2006 – Good Riddance

2006 was so many things. It was the year when an elected official solicited a 16 year old page and their Instant Messages became the stuff of Urban Legend. It was to be only one scandal in a scandalous year for which, time permitting, another equally damaging one would certainly have come along. It was a year when another state began plans for banning the sale of adult toys but because it was in South Carolina nobody noticed. It was the sixth year of George W. Bush’s presidency but it was also the first year that the F.B.I. and representatives from the Adult Entertainment Industry sat down and negotiated how their records were going to be inspected with the utmost of cooperation and, thus, the least outrage.
2006 was a year unlike any other. Sexually, however, we seemed not to notice. It was a year of sex, lies and videotape and the further integration between pornography and culture. But like other conservative eras, the sexual goings-on – which tend to be most revolutionary during periods where all forms of expression are suppressed – were sidelined, pooh-poohed or out and out dismissed. Simply put, there was another sexual revolution going on this year flying low beneath the guardians of popular culture. Ask any neighborhood priest what happens when you try to clamp down on one of two basic urges and the results will almost always be shocking but predictable. Sex is on the rise. Six years after toothless ABC theories of prevention, virginity pledges that make a mockery of pledging and gays-at-all-costs slash and burn politics, sex has remained the one durable constant in 2006. From Britney’s Vagina to what goes on behind the mind of a 58 year old, sex, in all its permutations – some arousing, others repugnant - shot forth across a bow of ineligible analysis and insanity. With the last remaining ounces of energy, I kiss the worst of 2006 goodbye and to 2007 I welcome you gladly. May the revolution continue.
--MOC BLOGGER