Sex Inflation: the Declining Value of Abuse

Claiming you have been sexually abused is like claiming you were abducted by aliens; it's not that people don't believe you, it's just that they don't really care anymore.

Time was, an abuse allegation had some value. But that was before everyone had lots of them, and inflation had set in. After all, masturbation is self-abuse, and look where that's ended up. Today, even letting your child sleep with a superstar is no guarantee of cash, because you just can't do it innocently anymore. Let your kid sleep with Michael Jackson, and people are likely to think you're putting fingers in the chili at Wendy's.

Being an abuser has changed too, and today an abuser doesn't have to be alone with his (her?) thoughts. Scary to the first abuser in a neighborhood, the offender registration system is great once you have many. Too bad they didn't have this back when auto-sex-abuse (masturbation) was a punishable crime. How many abusers are in your zip code?

Instead of trying live as if you had never thought of doing naughty things, now you can boldly look up all the folks in your area who are registered as having engaged in similar naughty deeds. You'll find drinking buddies! There are even photos--this is a real dating service, and you don't even have to register to use it. Find yourself a nice woman who was hot enough to get into trouble, marry her and have some hot kids with her. Maybe you can preregister them too. With today's technology and helpful government programs like this, you can actually live out your fantasies. The possibilities are boggling.

Some people still prefer to stay unlisted, and unlisted abusers seem to be everywhere as well. Why live a life without abuse when everyone seems to be getting in on it? If you're important enough, you can go on from abusing family members and neighbors to abuse interns and fans. But the trouble with something getting popular is that soon it loses that special thrill, like hula-hoops did. Now it's an abuse boom. Next it's an abuse bust.

A sure sign of boom was that allegations were enough, proof wasn't important. To get people excited, you didn't have to actually show your hula-hoop, you could just say you had one in your bedroom. But as the shock value of allegations begins to decline people want to see proof. By that time, you're nearing the point where people just aren't interested anymore.

The Michael Jackson case showed how the shock value is waning fast. Superstars and presidents having illicit sex isn't enough anymore, it'd have to be a priest to surprise. What's left to top that? The exchange rate is collapsing as the money value of abuse declines in proportion to the allegation supply. Once everyone has allegations, they'll be worthless. All the more reason to hurry and get yours now. And so the rush.

At the moment, some people are still proud of whatever abuse they've managed to collect, but that is changing quickly. People do still go on TV and proclaim they've been touched by the famous, or the powerful, or lacking that, by their neighbor. But they fail to see there's no future in it. In emotional opposites there is a strong hysteresis, and the flip of pride is driven to the flop of shame in an instant.

It's human nature to seek the affections of those with status or power, and this part of nature can only function if those affections can actually be found when and where they are sought. It is this "use me" part of human nature that America's sex abuse craze has tried to control, with fixed exchange rate mantras such as all sex is abuse, all power is abuse, all exploitation is abuse or all use is abuse. Such attempts to fix a value to abuse make the term worthless. Is it better to be used or to be useless? At its present rate of decline, the word abuse will soon carry about the same connotation of harm as the word masturbation does now.

The abuse bubble, like all bubbles, is great while it's pumping, but can be messy after it pops. Once the hoopla ends, that hula-hoop in the bedroom closet becomes just another skeleton. People who have tried to ride the abuse wave with a disdainful "love 'em and leave 'em" approach will, like those who have made sexual abuse claims simply because they can, find their past more difficult to leave behind than those discarded hula-hoops.

The consistent failure to eradicate human nature by those who profit from the sex abuse craze shows us that human nature won't be changed for the better by simply trying to dam it up. But in a transparent setting human nature can be nurtured to flow along channels benefiting all the parties involved in sexual exchanges. Transparency and a floating exchange rate (in the form of judging a relationship on its merits) will restore value where it belongs in assessing sexual use and abuse. We will admire those who are left clean once this bubble splatters.