men for sale

France, lunch time

I am back to France. I have been traveling so much for work in the last weeks (and I will have to travel more in the coming weeks) that I feel a bit lost and very very tired. In any case, I enjoyed any place I have been and I met a lot of cool people. So, overall, beside the time spent on the train, on the plane and at various airport, I am happy.

I also had a chance to dance a lot, so this was even more positive.

My plan of the day is to answer to as many emails as I can. My email inbox is more than full....

Last trip was to Turkey. I got back here in France last night. I liked what I saw of Turkey...I actually saw very little, but for what I saw, I liked it. Except one thing. I was in a tourist locality, Kusadasi, where many many tourists from the UK, Germany and Holland go as soon as it starts to get colder in their countries. Among these tourists, some are groups of women in search of some tenderness and attention....I saw something similar in Madagascar. Men and women moving around desperately searching for company. And men and women from these countries offering themselves just as whatever object.

I am not living out of this world. Prostitution always existed. But one thing is to see the women in the windows in places like the Netherlands, where actually prostitution is under rules and everything at least from the outside looks controlled and more like a job than as human exploitation. Another thing is to see desperate human who look from anyone who could give them any attention.

I am especially sad when I see women who seems to not know any limit to get into bed with someone. One thing is playing and joking and flirting, another thing is to get on the knee to convince a man to spend some time with you. I am wondering if getting someone at these conditions would actually help to feel less lonely, if it is filling their loneliness what they are actually looking for. Wouldn't make it feel even more lonely to know that this person is willing to give you exactly what you want just to get something from you? It is too commercial. And so sad to see it.

We went dancing one evening and there was a group of women just looking for men there. And looking for men with such a desperate attitude to be scary. One of them actually decided that one of the guy of our group was very interesting for her and that she should have tried to have it at any cost. It was very sad to watch.

I am for the "case chiuse" as they were called in Italy, for the red light districts like in Holland, for anything where this kind of sexual exchange doesn't drive to exploitation of people who don't have enough money to live. In Madagascar, depending on the places, you can even find teenagers who offer themselves to you....a sign that they know that foreigners come there and look for them.
I don't care if people need sex and love and they are willing to pay for it. But when this drives human exploitation, this is something that I can't stand to see. I wonder if there is any way to stop this trend.

Gay marriage

Francia, morning

It is since some days that I keep thinking about human rights. People are continuously discriminated in this world. Whatever time someone is different or thinks in some way differently from what it is considered normal, he/she is also scary and so better to isolate him/her. I think that in these cases, ignorance is what generates the intolerant behaviors. I consider myself lucky, because I travel a lot, I meet a lot of different people and I grew up with a very open minded mother. Fortunately, because I was born in a very closed minded town.

I saw a nice couple yesterday evening. Two men, around 40 years old probably, walking hand by hand, talking and laughing, and generally looking happy. Then I felt the need of writing a post about my thoughts of these days in terms of gay rights.

Few days ago, I read a beautiful commentary of Umberto Veronesi (a famous Italian oncologist) about the gay marriage and I saw the movie Milk. I suggest to everyone to watch this movie, and not only because Sean Penn is amazing in the role of Milk and because James Franco represents the kind of boyfriend that I think any girl would like to have, but also because this movie opened my eyes even more on what people who do not conform to what is considered normal need to suffer to just be able to live their own life. The article of Umberto Veronesi was focusing on the meaning of loving someone, being a couple and wanting to be recognized as a such. I thought that it was a beautiful, very intelligent way to look at it.

Loving someone means to want to protect and feeling protected by the other person, it means to have someone you trust to share things and thoughts with, it means to desire to be part of something, it means to feel home next to someone. And this love is not necessarily only the one between a woman and a man. And this kind of love should be recognized as a such, no matter the sex of the people who feel such a love. Why can't gay couples be legally recognized? who would they offend? it is not that giving them the right to get married, the whole marriage would lose meaning. Actually, it would add something to it. It would be a celebration of love and respect. A celebration of a pact that two people decide to sign together.

Life is difficult enough. Everybody should have the right to be loved and feel part of something. And the ones who feel threatened by gays or feel offended by their sexual preferences, should start to think about why that and meet someone who is gay and see that they are not different in any way from any other individual.

PS. Perfect day to write a post about gay rights. Here, today, was a big gay rights day!