and
yes, I do have a girlfriend. But even when I did not have
a girlfriend, you would not usually catch me surfing for
that. Ok, if one of my buddies has just sent me
a web site of interest, like www.bikini.com, I might check
it out, but, hey, anybody would do that; we all have to
keep up-to-date on fashion.
However, to me, looking at pictures on the web doesn't
really explore the interactive power of the net.
What is the difference between doing that and looking
at Playboy or other erotic magazines? This is
a fairly entrenched behavior that is protected by 1st
amendment rights. Would you have the same worries
if he looked at Playboy every time he went to a newsstand?
I know that my friends who work for Playboy would not
have a problem with that.
The power of the net comes into play more when you
surf chat rooms, or have other interactive experiences.
That is a gray area, because then the surfer is actively
engaging a person of the (possible) other sex.
I believe that this type of behavior may be cause for
alarm to a partner because of its interactive nature,
but I have not yet made my mind up on that, as it is
still somewhat virtual in nature.
Our culture panders to sexual images. Look at
any magazine on any newsstand. Sexual images are
everywhere from Baywatch to commercials. I look
at those images, and I enjoy them. Do you ask
your boyfriend to turn his head every time a beautiful
model comes on TV? Do you slap him if you're both
on the beach and he turns his head if someone else catches
his eye? I don't think there's anything wrong
with a healthy, red-blooded young buck surfing for nude
pictures on the web, so long as it's not done obsessively,
or intentionally done to upset a partner. If looking
at that stuff once a week were bad, then all of my male
single friends are in trouble. I haven't taken
a poll yet of my married buddies though.
As a final thought, let me turn this around a little.
Would he mind if you looked at male nude shots?
Although this isn't quite fair, given the double standard
in our culture and the fact that you do not sound interested
in doing that, still, I would not mind if my girlfriend
looked at nudes occasionally, and I would not feel that
it detracted from her attraction for me. Actually,
given the fact that the woman I am seeing is a portrait
artist, I'm sure she's "done" plenty of nudes.
Should I be upset? Or is that just higher culture
than the web?
Lefty
