"To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered." - Voltaire

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Explaining happiness -- Easterlin

"What do social survey data tell us about the determinants of happiness? First, that the psychologists' setpoint model is questionable. Life events in the nonpecuniary domain, such as marriage, divorce, and serious disability, have a lasting effect on happiness, and do not simply deflect the average person temporarily above or below a setpoint given by genetics and personality. Second, mainstream economists' inference that in the pecuniary domain "more is better," based on revealed preference theory, is problematic. An increase in income, and thus in the goods at one's disposal, does not bring with it a lasting increase in happiness because of the negative effect on utility of hedonic adaptation and social comparison. A better theory of happiness builds on the evidence that adaptation and social comparison affect utility less in the nonpecuniary than pecuniary domains. Because individuals fail to anticipate the extent to which adaptation and social comparison undermine expected utility in the pecuniary domain, they allocate an excessive amount of time to pecuniary goals, and shortchange nonpecuniary ends such as family life and health, reducing their happiness. There is need to devise policies that will yield better-informed individual preferences, and thereby increase individual and societal well-being...

One may ask whether social learning occurs, don't people eventually realize how their material aspirations escalate with economic achievement, and become aware of the self-defeating nature of the pursuit of pecuniary goals? The answer is no, because the change in material aspirations itself works against social learning. When asked how happy they were 5 years ago, people, on average, systematically understate their well-being at that time, because they evaluate their past situation in terms, not of the lower material aspirations they actually had at that time, but on the basis of the new higher level of aspirations they have now acquired. As a result, they tend to think they are better off than they were in the past, rather than realizing that there has been no net improvement."

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Pornography and Female Sexual Agency

"A new female sexual agency, most visible among the young women of East Asia, is now progressively complicating the gender/sexuality system that the anti-pornography stance relies upon...

While female sexual agency can only be expressed, according to anti-pornography feminists, as a loud “no” to sexual images and sexual expression, pro-sex feminists, on the other hand, point to an extremely complex relationship between female sexual agency and pornography. Although pornography does not always meet the needs of women and its content is often sexist and degrading for women, its existence at least provides a fantasy space for the ineffable sexual feelings and impulses in women...

What is more, there are numerous women who enjoy pornography, who enjoy their own feelings of sexual potency, who enjoy taking the initiative as well as taking charge of the sexual act. To deny such female sexual agency as pure fabrication or false consciousness, to denounce such sexual activity as a mere imitation or duplication of male sexuality, is to flatly deny the power that these women have forged out of their own experimentations and struggles in the sexual realm...

To the dismay of many women’s groups, the more adventurous young women are also becoming entrepreneurs in the production and distribution of sexually explicit images and discursive productions. Many are filling BBS boards with numerous stories telling their sexual encounters and adventures to the last detail. Others have joined the line-up of “underwear anchorwomen”（內衣主播）in combining on-line news reporting with strip-tease. Still others are using webcams to stage live shows（真人秀）where paid viewers could watch the girls’ every move as they go through their most intimate life routines (including taking showers, getting dressed, and even going to the toilet). Recently, the new generation of cell phones equipped with digital cameras and photo messaging services are also helping young women collaborate with cell phone operators to start their own business of sending on-the-spot photos（自拍美人）, some of which are obviously adult material, to their paid subscribers."