I think that it is beneficial for people to examine the possible cultural conditionings underlying their own aesthetic preferences, if for no other reason than that I'm a believer in the gnothi sauthon principle.
Ascribing motives (even unconscious ones) to other people, on the other hand, is just plain rude, and I do think that it is far too often used as a means of harassing others about preferences not to the perpetrator's liking.
Sadly, this does seem to be a very popular form of rudeness, and one that is in my experience by no means the exclusive province of the challengers of the cultural status quo.
As for BDSM, that's one of those situations where my own personal answer to the soul-searching is: "I'm certain that the reason I find it a turn-on is because of some really nasty social factors, but what of it? In other areas of my life I work hard to try to make my society less power-obsessed and more egalitarian. If that goal should ever be reached, then maybe it's possible that people in the future would find BDSM very alien indeed. Does that thought bother me? No, not really."
BTW, your icon makes me giggle madly every time I see it.
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I think that it is beneficial for people to examine the possible cultural conditionings underlying their own aesthetic preferences, if for no other reason than that I'm a believer in the gnothi sauthon principle.
Ascribing motives (even unconscious ones) to other people, on the other hand, is just plain rude, and I do think that it is far too often used as a means of harassing others about preferences not to the perpetrator's liking.
Sadly, this does seem to be a very popular form of rudeness, and one that is in my experience by no means the exclusive province of the challengers of the cultural status quo.
As for BDSM, that's one of those situations where my own personal answer to the soul-searching is: "I'm certain that the reason I find it a turn-on is because of some really nasty social factors, but what of it? In other areas of my life I work hard to try to make my society less power-obsessed and more egalitarian. If that goal should ever be reached, then maybe it's possible that people in the future would find BDSM very alien indeed. Does that thought bother me? No, not really."
BTW, your icon makes me giggle madly every time I see it.