the munchkin wrangler references (and soundly disputes) a "study" that concludes: “sexual content on tv is linked to teen pregnancy rates”. well, me being me, i started to offer a comment of agreeance...then i sorta went all tangential...
well, i can put the lie to that little study with my own personal little anecdotal history. there surely wasn’t any “sexual content” on tv in my little town in the 60’s and 70’s; we got snowy reception of abc and nbc only, and cable was just a rumor when my sweetie and i were missing the onscreen “features” in lieu of our own at the local drive-in…backseat rendezvous which eventually and predictably resulted in my daughter’s debut when we were both just 17.
hard to put the blame on something that didn’t exist, and we weren’t the only ones…several of our classmates made babies that year and the next, though we might be the only ones still together after 37 years; it’s not an easy or advisable path, that’s for sure. but it wasn't hbo, and it wasn’t ignorance either; this was the height of the counterculture age of “making love not war” which resulted in some fairly blunt and practical sex-ed courses in school, and most of us had pretty straight talk from the parental units at home on the possibilities and consequences. still, it was before aids had reared its ugly head and condoms were used not as much for std prevention as for their decidedly imperfect role of baby prevention, and there were those- ahem- whose preference for bareback sometimes outweighed the potential for parenthood in the heat of the moment, but who decided to accept responsibility and embrace the role of parent once it was, uh, thrust upon us.
but none of this is to say that popular entertainment for our young is anything to champion…the internet, videos, movies, “music”, and yes, television to which our young are exposed and addicted, has absolutely had its negative effects on their concept of what is good and decent and worthy as related to attitudes and actions towards others and even themselves; nudity and sex and love have been degraded and defiled and dulled to the point of eclipsing the beauty, tenderness, sacredness...and personal responsibility...that human relations are based on.
censorship at the hands of parents is an excellent tool; we limit the choices of those who are not yet mature enough to make wise decisions…but in the hands of gov, censorship and restriction of anything; entertainment, drugs, guns, and any other victimless pursuit or pleasure, is fallacy…even counterproductive as evidenced by the reduction in unwanted pregnancies, addictions, and other aberrant behaviors in societies which leave such choices up to adult individuals. that is one of the strongest arguments for "little l” libertarianism, and one which has been and probably will continue to be ignored as peripheral or antithetical to common thought and more importantly to those who would wield it, political control.
jtc
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