DemonKia
Posts: 5521
Joined: 10/13/2007 From: Chico, Nor-Cali Status: offline
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FR, after continuing read thru Here's a summation of some of what I'm seeing going on in parts of this thread: 'I tolerate being offended by obnoxious, crying children, women breast-feeding, persons being 'excessively sexual' (sucking face, etc), people hacking up mucous & spitting it, etc, etc, therefore I have the right to be obnoxious back at them in my own way'. . . . . With some sophistry about the notion of 'taking offense' dressed up in the language of liberty . . . . . & there's still an unresolved issue around the logic-chain that goes: 'I'm not offended by blah-blah-blah, or things I equate to blah-blah-blah, therefore none other have the right to be offended by blah-blah-blah or its equivalents', with the amusement factor racked up by the expression of what does offend said poster earlier in the thread . .... I think every one of the posters asserting the lack of a basis for offense offered up stuff they found offensive . .. . . . Perhaps, those who get hung up on what's offensive or not really need to take care of their own feelings of offended-ness first . . . . There's something enormously disrespectful in not allowing for the right of the other to be offended. I may not agree with the grounds of that feeling of offense, but the other is allowed, in my book, to feel whatever they feel. My deciding they have a right, or lack a right, to their feelings isn't gonna change those feelings they're experiencing. lol . . . . Luckily for me I don't get hung up on 'being liberal' versus 'being conservative', so it doesn't bother me to realize that this is one of the places where I feel a conservative approach is called for, to minimize the potential for dissension, bad feelings, etc. Public behavior is expected to be relatively 'conservative', even excessively benign. This thread has really helped me understand why that is probably more workable. The examples of 'benign BDSM behaviors' offered up aren't the only ones that would be out there if / when it becomes more acceptable. There will inevitably be persons who want to engage in seriously offensive (to me) behaviors in public, & I'm reluctant to facilitate a 'right' to do that in the name of 'freedom of expression' . . ... I'm okay with limits, I don't feel the need to be 'unlimited', that just seems kinda unrealistic . . . . . Ah. & to address the Folsom Street Fair questions. Technically that's no more 'public' than a party at a 'public' dungeon. Those streets are closed off, admission is charged, & it is not just open to the wanderings of the general public. Only those who consent, by passing thru a gate & coughing up $10 (or whatever) get in . . . . As to children at Folsom, yeah, there's a few. A very few. In my experience Burning Man has proportionately more children than Folsom. I generally assume that those parents bringing their children to either venue are into dealing with the repercussions with their children, that they are way less into the whole 'sheltering the kiddies' thing than the general populace . . . . . My offspring are all legal adults now, but I wasn't really into sheltering them enormously & can see circumstances where I would have taken those that wanted to go to either Burning Man or Folsom. My oldest is a prude & would not have wanted to go to Folsom, but he loves BM; my middle is very open minded & would probably enjoy both; my youngest is an artist, & I took her to a Joel-Peter Witkin exhibit when she was 9. There was processing involved, discussion, but no lasting trauma . . . . . There's a context thing to Folsom, too. I generally figure that those who move to San Francisco are seeking out greater expression of personal freedoms as part of the milieu they're going to be living in. & those who are gonna take greater offense are gonna live other places, like the midwest or the deep south . . .. . (Darcy, sidenote: it's a primarily commercial / industrial area, with a limited amount of residential-above-businesses kinda stuff. The fair only goes on for a day, starting at, I think, 10 a.m. & ending at 6 p.m., so the residents are only impinged fairly briefly. & it's in a neighborhood where seeing someone walking down the street in chaps & a thong is not that terribly unusual. There are, I think, 3 different sex / BDSM toy stores in that immediate neighborhood, & the Citadel ('public' dungeon) is right around the corner from the section of Folsom that the Fair is held on . . . . . ) Fascinating discussion . . ..
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