Sarah Clarke's escapades of the past year or so had seemingly caught the attention of the whole country, to add to the considerable reputation she'd built up overseas. It wasn't uncommon to read columns by journalists who attempted to dissect the nation's attitude to this new sexual phenomenon which was taking the nation by storm. There was one such column in today's 'Daily Light' newspaper, which I'd just picked up from our doormat after I'd heard it arrive this morning.
Typically, critiques of Sarah were disparaging and disgusted and when I saw the author, I expected more of the same. But I was intrigued by the title of the piece:
'Why Sarah Clarke may just be a feminist heroine, by Belinda Charles'
Belinda Charles was a lady in her sixties who had been a ferocious feminist of the man-hating variety throughout the seventies and eighties. She'd seemingly mellowed in her later years and these days was a regular on daytime TV and early evening quiz shows, becoming more famous for being famous than any of her achievements in younger life.
"I'll confess," it started, "to surprising myself as much as I'll be surprising you with this column today. I've just witnessed a situation which is a direct result of Sarah Clarke's, how shall I put it ... activities. And which, I believe, is a sign of a much healthier relationship between women and sex which I'd hope and expect will lead to women finally being able to enjoy their sexuality with honesty and without shame.
"I saw a statistic last week which astounded me. I have no idea how they work these things out, but apparently over fifty percent of the adult population of this country has watched some of Miss Clarke's material. Of those, over forty percent watched again.
"This isn't a percentage of teenage boys, or dirty old men -- of those who have admitted to watching, nearly half are female.
"I know! I didn't believe it either. But I'm told the figures are reliable.
"So, presented with this information, there was really only one thing to do. I spent an evening watching some of this material myself.
"It was certainly not hard to find -- whether by design or not, Sarah Clarke and her associates appear to have infiltrated every corner of the internet. Her encouragement of her audience to record their own footage however they feel like it, and to distribute that however they feel fit, has resulted in a situation where you can see this very attractive young lady doing just about anything within a few mouse clicks.
"I'm old enough to remember people serving jail terms for being involved in activities not half as explicit as Miss Clarke has made her name for. But I'm prepared to concede that we live in a very different world than the one I grew up in. For better or for worse.
"Rather than sample her work through the eyes of one of the many, many appreciation or fan sites that have sprung up around her, I thought that in order to judge fairly, I should see her work as she presents it herself. So, I joined what must now be a significant number of people - many of you reading this article - in paying for a monthly subscription to her website. Of course, I can claim that back as an expense of my job, but it's quite a trifling amount, all things considered.
"What did I find? Everything you'll have read about, if you haven't witnessed with your own eyes. It's all true. She really does all that stuff. And, I'll admit, in my younger years the lady, her website, her fans and her attitude would have been condemned -- damned to hell if I'd written a column like this having witnessed what she gets up to.
"But -- and here's the thing -- I came away from watching all that Sarah Clarke does without any hollow feeling that I'd been forced to look through a window at a veiled scene of exploitation. Without any feeling that anyone had been taken advantage of, pushed into doing anything they didn't want to do in any way.
"Don't get me wrong. Some of the things she and her cohorts do with such relish truly turn my stomach. But I've been unfortunate enough to witness some awful scenes and some truly exploited young ladies put through some quite disturbing acts for the gratification of those behind the camera. This was totally different. At no point during any of the scenes I watched did I see any sign of anyone doing anything which wasn't very clearly of their own free will.
"Indeed, quite the opposite. Much as I'd be the first to point out if my findings were to the contrary, the fact is it's without doubt that all the participants in Sarah Clarke's dirty deeds -- her ex-students, her friend and her daughter -- who also, I believe, is one of Miss Clarke's ex-students, any number of young men who have become public fornicators overnight, even her husband -- they're all having a whale of a time.
"I'm going to be honest with you. In younger years I would not have allowed any of that to get in the way of my vitriol. Back then I knew everything, of course. But in my advanced, and I'd hope, wiser years, all I can say is this:
"I don't see anything wrong with what Sarah Clarke has done. And continues to do.
"There, I said it. I can already feel the disapproval of most of my peers. But I'm being honest.
"Sarah Clarke is not the cause of any of society's problems. She, very clearly, is absolutely in charge of everything that she does. She's in control of all the pictures and videos you may find of her.
"I'll say this again -- she very obviously enjoys everything that she does. Would I enjoy doing that stuff? Probably even less than any of you would enjoy watching it! But that shouldn't and doesn't mean that it's wrong.
"And, furthermore, I'm prepared to propose that having a role model like Sarah Clarke, who so obviously holds all of the power in her dealings with so many men, is not necessarily a bad thing for the young females of today.
"Of course, I'd doubt that many of them would want to entertain busloads of gentlemen as is Miss Clarke's wont, but anyone who witnesses how she can hold the patriarchal menace - that a gathering of so many men can so easily become - in the palm of her hand, couldn't fail to understand the power that most women have no idea they can access.
"I'm not for a moment suggesting that girls should use their sexual attractiveness as a weapon. But the surprising situation I witnessed, as I mentioned earlier, was this:
"I was over at my daughter's house, having dinner with her and her family. She has two daughters of her own, my grandchildren, both in their early twenties. Both are single. The conversation turned to Miss Clarke and her well-publicised activities.
"I was very surprised to learn that both the girls were subscribers to Miss Clarke's website. And even more so to learn that my own daughter, although not a subscriber, regularly watched, courtesy of her daughter's accounts.
"My surprise came from an assumption that my daughter's family life was probably a carbon copy of my own experience of parenting her. Despite my attempts to grasp liberation and free love with the enthusiasm of some of my 'sisters', I'd never managed to shake the sense of self consciousness and awkwardness of my own body, when I was inclined to try.
"And thus, despite my real inclination to have a strong enough relationship with my daughter that we'd be able to discuss sex frankly and openly, I'll confess to failing miserably. Until now.