Pleasure

[liv]

I am getting so angry about trying to deal with a viral pandemic by stopping people from enjoying themselves.

I understand that people are scared and trying to claw back some control. I understand that some people are excluded from even infection-safe forms of fun, because of existing disabilities or because they have extra work at the moment rather than extra free time or because of poverty. But enjoying yourself isn't an infection risk and it isn't morally bad.

If I choose to take my exercise by heading to an attractive area with nature and nice views, I'm not doing anyone any harm. There's no benefit to punishing myself by walking alongside a busy road through a suburban wasteland. If a family have fun together, have a kickabout or play fetch with their pets, that's at least as good and probably better than joylessly frogmarching the children and dog round the block.

And even in normal times, I hate the assumption that exercise has to be grim and miserable to count as exercise. It's still exercise if you move your body in ways that bring you joy, if you play, if you take your exercise somewhere that uplifts you. I got annoyed with someone (who I basically quite like) on Twitter mocking people who never normally take exercise chafing at only being allowed to go out for exercise once a day. But plenty of people are deprived of movement by the pandemic even if they don't normally put on special clothes and gear and 'go for' a walk or run. Lots of us exercise by walking or cycling to do our errands or to see friends, or we exercise by dancing or climbing or whatever, and those things are still bloody exercise.

If I go to the shop or make an online order for provisions, in order to be able to, you know, eat for the next however many weeks, I'm not doing any harm by buying treats as well as the most virtuously dull possible staples. Nobody's risk of illness is increased if I also buy something that curtain-twitching busybodies consider "exotic", or alcohol, or, shock horror, something containing ~sugar~.

If I stop for a minute during my necessary excursions to admire the cherry blossom, I'm not doing any harm. I'm not increasing infection risk, I'm not suddenly invalidating the necessity of my trip. If I take a snack or a drink with me to enjoy outdoors instead of shut up in my home, so what?

And even worse than people trying to police each other for having fun during a pandemic, is the actual literal police harassing or even arresting people for perfectly innocent, low risk activities that happen to be considered too enjoyable. legionseagle, a real life lawyer, says Everything currently coming back from the policing front has got me more scared than the virus itself, and I was pretty fucking terrified about the virus.. I'm scared that people are going to be intimidated and criminalized, and we all know who is preferentially targeted by the police, but I'm also scared that the police are a huge vector of infection. Which is worse: me taking a walk in a pleasant park while staying 2m away from everybody else, or the police, who regularly interact with all kinds of different people in the course of their jobs, getting into my social distancing space in order to reprimand me for being somewhere pretty rather than somewhere boring?

Anyway, just let people harmlessly enjoy themselves, FFS.

Comments

[shewhostaples]

Yes, to every word of this.

[ewt]

I agree with every word of this.

Also, thank you for reminding me that if these conditions do run into warmer weather, picnics will be an option. (We've already been taking a picnic lunch for the allotment when we go together, but it's still too cold to do much other than huddle by the shed for long enough to eat and then get moving again.)

[lnr]

<3

[angelofthenorth]

<3

[worlds_of_smoke]

hear, fucking hear. these are terrifying times and we don't want to add more people to the graves by refusing to allow people to have harmless fun.

The overreach of police power in these cases is a legit worry. Both my roommates have papers from their employers in case they get stopped on the way to or from work, stating the law that makes them essential employees. It bothers me that the companies felt that was a necessity. Who cares where you're going if it's just you in the car? If you're going to a party or something like that, it should be dealt with at the party, not on the way to the party.

[redbird]

Agreed, very much so.

You can tell people not to go to the beach in crowds, or open up their cottages in rural Ontario or summer houses on Cape Cod, two months early (before the grocers have supplies for that many people, in an area with few doctors) without stopping them from walking on the Common instead of next to a busy road.

It's *better* for everyone, not just me, if I'm doing my walking on my nice neighborhood side streets where the flowers are starting, rather than up and down the street where the bus runs, because it spreads people out. And maybe I get to say hello to a stranger sitting on her front steps, from a safe four meters away, and we're reminded that other people are out there.

[ambyr]

This, this, this. I have had it up to HERE with people commenting on local blogs and news stories to say, "Well, I know it says you can go outside for exercise, but you really shouldn't. Instead, do these online workouts and don't set foot outside your studio apartment for the next six weeks so we can all be safe!"

I would like to introduce everyone who claims "if we all stayed inside we'd all be perfectly safe" to the story of Amoy Gardens. "Scared and trying to claw back some control" is a good way to put it--people want to believe that if they just do everything perfectly, and if everyone else does exactly what they do, then no one will get sick. But that's . . . not how it works. Some people will do everything right and still get sick; some people will do nothing right and stay healthy. That doesn't mean do nothing! But at a certain point, you just have to do your best to follow actual medical guidance (not made-up guidance like "you can go to the store but don't buy chocolate") and trust that everyone else is, too.

[cesy]

Yeah.

[slashmarks]

Yeah. From the US, I've been terrified of the political ramifications of all of this for weeks.

[hatam_soferet]

People saying you shouldn't buy sweets?!

[liv]

Part of what prompted this post is that some police force or other put out a press release about how they'd been 'summonsing' people for buying Easter eggs, because Easter eggs are not essential. And now all of social media is full of people pontificating about how buying Easter eggs in the middle of a pandemic is obviously terrible and everybody who even thinks about it should be clapped in jail.

[hilarita]

Look, having fun is Morally Wrong, don't you know there's a war on?

I bet that those who end up in the most trouble are mysteriously not going to be white people, as you say. I'm sure the police are going to be heavy-handed and disproportionate, and it all sucks.

[mathcathy]

This is an unusually extreme point of view, from you ... I'm observing.

We are lucky to live in a country where almost every location has parks and green spaces within a mile or two.

Most of the Peak District and Lake District is tens of miles from most of the country. If people living close by choose to drive there, how can there be differentiation that stops everyone from driving there, like we saw ten days ago?

I haven't heard of any parent being told not to take a frisbee or a ball when they take their kids out for exercise, but I do know that in Italy and Spain, there is a ruling that has prevented even a trip out for exercise, so I'd be happy if people didn't risk the freedom that we have got, by pushing the boundaries - because I quite like being able to leave my home and walk around the local streets.

[sorcyress]

And even in normal times, I hate the assumption that exercise has to be grim and miserable to count as exercise. It's still exercise if you move your body in ways that bring you joy, if you play, if you take your exercise somewhere that uplifts you.

YES YES THIS!

I have been saying for ages now that I hate exercise and have no interest in doing it. The joke, of course, is that I bike ten miles a day and dance 2-3 times a week --I actually exercise heaps, but I have cleverly disguised it for myself as "my commute" and "social fun with my friends!"

~Sor

[miss_s_b]

Just adding to the chorus of agreement.

[sfred]

Yes, this.

[silveradept]

I had thought, up until this point, that the Stop Having Fun Guys were a trope and a point used to indicate when someone is being ridiculous about the way they are enforcing their own preferences over anyone else's. I most certainly do not want them to be real people, and I really don't want them to be people with police powers.

[mc776]

Thank you for this.

I don't think I've ever gotten on anyone's case over it, but that temptation to punish oneself (and everyone around you) in times like this can creep into the brainmeats very easily and do a a number on one's mental health before it is correctly identified and expunged.