Walking to work this morning, it occurred to me that I am very lucky that a good cross-section of the local youth have obliterated most of the more traditional means of seduction. Comfort drugs and the threat of sexual infection have granted me an equanimity that I would not have had before. We all pull hair, we all scratch backs, we absently rub out the aches in feet that find themselves near out laps. The hormonal ocean is absent, there’s no confused motivations lapping at our hands or the words we apply to our situations. Sleeping is sleeping, usually, and staying overnight is fun, not a promise.
I really like that. I appreciate the freedom it grants.
“The most effective means for neutralizing the Other is the appropriation of their symbolic language.”