by Colin Hyde
We first learned there were pornographic tapes featuring multiple Belizean women and men because of snippets here and there, not because it was copy on the sources we get our regular news from. Well, I am not aware of any television station or newspaper reporting on the matter. We learned that the story was hot on social media, where the videos of these activities were reportedly in circulation. A couple days after the story “broke,” one of my fb friends ran a commentary, and a number of her female friends chimed in with their takes. All of them rallied around the exhibitionists.
It’s a question, why a girl/young woman would want to engage in this type of show. Now, I believe that every girl in the peak of her beauty is tempted, would like to throw away all inhibition, show herself to the world. Gyal yu body gud, and those who don’t care for those bodies, make the physical sacrifice, might soon start losing their edge. While few of them are daring enough to bare all in a still photo, all of us know it’s a work of art. Baring themselves in a steamy performance, that is an entirely different matter. There is a report that some of these exposures were intended for certain eyes only. I say, all must be informed of the risk there.
I beg pause to insert here that I am paying no attention to possible males in the performance, because they have no loss in this. Women can fight for “equality,” and all kinds of angles can be introduced, but spin it every which way, because of the biology the male will always come out on top. Now, allow me to go on.
We know of an alternate view that some have, since the little Hollywood girl told us that “it’s just a hole” and the Jamaica Gleaner said the mother of the extremely loose young girl commented, mas o menos, that a little action “never harm nobody.” I’m not aware that anybody here wants to remake our culture in that way. Bully for people on the fringe, but they have their own world. This story is exclusively for regulars.
Staying with regular folk, it’s basic that the girl who performs does so under the spell of lust or love or a money payment. In this state of confusion, human beings are vulnerable to making unsound decisions. Whoa there, we’re all animals, with a level of sophistication/civilization which we arrived at through home and church training and a lot of pressure from society.
These tapes have implications. They can lead to blackmail, shame, even suicide when people return to full sanity. I bet many women who are exposed that way are in need of much emotional support. I could praise the women who rallied around them, if the rally cry wasn’t so vociferous. My exposure to the comments that circulated was limited, but it’s all I have, and my view from what I have is that in their rallying, a message was sent that performing in the tapes was okay. I say, I saw too many ‘what’s the fuss about, it’s a natural act, and everybody does it in their bedrooms’.
I’m not sure how I would go about expressing sympathy. To my mind, the defense was too total. Their expression of sympathy came over to me as defiance. The concern I have is about the message that was sent to young girls. I didn’t see one defense that considered them.
Especially at this time, we have to be very careful about our messages. The temptation of our young to perform in these extreme shows has never been so great. Our young people need guidance more than ever before.
It’s an epidemic
There are few saints, people who resist viewing the performance. Mission Frontiers, a religious-based medium, presented some surprising, wait, shocking statistics about the performance viewing in a 2020 piece, “15-mind-blowing statistics about pornography and the church.” Mission said that people “see the smiling faces of the people who attend their church. Certainly, such godly folks could not be viewing pornography.” Mission said it’s not just men viewing, that “Women, teenagers and children are also being caught in the web of pornography at alarming rates.”
Hmm, far more are looking in than looking away. Mission says, “The porn industry’s annual revenue is more than the NFL, NBA, and MLB combined. It is also more than the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC … 11 is the average age that a child is first exposed to porn, and 94% of children will see porn by the age of 14 … 68% of church-going men and over 50% of pastors view porn on a regular basis … only 13% of self-identified Christian women say they never watch porn—87% of Christian women have watched porn.”
Okay, okay, we need some space to take a breath here. That done, I think now we can get to some common sense. It’s not the kind of industry we belong in. We are way too small for that. Even in big countries with millions, performers, when they come to their senses, have huge problems because there’s no place to hide. And if you aren’t fringe, one day you will wish you never went there.
Embarrassment doesn’t mean anything in US
I just find it so wrong for a female teacher to be sent to jail for four years for seducing her 14-year-old male student. I read this latest harsh incarceration story in The Sacramento Bee. Ishani Desai said that 46-year-old Michelle Solis “pleaded no contest to having unlawful sex with an eighth-grade student,” and apart from the four-year sentence she will be required to register as a sex offender. Solis made a plea deal to get a “charge of distributing harmful material dropped”, the harmful material being four explicit photos of herself, which I guess she sent the boy to show him that 30 years removed from her best day her body still looks good.
Rightly, the woman will not be allowed to teach in school anymore. Very unfortunately for her, forever and ever she will be the object of derision for robbing the cradle. My, what’s the extra punishment for? There’s no risk of the boy getting pregnant and having to drop out of school and being forced to get a job to care for a child. He’ll have no worry about having sufficient breast milk, or if he’ll be man enough to clean a baby and all that. Sure, there are a few boys, just a few, who will have serious regrets about being with a woman old enough to be their granny. Look, can you find a life that has never experienced trauma?
Huy, I bet some young girls were mad at that teacher for using her wiles to steal a boy. The only good I can see for the female teacher in a jail sentence is that she gets to hide herself from the world for a few years. Can’t these Americans see that for violating trust and society’s mores that poor woman teacher is in for hell? What do they want to pile on that for?
It’s another people’s culture, and we don’t want any of our NGOs importing it. In their world Big Mabel was a fiend for taking care of Newt during the tornado. I remember that in the movie, The Learning Tree. Young Newt, 15-years-old, got caught in the tornado and was rescued by Mabel, who dragged him to the safety of a barn. Ah, the sex. Newt was shivering in his wet clothes, so Mabel undressed him, and undressed herself because she was wet too, and there in the barn, ooh, she snuggled close to him, using her body heat to keep him warm.
The culture of Kunta Kinte’s people counts for something. In Alex Haley’s Roots, he explained that unattached older women initiated young males in the village to the world of you-know-what. We know of cultures in Belize, there are a number here, where their boys are taken across the line to meet loose women. Apart from the fun, that’s a way to keep the energies of boys away from the girls. A sober society goes the extra yard to protect its girls, give them a chance so they make up their minds about their path in life when they are more mature. I’d like for our sober society to have a discussion about these things before we just up and send people to jail.
Better they play with themselves than run wild
Lisa Zamosky, in the WebMD story “Found Your Kid Masturbating” … wait, ouch, let’s say you suspect, well Lisa says it “is a very natural and healthy part of childhood. And it can start at a younger age than you might think.” Lisa said child and family psychologist, David Swanson, said, “It’s the beginning of a lifelong learning experience about their bodies and, later, about sex and sexuality.” Lisa said parents shouldn’t get “angry or tell their children that masturbating is wrong.”
Aha, I’ve read a religious “reach” where the counselor said self-playing could lead to the individual developing some independence from the other sex. Oh really! Pray, what’s the big problem with a little independence from a force that can dominate your every waking hour? So, the dependent young person shuns self-play for the real deal! Hey, pick yu poison, and mek sure yu pick the right one. If the youth jump out a frying pan, da weh yu think ih wahn lan?