by William S. Dean
(03/15/2006)
If you happened to be in Riga, Latvia just before Mardi Gras, I hope you trundled through the 20 degree weather to the Kipsala Exhibition Center to warm up at Erots 2006, the annual Baltic erotic feast. DJs from Berlin's famous KitKat Klub, porn stars such as Nikki Ryder, Mya Diamond, Victoria Swinger, and Lauro Giotto, live performances of SM, lesbians, transvestites, male strippers, and the U.S. rock band Erocktica highlighted the two-day festival. What, you say? Why wasn't I told? Middle Europe has erotic festivals now?
If your news sources are locked up by the mega-corporations' media monopoly, it's likely you haven't been getting the lowdown on erotic happenings and sex news from around the globe. Far more interested in promoting their latest sponsors' products and hand-outs from the PR flacks, the general newscasts and newspapers don't much cover the sensual, sexy real news from the front lines of the sexual revolutions. If you think about it, you don't have to wonder why. While sex may sell, sexual news and information is tricky business, better left untouched and unspoken.
Otherwise, wouldn't you just be talking about how The Rabbit, that nifty vibe with the clit-fluttering ears, is the hottest new sex toy selling in China? Or be gossiping about what the real meaning is of the latest (and first ever!) report from the Chinese government about gasp homosexuality? If you got the real global sex news, might you not be scratching your jaw and pondering how much outsourcing of American porn is being done right now in India? These aren't made-up stories to prove a point. These are actual news bits which, unless you seriously cruise arcane Web sources regularly, you'd never even have the foggiest notion of.
"Whoa," I can hear you muttering. "Why should I care about what you said?" Because we're all connected, that's why. Everyone on the planet who engages in some sexual activity is, by definition, an activist. Oh, you may not be out on the lines protesting the exploitation of sex workers in Thailand or diligently studying the latest Euro-Parliament statistics on women-owned sex toy businesses.
You may not even give a passing thought to the fact that in an unprecedented move, the United Nations Economic and Social Council dismissed the applications of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) and the Danish Association of Gays and Lesbians (LBL) for observer status at the United Nations on January 23, 2006. For the first time in its history, the ECOSOC dismissed summarily the application of an NGO without the hearings accorded to other applicants. The ILGA is a worldwide network of over 400 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender groups. Can you say "John Bolton"? I'm afraid you'll have to, because, in a move influenced by Egypt and the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) the two GLBT organizations were arbitrarily dismissed in a joint motion put to the NGO committee by Iran, Sudan, and their newest ally, the United States. The United States had, in the past, voted favorably for ILGA in 2002. In this instance the Bush Administration found fit to vote alongside countries they have considered international pariahs in all other contexts to deny LGBT people a voice at the UN. So, who voted to allow ILGA to have observers at the U.N.? Chile, France, Germany, Peru, and Romania.
See? Significant news that received no mention at all in the big media. Inevitably, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate sex and politics. Why isn't it important, for example, that mainland Chinese couples are re-inventing the "live together, not married" relationship? Think about this. It's the breaking down of centuries of tradition, custom, and law. LATs (Living Apart-Together) are fairly common in Canada. Basically, the relationship means living like a married couple (either co-habiting or in separate households) with prior agreement to separate if one partner so desires. The pact says neither of them is obliged to have sex with the other and if one of them refuses, the other will not force the issue. Both are free to have new partners and if either has had sex with a new partner and is willing to live with that person, the two would stop cohabiting with no ramifications. Think about this in terms of China and you can understand why everyone in the world should consider it newsworthy. Chinese women granting themselves the right to refuse sex, choose other partners, have unmarried sex without being degraded socially? The Great Wall is coming down for women's sexual rights.
It's been said what you don't know can't hurt you. But what you do know can help make you feel more free. I said before that we are all connected. That means sensually and erotically and sexually as well. We're not all engaged in a massive global orgy, but we should all feel a little better when we know that thousands of miles away someone is feeling and experiencing their sexual rights, perhaps for the first time. And we should all feel a little more oppressed when we discover that equally -- possibly not far from home -- people are trying desperately to repress someone's right to sexual freedom.
And doesn't it just make you smile a little broader to know the next time you trip off to Beijing, China, if need be, you can shop for a Rabbit vibe openly?
