Sex, a bit of politics — but very little else

Right off the bat, let me say the following. This one was tough for me. Like many men of my generation, my relationship with the erotic arts and entertainment is, well, complicated.

- Rodney Ghobril

I grew up in a time where such things had just started to become widespread and easily available, and I think this is a fairly unique place to be, historically.

People in the generations before me either had to go to great lengths to get their hands on any form of eroticism, or had no access to it at all.

This goes double because I grew up in apartheid-era South Africa and our country's calvinistic and backward stance on sexuality and sexual materials had to be seen to be believed.

Conversely, people in the generations after me have the internet, where any form of eroticism is literally at your fingertips, merely a search away, and so many of the previous dubious feelings towards it have begun to evaporate.

Now, let's just make it clear, I am extremely pro-sex and pro-sensuality and I believe that a healthy expression of those two things is core to any person's psychological make-up.

I also used to think I was very libertine in that there was very little in the way of such things that could shock or even surprise me.

What I have subsequently discovered is that I am very libertine for my generation. There are things that the world has subsequently conceived that I will admit have occasionally had me muttering, “What the tin-plated fuck is going on here?”

But my stance remains now what it always was — as long as everyone involved is consenting, and no one involved is getting hurt — unless they want to be, feel free to go nuts.