Not surprisingly, five million people have seen the video already.
The video is surprisingly funny, charming, and, needless to say, sexy. The young ladies concerned are easy on the eye and you can hear the buzz of the vibrators in use under the track. And as a means to publicise their new single, I guess it’s a hugely successful exercise. And they’re from Holland, so … well, you know.
But maybe I am getting old. I was immediately given to wonder what the Mums and Dads would think?
There is a sea-change in the way we view sexuality and it is being driven, as always, by the young and the media they consume. It has become commonplace to the point where demure behaviour no longer has any currency, yet less any cachet.
You can’t be a celebrity (especially a female one) without your own accidentally released sex tape or raunchy photos “stolen” from your phone. There’s “sex in public” on our TV, (especially on excruciatingly embarrassing “reality TV shows”), some pop stars are now little more than soft-porn actresses, we now have a generalised acceptance of “sexting”, real sexual activity is increasingly replacing simulated sex in major motion pictures, and all the rest of it.
We freely confess to being in two minds.
On the one hand we warmly applaud women, particularly, claiming their sexuality and not being locked in a box marked “dirty, not to be known about, simply designed to seduce men, essentially wicked”. These attitudes have hardly changed since the days when we used to hang and burn witches, and it is wonderful that they are changing, just as it is wonderful that a bearded cross-dresser can win Eurovision. (Good song, too.)
On the other hand, we are confronted by the very public nature of a lot of today’s sexuality. One can embrace sexual freedom for all – genuinely, enthusiastically embrace it – without necessarily wanting to embrace having sexual activity “in your face” at every turn.
We think we miss the best bits of decorum. It’s something – we stumble into incoherence here, but we think you’ll get what we mean – something to do with manners. Something to do with a more polite, less up-front world, where things are left to the imagination – if for no other reason that using our imagination is good for us as a species. Sometimes, though we hate the cliche, less really is more.
We confidently expect our inbox to be filled with abuse.
UPDATE
Well apart from a few people confirming that, yes, we are old farts, most people have engaged in a civilised debate about ADAM’s video.
But what is really great – Lord, we love the world wide interweb thing – is that someone has already, and hilariously, spoofed it. Watch these three guys. Bravo.
Well, This Is What I Think 