct, Bin; select the option HEX.
• Now add the numbers that comprise the current date of Towel day, i.e. 5+25.
• Hit Enter, you should get 2A.
• Now on the aforementioned row of options of: Hex, Dec, Oct, Bin; select DEC.

The answer you have should be proof enough to keep the date for Towel Day. The answer is in keeping with the spirit of the book and the man’s sense of humor so I will not question it any further myself.

As for how to celebrate the day, it is simple. Carry your towel with you wherever you go on May 25th.

I look forward to celebrating a very hoopy frood next year.

Sources:

“Official” Towel Day site

Wikipedia entry on Towel Day

“antireligion apologist”

I have come to terms to what I’d be most comfortable labeling myself, and have come to this under my own judgment.

I’m not too fond of the labels atheism or agnosticism for reasons of my religious upbringing and what people commonly connote the words mean. This morning I think I came to a phrase which probably more accurately describes what I’d refer to myself. If I must label my ideas and views on things under some blanket phrase or term, I like the idea of “antireligion apologist”.

It’s not an individual I’ve seen explicitely described anywhere, but the concept of “antireligion” isn’t new; I’m just supplying a name for what I am most closely alligned in thoughts and demeanor and avoiding the pitfalls of labeling oneself atheist or agnostic. My phrase holds up under consideration of the views of peope like Sam Harris, whom suggest that the word atheist should not even exist due to the logic that people don’t call themselves “non-scientists” and that simply the opinion that religions are not needed is sufficient enough. It also doesn’t have an intrinsic spiritual meaning, or for that matter the lack thereof, but suggests an individual who has an active questioning and defensive spirit against the system of beliefs constructed by men. Under this one phrase, atheists and agnostics both fit, or some contrived combination of those two terms, as well as allows for other derivatives and alternatives. For example, someone who was “spiritual”, but denounced religions constructed by humanity and was uncomfortable with using the words atheism or agnosticism could label himself or herself as an “antireligion apologist” if they were so inclined.

The moniker also conveniently removes me from the supposed paths to or away from christendom that were established in my mind at birth through til adolescence. It also removes me from the sillisome quarrelling over agnostic atheists or agnostic theists. The addition of apologist also under further review, removes me from the suggestion that I am merely substituting “antireligion” as my religion and suggesting others to follow the ways of “antireligion”. The term fits what I’m concerned with, nothing less and nothing more. I also have not set it in stone as “exactly” what I am, it’s simply the most approximate way to describe how I think at the moment. I could easily as say that I am an “irreligious apologist”; it’s merely a convention and the easiest way to illustrate my views in a concise way. To try to destroy the phrase in hopes of refuting the way I think as flawed, over an issue of semantics, would be insulting and infantile. It’s just the phrase that is easiest to describe my thoughts on religion as a whole and removes itself (the phrase) from just religions concerned with deities.

And that’s how I like it; open for further review, adjustment, and upending if needed.

Circumcision.

I’ve been reading more than is normal for me. This is a good thing. It has also altered thoughts and desires and morals I may have held as good or at least acceptable….even some that were fairly recent.

For instance, I held maybe not even a whole year ago that there was nothing inherently wrong with male circumcision. I now differ in this idea. I think that any choice about a child’s body that does not benefit the child’s health, both mental and physical, is immoral. For the purpose of this post I will specifically write on circumcision. Circumcision is a purely cosmetic practice rooted in archaic superstition.

If the United States holds that female circumcision is a savage practice, it should hold the same for male circumcision. There is no concrete evidence to support circumcision in male children, and there seems to me to be plenty of natural evidence that foreskins not only don’t impede normal functionality, but to remove them is barbaric. I feel that perhaps there should even be a law to protect newborns from their well-meaning, but uninformed parents. I’m sure there would be religious outcry, but this is unfounded. Religious rights, when they deal with newborn infants, have NO BASIS in particular when the desires of the parents differ from what is in the best interests of the child. No infant ever asked to have its body mutilated needlessly. This sadistic behavior is then rationalized to the infant through a preposterous set-up of divine decree.

Consider animals. Male animals that have similar reproductive organs as male humans, and I’ll specifically focus it on mammals, have foreskins. They don’t seem to be suffering because of them. The mere idea that some big white-bearded buddy in the sky gives a damn about a piece of skin on the human male’s penis is ludicrous. Anyone who defends circumcision yet is an advocate of pro-life rights is walking an odd line to my mind. To think a child must be born only to have his first day of living outside of the womb greeted with a knife to his sexual organs is truly a sad state of humanity. It should come as no surprise to parents that there children should then become adverse to them, after all your first act as parent was to harm their body. This should ashame any parent responsible.

When considering what is morally good, I would hope the education about sexuality, about abortion (see note 1), about contraceptives, and to shed light on the true malevolence in male and female circumcision would be what we would conclude. Whereas, to preach abstinence-only, preach contraceptives as hardly helpful, preach the importance of cutting your child’s body, and to preach that all of these practices are righteous is surely one of the more damaging aspects of our society. It should be obvious to humans that cutting an infant’s body, with no imminent health emergency, is immoral. There is a distinct difference between cutting an umbilical cord and removing an infant’s foreskin. It isn’t necessary to remove a foreskin; it is mutilating something that is unnecessary to remove on the only true innocents of our species. The fact that the practice is not condemned more uniformly in our society is abominable.

I’ll conclude that male circumcision is merely an act of superstition, unfounded and immoral in every way, except those that pose imminent danger to the newborn infant. To my current knowledge, I don’t know of any circumstances where this imminent danger arises. Thus, I think that it comes out only of a desire to differ ourselves from “lesser” beasts. We are animals, this does not belittle our existence.

I refuse to continue it’s practice.

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1. I thought it necessary to point out that education about abortion was not the encouragement of abortion, but to educate on the use of items like a type of “morning after pill”. This is of course a sexist pill, but soon there should be versions of contraceptive treatments for males that have similar effects as the morning after pill, i.e. the prevention of unplanned pregnancy. I think if this was educated uniformly that it should follow, as it seems in other countries, that the rate of partial-birth abortions and abortions in general would decrease.

Paprika: Enlightening Film or Confused Mess?

I recently saw Paprika, an Anime film by Satoshi Kon which was realeased in 2006 but has only recently found its way onto the Big Screen over in the West. The story focuses around the stolen DC Mini. The DC Mini is a device that lets you see into other peoples dreams allowing an analysis of the subconcious. In the wrong hands it could be a very dangerous piece of equipment. When the DC Mini is stolen it is up to Dr Atsuko Chiba and her dream alterego Paprika to figure out what is going on and save the day. Its essentailly an exploration into the fantasy world vs the reality world.

Atsuko and Paprika are essentially two halves of the same person. As the real world and the dream world begin to collide they are able to exist together in the same reality. This mirrors that of characters we create online, Atsuko was able to create Paprika as a energetic, friendly, vivacious 18 year old who had sex appeal and confidence because perhaps that’s how she wanted to be. We create our online personas not always to reflect ourselves in reality but to reflect who we may want to be and are afraid to be. It is easier to exist within a “dream” reality then it is to exist in actual reality after all.

I thought this fim was interesting. It can be argued that the plot is difficult to follow as the two realitys collide but I think a film dealing with dream worlds and alternate realities is bound to be confusing you have to go in expecting to have to follow a plot that will jump around. If you do then you’re ok. I thought the characters were amazing. Paprika stayed strong and focused even when Atsuko was giving into living out her dreams rather than saving reality. You felt as if the DC Mini was a technology that could be realised in actual life and that this was all  happening now. The animation was also superb, first class. It made the story richer and was breath taking. One scene in particular when Paprika enters the dreamland of Kosaku Tokita and changes outfits as she falls from the sky gliding down on a cloud was amazing. The music compliments the story so well, futuristic, upbeat and floating it resembles the dream like world that is colliding with reality. I think this is such a greta example of how Anime pushes boundaries and explores new themes and stories that Western Animation never will. Anime is reaching out and showing Animation is a worthy source of filmmaking and should be taken more seriously. Animation can be used to make mature films and whats more you can do more with animation because there are no boundaries or things to hold you back. Essentially in animation you can achieve the unachievable wouldn’t you say?

I highly reccomend you watching this film. It is readily availiable on Torrent Sites (use Isohunt to hunt it down if need be) and is now showing in Cinemas across the USA and UK. Go watch it.