Beginner's Fun with Role Play

In Cronenberg's A History of Violence, we're given a great beginner's demonstration of how to perform low-stress, low-prep role playing games.

In that scene, Viggo Mortensen's character is seduced by his wife, who says, "We never got to be teenagers together... I'm going to fix that."

She abandons him in the bedroom for an uncomfortable length of time as she vanishes into the washroom to prepare for her antics. Finally, she emerges in a high school cheerleading costume and stands there in the doorway, toying with her oh-so-short skirt to reveal a pair of girlie white cotton feminine briefs, complete with a little frilly ribbing.

Just standing there, hiking her skirt up enough to show these oh-so-innocent little panties is enough to drop his jaw.

The fact is, role playing may seem stupid and weird, but why should it? As children, we grow up pretending to be other people and we think it's fun. "You be the patient and I'll be the doctor. Open up and say, ahhhhhh. And maybe a little oooooh."

When does the switch get flipped that tells us pretending to be someone else is bad? Why do we feel so silly? What's so absurd about remembering to play over the age of 18, hmm?

The thing about sex is that it's supposed to be that one time -- that one time -- when we let our guard down enough to be utterly vulnerable. We're there, naked, in every sense. Splayed and ready for enjoyment. And then, we lose a little control. For the good? For the bad? You decide.

Men and women tend to be pretty different in some regards, outside of the obvious, I mean. For instance, the reliability and comfort factor of a relationship tends to be really important to a woman's sense of security. Men can get a little nervous about that, and they like to have things shaken up sometimes so they don't begin to feel trapped. Don't get all silly and think, "Oh, my man doesn't feel trapped." What, YOU never feel trapped? Admit it. You KNOW he does. It's primal. Who we are. Get over it, but bloody well accept it. Everyone knows what feeling trapped is like.

So, it's simple -- you just change things up. Cook a different meal, wear a different perfume. Wear a wig, even, on a playful night in. Or, adopt a costume. (Change the decor of a room to be more masculine and dark for the night. Anything that adds new elements or airs will make the experience richer for the guy. Just cleaning up and tidying it will make a woman happy, sadly.)

And why shouldn't variety make it richer? Variety is the spice of life.

One of the things I always loved about sex in the car was that it meant never having to have sex in the same place twice. Nothing quite like a game of strip Monopoly come rent time in the back of a hatchback, you know what I'm saying? One time by a river, another on a lonely stretch of rural dirt road, another in the abandoned car lot on a full moon night. It's almost worth the handle imprint on the ass, the rug burn, and the crick in the back, you know?

There's a digression for you. (Hi, I'm Steff, and I'll be your tourguide tonight.)

What I loved about the role play scene in A History of Violence is how incredibly simple it is. It's realistic. It's easy to do. It doesn't take a whole night of arranging and wooing. It's reasonably spontaneous on one partner's part, and is almost like a gift. Or, you can plan to play in advance. Set a date on the calendar... "Saturday, July 29th, 6pm: RP Games."

Role play ain't just for dungeons nor dragons, you know.

The advantage in booking the night and time in advance, where you explicitly say "This is what we'll do" is that you get this wonderful goodness that comes in the form of committing to be together in every way... and the anticipation it brings. Guys LOVE to know they're getting laid at a certain time. Let them look forwards to it with a little idea of what the night is to bring them, and man, you could find yourself with a pretty eager guy. Don't you agree, boys?

If you're a newbie to this shit, there's nothing to be concerned about. You're playing dress-up and having a cheap evening in, okay? That's about the size of it. The pay-out is a little no-holds-barred fun that allows you to forget about who you are for a little while and adopt a fantasy life. It's not stupid or childish, it's just fun. Let your pride take a walk, and have a little fun, will ya?

If you're a vixen-wanna-be, then check out the beginning of the movie (15 minutes in, give or take -- I haven't watched it all yet, so I'm not giving a whole-movie review; just scene approval!). Watch the scene where she seduces him, and pick up cues from that. The "Let's go, Wildcats!" jump was a little much for me -- after all, do you really want to risk jumping on your loverman's mid-section when you're about to try to get nailed? And another point, if you've taken the time to get a costume and have an idea in mind for playtime, take a moment and clean the kid's toys off the bed! Jesus Christ! Get them out of sight. That happens at the beginning of this scene, when Viggo's cleaning the toys off his bed, and that's not really the cool thing to have happen. You're about to get shagged -- who wants to think of their kids? Again, Jesus!

It's not rocket science, people. It's fun. It's carnal, it's biblical, it's illegal in some states, but it's just downright fun. Why, someone oughta charge some admission.

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DEPRESS-O-METER: Tonight's rating is a six out of ten, with ten being the lousiest. I did what had to be done today, to the minimum. I've not done anything exciting or newsworthy. I could be out, being single and having fun, but I'm too tired, so I'm staying in, which is probably the right move, but because I'm depressed anyhow, I'm judging myself for it. I am, however, happy that I have a plan of attack for the depression now. (This is part of it.) I'm turning it into a project or an experiement. "How fast can diligence turn a Sad Steff into a Happy Steff, and can it be done on the cheap?" I'm happy I've written this, because it's a departure from the recent past and kind of fun at times, so I feel good about that. I'm really bloody hot, though, and know my weekend will likely not be fun, but will be busy, and that's not kosher. Probably better than doing nothing, which is likely what I'd be doing if Obligations weren't having a staring contest with me. So, overall? Partly cloudy with sunny breaks and a strange fog off the horizon all day long. Sort of.

This is an ongoing record of my new attempts to banish recent depressions, and will occur with each post. Stay tuned. How will Steff rank tomorrow?

Photo from: www.filemagazine.com.

RANT: On the Rag with the Goddesses

Okay, I'm into the whole love-yoself-sistah feminist self-worship thing and all that, to an extent.

This sort of thing blows my mind. Personally, if I was 12 or 13, and I had a granola-chomping mother who was foisting this "love your period, love your womanhood" crap down my throat, I'd spontaneously combust.

I hate when people take something that's really inconvenient and annoying and try to exalt some greatness into it. Sure, having a period is a reminder that we're female and a conscious realization of our ability to create and bear life. Nice, fabulous, wonderful. Will that get the stains out of my bedsheets, too, or is that just a lovely little inconcrete and essentially useless euphemistic piece of bullshit?

Oh, I say it's the latter. These people are right up there with the fucking naive twits who think a bird shitting on you means good luck. People will tell themselves anything if it means pocketing the cash for another therapy session.

Fuck, man. All I need to remind me that I am woman, ergo I fucking rock, are my tits. That I have a twat is just bonus, okay? My whole fucking body tells me I am woman, ergo I roar. I don't need to pull a South Park, bleed for seven days, and miraculously stump the odds by living just to know that I've got the DNA freebie strand, okay? My period is the bane of my existence. I fucking hate it. I wish I never had to bleed again. I'm presently in the middle of trying to suppress my period for three months at a time, but the three months has been split into six weeks thanks to an unwanted period this week.

Now, a bloody tangent. So, I'm, you know, there on my throne, unwrapping the first of a new pack of pads, and the Always "Wings" adhesive cover tab has "Have a happy period" written all across the fucking thing.

Happy? You want me to be happy about cramps, bloating, irritability, alcohol sensitivity, and the constant risk of staining undergarments, clothing, and sheets for the better part of a week? Yeah, sure, okay, and while we're at it, you want me to be thrilled about losing my paycheck, crashing my car, and finding my husband in bed with his secretary? Fuck right off.

Goddamned marketers.

But back to the initial topic: I'd like to send a big fuck you out to all the women who try to make me feel guilty about the fact that I think having menses is the absolutely worst part about being female. It doesn't mean I hate my femininity, it means I hate mood swings and pain and messes and feeling unclean. How is that wrong? Fucking sanctimonious crap is what that is. Join the rest of us on this little plane we like to call "Reality."

RANT: Thoughts about Depression

If you think the following post slams my ex in any way, you're an idiot. Acknowledging someone's shortcomings isn't vindictive. And acknowledging that they have good reason to have their faults is also not vindictive.

For some reason, we live in a world where being passive and inaccurate is mistaken for "being nice." C'mon, none of us is perfect. I burp, you know. I offer advice without being asked (hence this board, heh... gets it a little out of my system. Not entirely, but it helps). I'm opinionated. I'm blunt. I can be moody. I'm bitterly sarcastic. I'm narrow-minded. I'm judgmental.

It's all true.

So to call me something that's true is, well, not vindictive in the least. It's merely right.

I fuckin' hate how you can't say anything bad about anything and not be perceived as negative, hateful, or cynical. It's so fucking stupid. It sucks. They suck. C'mon, grow a fucking spine. Have an opinion. Say what you think. Fuck that, just THINK.

And while I'm all rared up with no place to go, let's get onto this topic of calling DEPRESSED a SWIPE.

Hey, depression's a fucking ILLNESS, man. Sometimes it can be almost untreatable. It's a hard fucking road to travel. Calling the stating of a person as "depressed" a "swipe" means depression isn't a real thing. It's dismissive of the horrific struggles faced by all those people who can't understand why they feel the black hell they feel. Don't fucking disrespect them by suggesting that their clinical state is merely an insult or a swipe, and not the gaping black hell of existence they know it to be, ALL RIGHT?

This isn't the "wah, I'm having a bad day" depression I speak of, that I know firsthand; this is the "I'm scared to go outside because something might trigger a descent again" kind of blackness that literally puts a fear of God into you.

When I call my ex-boyfriend depressed, I call him that with nothing but tenderness and sorrow. I feel for him. I wish I could help him. There is nothing, not anything, that I can do for him. How I wish I could. I can't. That's just the state of depression for you. Somehow you got to find your way out, but this isn't some spelunking game. This is sinking. It's a shipwreck of the heart, and shit, man, Lost is going on Season Three, you know what I'm saying here? If you don't get found, man...

Depression is the bane of my life. I've travelled that road too often to feel anything but empathy for its sufferers.

My brother broke my heart last week when he told me he was crying every day these days, missing being a husband and a father, he said. Broke my heart. What do you say to a man who feels so emotionally crushed in the face of his not being able to be the man he wants to be? I believe depression's harder for men simply because they're told to not listen to their emotions most of their lives, and here's this thing of darkness screaming at you every waking moment, or drowing out the noise in your life, and you can't ignore it. It's there, always. I think men feel more helpless with it, but women are kind of conditioned to know our body does this to us, and we're brainwashed to believe we're the weaker, more emotional sex, so we somehow cope better as a result of it. Men have to bottle it up for pride's sake, and the price they pay's just horrific sometimes.

I recommend this brilliant book by William Styron. Brilliant literary take on the journey of depression by one of the best writers in the world. His was chemically induced (though some of us would argue they all, in one context or another, are) and spiralled towards suicide. It'll wake you up to a more intellectualized and concrete look at the psychosis of depression.

I believe I'll always be somewhat prone to depression. Now, though, I realize that no matter how dark it gets, I find moments of joy. I need to always remember that.

Anyhow. I wasn't sniping. This is one breakup where no one really is to blame.

And to the reader who expressed concern that a great relationship could die at the hands of something stupid like a broken leg, well...

...welcome to the real world. I have been alive for 394 months. This relationship ate up maybe five months of it. And it feels like so much more. The connection went deep, fast, and there it is. Such is life. Broken hearts hurt, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. When it breaks, you can hear it cracking. In fact, they did a study last year that proves for once and for all that you really can die of a broken heart.

Yep, Broken Heart Syndrome occurs when there is a sudden tragedy that hits you. A death, a diagnosis, a theft, whatever. It mimics a heart attack and can require hospitalization, after which (2-3 days) the people can leave in decent health.

Every friend I've lost, every lover who left or drifted away, every relative, they've all taught me something. Some are dead and gone but remain with me now. Some hurt me in ways I'll never forgive them for but to this day I remember things they've said, that we did, and it will always stay with me.

And that's life.

There's a valley in Eastern BC, outside a little town called Nelson. The natives there have a legend that it's the valley of the lost souls. The belief is, when you're broken in spirit or body, you go there, by the river, and in time, it will heal your soul. When you leave, you leave whole but for the little piece of your soul that remains, and then heals the next broken spirit who happens by.

And that's what love and broken hearts are. You hurt, you heal, and a bit of that experience stays behind to make you better, stronger, than you had been before.

So, my heart's a little worse for wear, as is my ex's, and that's how it goes. We are what we are, broken. And there's no shame in it.

Reader Asks: How Much Trouble's One Guy Worth?

Oy vey. Here’s a doozy. The short of this reader’s question is:

“How much trouble is one guy worth?”

The long of the question is, she’s your typical non-religious “Christian” whose religious extent is the putting up of a Christmas tree. It doesn’t matter much to her at all. She’s educated, though, and knows a little about world faiths and is a polisci kinda gal. She’s hip.

And she’s fallen for a Jew. This isn’t your standard-edition Jew, either, who likes bagels and matzoh balls. He’s a lived-in-Jerusalem, goes-to-temple-on-Sabbaths, I-can’t-marry-a-Gentile kind of Jew.

SPLAT. Hear that? That’s the sound of our non-religious girl falling painfully for this Yiddish Loverman.

So let’s get back to her question. See, she’s thinking she could convert to Judaism. As a religion, she thinks it’s beautiful. (As do I.) It’s their politics that bother her. An independent Israel? Never shoulda happened. (I agree. Yeah, here’s an idea: Let’s take a bunch of Westerners who have always misunderstood the “Islamic infidels” and have THEM divvy up the land. Fuck brilliant. Oh, hey, just add water! Instant ongoing war! SMART-like. “Paradise Now” is a movie that’ll make you think twice about this whole Israel issue. In every situation there are two sides. Pity we only hear one.)

So, can she swallow her politics, digest a new relationship, and keep this man she’s head-over-heels for? Sure she can. But should she?

Like she says, How much trouble is one guy worth?

Let’s visit my friends at Websters for that one, okay?

trouble
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): troubled; troubling /'trou-b(le-)li[ng]/
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French trubler, from Vulgar Latin *turbulare, from *turbulus agitated, alteration of Latin turbulentus -- more at TURBULENT
transitive verb
1 a : to agitate mentally or spiritually : WORRY, DISTURB b (1) archaic : MISTREAT, OPPRESS (2) : to produce physical disorder in : AFFLICT c : to put to exertion or inconvenience eg: I'm sorry to trouble you
2 : to put into confused motion eg: the wind troubled the sea
intransitive verb
1 : to become mentally agitated : WORRY eg: refused to trouble over trifles
2 : to make an effort : be at pains eg: did not trouble to come

Oh, hey, trouble. That sounds like a bitch. Something like adversity, then, is it? Or (gasp) grief? How do you measure trouble? Does it come with a specially-marked cup? Is it metric or imperial? Is it the same in any language?

Trouble is not fun. This we know. It’s filled with challenges, adversity, and more. That’s not the question. We know what trouble is. What none of us wants to admit is, it’s a standard add-on feature in each of our lives. Okay, so the question is, how much trouble is too much?

Depends on the trouble, then, I’d say. And the guy. What’s the trouble? Well, here it’s accepting a religion you need to buy into as an adult, with all those lifelong skepticisms and questions and moments of doubt. You need to put aside your logician’s mind and swallow a bunch of beliefs for the man you love. Not that hard to do, but it might be difficult to make your peace with down the line. Does it involve compromising who you are? If not, great. If so, then proceed with caution.

Two, it’s ignoring your strong politics about something you feel is being unfairly portrayed in the media and misunderstood by the common man. Can you do that? Hell, I do that every time I go to my dad’s house. Not too hard. Politics aren’t a conversation one should ever enter into lightly. I generally try to avoid discussions about politics. Everyone’s a pundit, man.

Three, it’s the guy. Does he treat you with respect? Is he honest with you? Is he a shoulder for you when you need one? Does he know how to make you smile? Can you trust him? Do you want to wake up by his side? Can you see a future with him? Is he the first person you want to share good news with? Sounds like a catch.

If he treats you like shit or lies to you or makes you cry and not smile, well, then your answer’s pretty simple: Worth no trouble. Ever. At all.

I’ll go through a lot of grief for a good man. If he’s having troubles, and things are challenging, or things need to be overcome, I’ll try my hardest to ride them out. Good people are hard to find. Good lovers are even harder. I’ve been through hurts, I’ve had my heart broken, and I’ll still do everything I can to make sure a relationship’s not being thrown away for insignificant reasons... like my being too weak to stick out a difficult time. Sometimes it gets real fucking hard, too, having that patience, but I find having regrets a harder load to bear down the road.

We live in a society where everything is instant, and everything is easy. Need to go to France? That’s an eight-hour plane trip! See you for wine and dessert this evening! Craving a some supper? Two minutes and twenty seconds on high heat in your microwave. Oh, don’t wash your dishes, just throw them out! Here’s new Royal Chinette! You’ll save three minutes of your precious life!

We don’t like adversity. We do fucking speed-dating, for god’s sake, as if 2 minutes is all you need to find the love of your life. We don’t want to go through challenges. We don’t want to take the hard road. When it comes to love and relationships, it’s too easy to walk away and not be there for someone.

The reader asked me about my relationship and said she assumed things have worked out and I’ve decided to stay private about things. Guess what? There’s still some things we’re working on together. Know why? We’re two people on PLANET EARTH, and we don’t live in a fairy tale. Adversities happen. Good relationships can overcome them. And yes, I’m being more private about things. I’m preferring to keep a lid on it these days, but, yes, we’re still kicking the can.

I think girlie, if she’s really in it for this man, needs to decide if she can live with the faith and can handle stifling her politics. I think the price we pay for regrets is too high, and I’d say take a chance and follow your heart.

But I’m a romantic pragmatist, and I’m constantly in conflict with myself. Kinda like the Middle East, I guess.

The Ugly Cry

Oprah has coined a phrase I had to throw out yesterday, The Ugly Cry.

Almost every man who has been in any relationship of any consequence with any woman has, tragically, witnessed the Ugly Cry firsthand.

It ain’t pretty, man. That’s why it’s called ugly.

You know the cry I (/Oprah) mean(/s). Just plain ol’ ugly. Tears streaming, lips quivering, slobber potential in between monster gasps of woe. You might as well just scream, “I have estrogen! Hear my whine!”

Oh, we hate the Ugly Cry. You guys have no idea. Oh, my GOD. The times we turn around later and go, “What the fuck is wrong with me?’ I’m three sobs away from needing an industrial hanky, but zero sobs away from a complete loss of pride? How wrong is this? Where in the hell is my brain? Is there no override button for this shit? My god, someone get me a penis!

Almost every chick’s done this thing. It comes up at the stupidest times. Every time we try to get a grasp, we realize again, “Oh, I’m such a loser! Ugly crying!” and on with the waterworks and gulpfest. Afterwards, it’s just a humiliating realization that, “yes, I really, really am that weak.”

Oh, sure, let’s call it some euphemistic maxim, like, “in touch with my emotions.” Sure, that almost makes me feel like something less of a fraud, but no, not quite. Normally, I try to repress my emotions. I don’t want to be in touch with them, and shit, man I turn down every collect call they throw at me. I’m more the type where I just shuffle around and grunt a little, in between resentfully scouring dishes or meaninglessly shifting things around into less offensive patterns on the counter. I think about things, develop great reasoning for my emotions, what have you, and then, I open my fucking mouth.

“But what I felt...” [honk] [sob] [wheeze] [sob] “was that what you were saying...” [sob] [whine] [sniff] [snuffle] [snort]

Yada, fucking yada. Like any of it matters. By the end of it, we’re so ashamed with our all-out girliness in this crazy-ass world of men that we soften or completely bristle, and either way, things don’t progress as they should. You can almost start to understand why those old sexist commercials of the ‘50s had the men doing all the negotiating for big purchases. “Now, honey, you just let me take care of the big, bad negotiator. You just rest your pretty head.”

And what’s really lame is this ability for absolute stoicism through much of life’s challenges, but then the lips part for some person with whom I wanna talk on a deeper level, where I’m just being honest, and whomp! There it is. The Ugly Cry.

I know that my “Ugly Cry” tends to come out most often when I’m upset about something with someone I genuinely care about, someone with whom I’ve got an issue but with whom also I feel a pretty solid connection with. It doesn’t make it any easier, it still is something that’s been hurting enough to produce that reaction, or it’s one of those moments where we feel safe enough to really let ALL of our shit go.

I had an Ugly Cry like that last week, and ALL the shit I’d been feeling all rolled into one bad session of expressing how I felt. Man, it got heavy ‘cos I just couldn’t shake the Ugly Cry. There it loomed, on my shoulder, the entire fucking night. I felt like such a loser. I couldn’t get it together, and then I’d feel more frustrated about my lack of control, and off I’d go again.

You know, I think the Ugly Cry sometimes is actually that negative-but-positive sign about the relationship’s strengths sometimes. As chicks, we get so overwhelmed by grumpy guys in our presence and we think (like you) that it’s our job to fix it somehow, by being cute or nice or sweet, and sure enough, it backfires. What we either forget or just fail to realize is that guys being grumpy with us is a sign of how comfortable they feel around us, a sign of trust. It just really doesn’t feel that way when it’s going down. Usually tends to be a 20/20 hindsight reckoning, if anything.

And the Ugly Cry is sort of the same. A chick won’t go Ugly in front of someone she doesn’t trust, really.

Next time you boys are sitting there face-to-face with an Ugly Cry, just keep it together and remember, it’s a sign that she trusts you. Just like a seagull shitting on you means luck, it’s all good, boys.

(Oh, and the feminist in me suspects I'm about to get bitch-slapped by other feminists by alleging that women can fall victim to estrogen. Fuckin' sue me. I'd like to bitch-slap my estrogen, but it's gone back in hiding again. Sigh.)