Thursday, December 09, 2004

Kinsey, Sex & Graham Crackers

Creationism in our schools, abstinence-only sex education, "reproductive rights" on the list of can't-say-that-on-television phrases, the mediocre movie "Kinsey" a flashpoint for the religious right; has the rational mind disappeared from our culture entirely? Frank Rich, in today's NYTimes, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/arts/12rich.html?th makes a compelling case that science and reason are in jeopardy with the ascension of the "moral values" crowd: " . . . off-screen Americans are being damaged by the cultural war over sex that is being played out in real life. You see that when struggling kids are denied the same information about sexuality that was kept from their antecedents in the pre-Kinsey era; you see that when pharmacists in more and more states enforce their own "moral values" by refusing to fill women's contraceptive prescriptions and do so with the tacit or official approval of local officials; you see it when basic information that might prevent the spread of lethal diseases is suppressed by the government because it favors political pandering over scientific fact. " Strangely enough, this morning I came across an obscure note about the inventor Sylvester Graham who, in the 19th century, invented the graham cracker as a suppressant for what he viewed as the hyperactive American libido. Hmmmm . . . maybe there's a new slogan here for our government funded sex education programs. "Abstain & Graham-It"

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kids can certainly get their sex ed on TV; have you seen "Life as We Know It" where the 16-year-old is having an affair with his sex-crazed English teacher? (It's always the English majors, isn't it?) She turns out to be an evil witch, who blackmails him with grades. Em has a theory about television promulgating the myth that sexual harassment in academia occurs girl on boy.

Don't these people remember being young? Or is that the problem?

12/10/2004 08:04:00 PM  
Blogger threadingwater said...

Ah, yes . . . the victimization of males by women. Can't we move on?? But, no. The reason sex ed ended up in our schools at all is because sex education wasn't happening at home, or at least not in any meaningful, helpful way. Enter TV land and now we have the ultimate schizophrenic mix of messages bombarding our youth. Abstain/Go For It/Abstain/Go For It

Who knows? Maybe more graham crackers in our breakfast cereals will reduce the teen pregnancy rate? Or, turning off the television set, or preaching nothing but abstinence, or, here's a crazy idea - give teens clear, accurate INFORMATION.

12/11/2004 09:07:00 AM  

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