part 2
The Anatomy of Lust
Having described the benefits of controlling sexual desire, I want to address the problem of lust. There are two components to lust: the object of desire and the arousal.
The Object of Desire
The object of desire may take one or more of the following three forms: the Beautiful Stranger, the Beautiful Thought, or the Beautiful Friend.
The Beautiful Stranger represents those sexually attractive women which appear in our world but which we are not likely to ever know personally. We see them on the sidewalks, in the shopping malls, on the billboards, on the Internet, on television, in magazines, etc. They can be painted, or take the form of digital animation. They can be airbrushed or touched up with some photo imaging software. They cover themselves with mascara, lip gloss, and topical treatments of various kinds. Whether they be virtual or in the flesh, we are confronted with them on a daily basis and are not likely to escape them.
The Beautiful Thought represents those sexually attractive women that keep intruding into our minds. They may be thoughts of women we have actually seen or they may be entities created wholly from the fabric of our imaginations. They worm into our lives at the most unexpected and unwelcome moments.
The Beautiful Friend represents sexually attractive women that we actually know and interact with. These women can be coworkers, classmates, friends, women we meet at church, etc. Their personalities are known to us. For the most part, they probably represent the greatest danger to male self-control because of their personal dealings with us. These are the women that we cannot easily dismiss as being unpleasant people or the mere wisps of our imaginations. These are the nice ones that we are tempted to pursue.
The Arousal
In response to the objects of desire, a man reacts with arousal. In order to control arousal, we must acknowledge that the problem with lust is not that men think too much about sex. It is that they don’t think enough. They don’t think logically about it, especially regarding the social and personal costs of sexual desire. There are two basic ingredients involved in the unrealistic thinking that fuels arousal and thus lust.
First, there is fear. Men are afraid that they cannot control their feelings, and that if they try to, they will harm their bodies or have psychological problems. Men are afraid that if they don’t act on their impulses, they will miss out on some wonderful experience in life that men are obligated to have. Men are afraid that if they don’t submit to female sexuality (through marriage or otherwise), they will branded as being asexual, gay, weird, spiritually immature, etc. The result of fear is that men either are conquered by female sexuality, or retreat from it only to be defeated in some future battle.
The second ingredient often found in arousal is adulation. The object of desire is presented to men in strictly positive terms. In other words, when men lust, they merely see some gorgeous, sexually available woman eager to pleasure her beholder. Men’s minds usually trail off to some scene from an XXX rated video they play over and over in their minds. There are no unpleasant parts in the movie script.
The fantasy of finding a beautiful woman that will satisfy every primal urge for physical and emotional intimacy is just too compelling for men. They are looking for the feeling they lost when they grew up and were too old to to be held to the bosom of their mothers. They imagine some larger-than-life personification of the feminine driving away the shadows of loneliness and despair from their gray adult world. When they think of finding that one special woman for their lives, they do not think about the regimen of soiled diapers, boring trips to Home Depot, senseless arguments, and mountains of bills. No, they imagine themselves stepping into some scene from a Playboy magazine.
And so a man yearns for sexual union with beautiful women as the key to resolving the things that are banal about his life. He forgets that many women are just mediocre human beings driven by self-interest. In the end, he sets himself up for disappointment, failure, shame, and disaster. Instead of being nobody’s fool, he becomes everybody’s fool.
part 3
Dealing with Beautiful Women in General
Now that we understand the components of lust, let us turn our attention to some techniques a man can use to defuse his lust and reassert control over his own desires. The following techniques deal with the object of desire, the beautiful woman that comes into our presence either physically or mentally. The underlying approach is to place the object of desire in a harsher light than to which we are accustomed.
The Cold Eye
The Cold Eye technique is crude but effective: don’t look at a beautiful woman any longer than you would look at another person. You are not deliberately averting your eyes all the time, but neither are you staring at women the way a cheetah does a baby antelope. Basically, the idea is not to feed your arousal any more than the opportunity permits. This technique is especially helpful in dealing with media images of beautiful women. If you catch a glimpse of a gorgeous model on a billboard, for instance, don’t dwell on it. Move on. Why? Because there is nothing to see. Pretty women are a dime a dozen, and you should never forget that.
Undress the Beauty
Instead of undressing a woman’s body in your mind, you should undress her beauty. In other words, stop thinking about how good she looks, and put a more realistic spin on her womanhood. There are several aspects of women that you can choose to dwell upon in a critical fashion:
1. Sexual History: If a woman is scantily clad, then that’s all the more reason for you to reflect on her low morals and the possibility of her being involved in a promiscuous lifestyle. Contemplate yourself being cuckolded by a woman like her or catching STDs from her. Imagine some low-life freak sticking his tongue in her face, and imagine her enjoying it.
2. Intelligence: Many pretty women have never bothered to apply themselves intellectually. Imagine the torment you might face of trying to carry on a conversation with a beautiful woman you see. Imagine the disappointment you might feel when you realize she is shallow in her thinking and behavior.
3. Emotional Stability: Physically attractive women can be neurotic just like everyone else. How would you like to live with an emotionally disturbed person on a daily basis? Consider that a lot of women in the sex industry have a drug habit, have eating disorders, have been in abusive relationships, have illegitimate kids, etc. Think about these things the next time you see a pin-up girl.
4. Materialism: So many women are mercenary in their relationships. They don’t care about you as a person. Power and status are their real lovers. So, imagine the apple of your eye telling you in nasal tone that you are a loser and that you don’t have what she wants (i.e., money).
5. Attention-Seeking Behavior: Consider that your beloved most likely has a large ego and thrives on the attention men give her. She has no plans for giving you what you desire. She got what she want and most likely does not care that you have been left frustrated on the sidelines.
5. Hateful Behavior: Consider that a beautiful woman may have a degree of hostility towards men. She may be a feminist, or consider herself a victim of “Patriarchy.” She might be the kind of person that cuts you off from your friends, hobbies, and dreams. Consider the idea of her bankrupting you in divorce court. Imagine her being abusive emotionally or physically.
6. Physical Beauty: Addressing this factor is going for the jugular. Think about the biological processes that women start go though as the years progress. Their skin wrinkles, they start to retain body fat, etc. They age faster than men! One day, you will look around and wonder where the elitist princesses of your generation went. All you will notice are dumpy looking ladies with terrible personalities. The change starts happening after the age of 35. Do you still want to pin your future and self-worth as a man on something as transitory as the way a woman looks?
When you start thinking intently and critically on one or more of these characteristics, you will most likely feel your desire wane. You will notice that the beautiful woman you see doesn’t seem so sublime anymore. Her stature in your mind shrivels up and shrinks in importance.