Friday 31 January 2014

Fiction, real life, and their interaction - again

A subject I've written about before, but brought back to mind by a trio of online stories I've been reading over the past couple of days. The first is still ongoing, a boy-boy love story, one which could still go one of several ways, to a happy ending, or otherwise. The sort of story where even a happy ending can make me cry, in the knowledge that the kinds of relationships described would have been so, so much what I wanted as a young gay boy trying to come to terms with the person he was, but which are now out of reach, always. Which brings me to the second story, which I finished this morning, about a boylover and his loved boys, a pair of brothers. It wasn't one of those stories oozing with sex, although there were explicit sexual passages in it, and it was, in some ways, a slightly contrived scenario, as the man was portrayed as early-retired and rich after selling his business, and taking the boys, and their mother, on a world tour. It did give the author chances to make some sociological comment, about the way different societies have viewed intergenerational relationships, but how those views are now far more homogeneous, driven by the attitudes of a very few, very 'anti' countries, most notably the US, but with the UK not far behind. Of course, I'm well aware, from more than one 'discussion' at this blog, that there are many who believe that the 'puritanical', no shades-of-grey, version is the only acceptable opinion, that intergenerational relationships are always wrong, and only ever driven by selfish considerations on the part of the man (and, of course, it is virtually always a man that is seen as the villain of the piece) - even if no actual sex is involved, that's only because the man hasn't managed to engineer the opportunity yet, that boylovers are nothing but 'rapists in waiting'. I agree that there are some awful, predatory, abusive individuals in the world - there was one character in the story, rather exaggerated for the purposes of the narrative, I suspect, who was portrayed as just that kind of person, who saw children simply as sex objects - but the currently 'PC' view is that everyone attracted to younger people is that kind of amoral predator. Well, the boylover in the story was repelled by the idea of nonconsensual sex, and that's exactly how I feel - I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm simply not interested in a sexual relationship with anyone of either gender, or any age, that isn't entered into with demonstrably informed consent, and that applies to as much to those above the legally promulgated 'age of consent' (which varies from 12 to 18 in the countries visited in the fictional world tour, pretty close to the spread of ages current in EU countries) as to those below it. As ever when I discuss this subject, I haven't the least expectation of persuading even one person that my point of view is 'right', but I would hope that at least a few might think about the issue, rather than resorting to the kneejerk, tabloid worldview.
The final story I've been (re)reading is, I'm afraid, my own Alexandrine. I don't seem to be able to stay away from my lovely Xander for very long! Oh, for a magic lantern to bring him into my 'real' life!

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

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