We’re just not that shocked anymore. We’re numb. And we’re sick because of that loss of innocence.
Loss of privacy has more consequences than seem obvious at first. The introduction of television many years ago made a huge dent in our beliefs about privacy. Everything that we hadn’t seen before led us to watch more, but then what we had seen before didn’t satisfy. Curiouser and curiouser, our appetites increased as we descended into the rabbit hole. We wanted more. We wanted the PRIVATE things that no one else would show us. And film and television delivered the overthrow of healthy taboos.
Marilyn Monroe disrobed on camera, and the ceiling of nudity was broken in general audiences. (Who’s to say that this distinction - and shame - wasn’t what led her to suicide?) “Passionate lovemaking” was redefined from romance to the actual acting out of intercourse, first implied, then shown in full color.
Sex was intended to be a private act between two committed individuals committed to one another in marriage. It is a beautiful secret to be shared between two people who expect to share intercourse for the rest of their lives, with no one else in person or onscreen involved. Now couples with that intention are exposed to all sorts of advertising, dress, lifestyles and political issues that make them doubt their normalcy and performance on any number of levels.
When sex was private, this didn’t have to be an issue. But now, because we see everything, we doubt. Is living together really a sin? Is divorce so bad? Isn’t sharing spouses a common sexual recreation? Isn’t porn helpful in spicing up marriage?
We are hyper-sexualized because there is no privacy. Sex and its innuendoes are featured in the greater percentage of ads, television shows and films. Reality shows expose the most unattractive and deviant behaviors. It’s a blatant free-for-all, and nothing is sacred.
Maybe we could reflect, just for a moment, on the privacy in a home with no screens and no phone. We can’t return to that era, and we shouldn’t. But we ought to learn something from our loss of privacy. What have we traded it for? And shouldn’t we fight to have some of it back?
Shouldn’t we have the right to have a conversation without technological interruptions? Shouldn’t we have the right to fill our kids in on the facts of sex at the time we choose? Shouldn’t we have the right to enjoy married sex without comparisons? Shouldn’t we be able to have more choices in entertainment that aren’t sex-saturated?
If so, we may need to get some of that privacy back. Get the whole world out of our homes and heads. Enjoy a little tech-free private time at home. And set up the filters and boundaries that give us back a degree of the privacy that’s been so brazenly stolen.