That Crazy Aunt in the Attic

She is certainly there, according to the writer of an article in The Lexington Herald-Leader.¹ Everyone knows it, at least almost everyone, but nobody is saying anything about her. What is there to say? What can be done about her? She lives there, causing havoc. She is an embarrassment to the family and its friends. Most pretend she does not exist. After all, if you don't look at her or listen to her ... .

Perhaps the reason people do not mention the aunt is that she doesn't have any clothes on and she does things I cannot mention in this article. Yet she is a good part of a 10 billion dollar a year industry. As much as she grates on our collective psyche, many look at her, watching her every move, secretly desiring her even though she is as crazy as a bat. She appears in hotel rooms, in homes on television screens, in VCR format, beautiful and ugly, creative and predictable, harmful and innocent, inviting and repulsive. You may have seen her yourself. Chances are you turned away when you did ... maybe.

This crazy aunt is video-sex, the new darling of large corporations. Once she was the exclusive property of Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler. No more. Now she chums with decent stocks and bonds, board rooms and CEOs. She dresses up for the annual meeting, at least she wears the demur clothing of nicer language and non-threatening imagery, that is, until the tape begins to roll in the hotel room and the family room. There she is exposed for what she is ... opportunism playing to the basic, and sometimes basest, instinct of the human race: the drive for sex.

Do you know that General Motors Corp., the largest company in the world, "now sells more graphic sex films every year" than Hustler Magazine? In addition to General Motors, companies like AT&T, Time Warner, Echostar, Marriott International, and the Hilton profit big time from "adult" films. As you gather from those involved (and there are others), much of the sex film industry goes to hotels and homes. We already know the internet can be a cesspool of pornography, but not many of us know that the internet contains more than 60,000 sex sites, many of which can be viewed in part by anybody, any age.

The Church lives with dilemmas, and modern technology hasn't lessened the ethical quagmire that the Church must often pass through. In addition, it isn't easy for me to realize that part of my retirement investment is probably with companies that funnel this kind of money into my bank account each month. Last week there was a full-page ad in the Herald-Leader urging people to oppose that part of the motion picture and video industry that emphasizes undue sex, violence, and other vulgarities. The crazy aunt lives and the Church cannot pretend otherwise. We have to work to have her committed!

Jerry Mercer