Reader Question- Let's Talk Lust!

Let's talk lust.  Specifically, let's talk about how lust is personified in media.  Every other of the Seven Deadly Sins is portrayed as what it is.  Gluttony is a fat, hungry person, wrath is an angry guy, and so on.  But I have only ever seen lust portrayed as the object of lust (normally a really beautiful woman, such as in Full Metal Alchemist).  What is your opinion on this and the general personification of sin in the media? -Nathan

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Thanks for writing in, Nathan!

You're not wrong about the portrayal of Lust in popular culture. Whenever a work of media calls for a personification of a sin, that personification normally is of either an image of the person who is committing the sin (say, a very angry person for wrath) or a natural phenomenon that embodies it (like, say, a figure made of lava for wrath.)

I mean, that makes sense. It's characterization 101. The exception always seems to be Lust, however, which is near universally portrayed as an attractive (and often scantily clad) woman. This despite the fact that the lust typically being discussed is male lust. It's so pervasive that it's become almost automatic in culture, and yet if the same logic were applied to the other sins, we'd think it was ridiculous, because in the case of lust, rather than focusing on a person under the influence of a particular sin, it focuses on the object of that sin. 

Imagine if we portrayed wrath that way. Wrath would become some guy that other people found infuriating, and would probably fail to be an intriguing character.

Now why media portrays Lust in such a way is basically a no brainer. Sex sells, and an excuse to have an attractive, scantily clad woman talking dirty to the main characters is a near assured ratings booster. But why is this ok? When the idea doesn't make sense with other ideas, why did the initial idea that this was an ok tactic ever take hold?

Well, for starters, I can say (for once, and with relief) that this is NOT an idea that began in the Bible, which takes precisely the opposite stance on lust. Jesus flat out says that if a man feels lust from looking at a woman, then it would probably be best for him to pluck his eyes out, (and hints, not at all subtly, that if your penis is causing you trouble, you could always just cut it off.)

You heard it here first, folks... the Biblical stance on Lust is that every man is responsible for his own penis. Women are officially NOT to blame for the thoughts you feel when you look at them. 

Not that certain elements in the church are going to let a little thing like the Bible stop them from objectifying women and turning them into the poster children of this particular sin. It is entirely too easy to find some preacher telling the women in his flock that they must mind how they dress, lest they lead their brothers into sin. (Never mind that this particular phrase in the Bible was about respecting the theology of others, not maintaining an air of saintliness for them.) 

Nope, it's not the Bible that gave us this discouraging development but people who don't really know how to deal with their own sin. But if Lust is someone ELSE sinning and you being affected by seeing it, then you still get to be "hard on sin" (hurr hurr) without having to spend too much time worrying about all the sinning you're doing. 

The really troubling part of all of this is that Lust is a sin that, as it is condemned in the Bible, really would be useful in todays culture. Because, as I pointed out, it isn't about slut shaming, or going "You did a thing that felt good so now you are Evil!"

The Biblical condemnation of Lust is not about sex. It's about objectification. It's about looking at another human being, not as someone made in the image of God, but as a sex object. It's about desire that trumps judgement, and human decency.

So the young woman who dares to wear attractive clothing is NOT committing Lust, but the guys who cat-call her ARE. If you are the sort of person who likes to look nice, then you may be dancing with Pride, but Lust is not that problem. The person who only thinks of other people insofar as how to get into their pants, that is the one Lust is talking about.

We could use more of THAT kind of Lust discussion.

But in the end, it's easier to sell a naked woman, and then act like our thoughts towards her are somehow her fault.