Daniel Bergner examines the interesting stories of four individuals that have “different” sexual desires. Although society is constantly mandating and policing people to behave in ways that is considered “normal,” Bergner helps readers understand that we must consider the world from the perspective of others. Some people have sexual desires that may not fall into society’s category of “normal,” but people should try to accept others, and especially their hidden desires.
Throughout the book, the four individuals are constantly battling with their own desires and the standards of the culture. While reading about Jacob, I could not help but sympathize with him. He felt that he was so disgusting that he could not even tell his wife about his foot fetish. One day, Jacob attempts to come clean about his fetish, and refers to it merely as an addiction. Even though he wants to tell his wife about the problem, she fears for the worst and believes he might be having an affair.
After Jacob seeks help from Berlin, Berlin appears to be afraid to handle Jacob’s situation. He wants to “free Jacob’s mind from sex,” and thinks this is the best solution for Jacob’s fetish. However, Jacob appears to lose a sense of himself and states at the end of the chapter, “I’ve been denied the pleasures of life,”(Bergner 45). Berlin believes that young people cannot imagine not living with sex, but as we age it is better to just seek companionship with your significant other. He claims that you cannot miss something that you do not habitually practice. However, Jacob clearly feels a sense of loss and wants to engage in pleasurable experiences just like everyone else. Society has forced Jacob to believe that he is not normal and he thinks he must try to fix his fetish problem.
I also found the story about the Devotee to be very interesting. Laura is unable to deal with the loss of her limbs and eventually breaks down when her son asks if her legs will ever grow back. We do not realize how much we value parts of our body until we lose them. Laura wants to die because she cannot see her life without her legs, but she finds a world of amputees online. However, she realizes that she does not need a prosthetic leg to feel normal, and she should accept the body that she now has. She even begins modeling and falls in love with Ron, an amputee devotee. I found this story to be quite intriguing because many people think of amputees negatively. It was assuring to discover that there is a world of people that admire devotees. Some people may find this world to be quite sick and disturbing like Laura’s colleagues. However, amputees are just like other people and they should be able to find love and seek pleasure just like non-amputees.
-Nidhi
No comments:
Post a Comment