Wind In My Head: The unenlightened society Part 2
Wind In My Head
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The unenlightened society Part 2
Because the previous post took so long to put out, I had totally forgotten that I'd wanted to add in a 4th issue that annoyed the living daylights out of me. It was a letter in the forum 2 Sundays ago. A mother complaining about ads at a bus stop. This was the gist of the letter.My reaction to the letter was along the lines of WTF is she talking about? The message we are sending? It's that if you're going to have sex, use condoms for goodness sake. Only an ignoramous git would think that by putting condom ads at a bus stop, it would entice the young to go and have sex. Newsflash Lady, if the young people were going to have sex, they were going to have sex anyway, even without the condom ad at the bus stop. Perhaps, if they saw the ad on the way to having sex, they might stop and shell out 4 bucks or whatever for some condoms and end up protecting their own sexual health and by that, their own futures.
I HAVE noticed condoms being advertised at some bus stops.
I have also seen an ad for ovulation test kits outside Jelita Shopping Centre.
What kind of message are we sending to young people on our attitude towards sex?
Karen Alexandra Tan (Mrs)
Similarly, ovulation test kits. This woman thinks that the existence of ovulation test kits would encourage more hapless and casual sex, especially among the young people. The thing about ovulation test kits is that it has to be done for a couple of days each cycle and done at a particular time of day. Now, anyone who has used the test kits to get pregnant or to not get pregnant knows that peeing on a stick or taking a saliva swab or whatever is VERY unromantic and VERY unspontaneous and the sex that follows is often planned and possibly a lot less enjoyable thanks to the planning that had to be done ahead of time. Now, what young person, who is often characterised as carefree, living in the moment and spontaneous is going to want to be saddled by testing herself every morning. And if the test shows that she is not ovulating the thought bubble she has is "Oh! I can go out and have sex today!" and then she leaves the house to trawl for someone to have sex with. Seriously?
I know that there is a possibility that some goon of a young person out there fits both stereotypes, looking at a condom ad and want to have sex and then going off to make sure that she or the girl he wants to have sex with is not ovulating, but what are the chances?
If anything I think it's a good idea that the ads are up. If nothing else, it creates awareness among those that need to be aware. It's the same reason why I think our ordained sex education syllabus is a load of crap. If you don't teach it to them, they're going to do it anyway. If you're not going to make it available to them, they're going to do it anyway. And that way, they get into a whole lot more trouble than if they were taught of the consequences and of contraception and if they were given the opportunity to actually get said contraception. I think even my mother, with values that stem from the Judeo Christian faith would disapprove of my thinking, but there is a very real reality out there that much of the society seems to ignore. Like the horses that draw carriages, they have blinders and only see what they want to see, ignoring the reality that requires sex education, the availability of contraceptive information and even possibly a baby drop centre.
But no, our society is so petrified that if any of these things were made available, we'd have a sociological crisis on our hands, we'd have sex crazed young people bonking in every street corner with the full knowledge that if their condom, which they knew to use did burst, they could drop off the accidental spoils of their loins at the baby drop centres. So, we choose the path of blind faith and ignorance where we have possibly the same number of sex crazed young people bonking in stairwells, at the back of buses and in seedy hotels and then either dropping off like flies because they've contracted some disease or leaving the accidental spoils of their loins in stairwells, rubbish chutes or lockers to die a horrific death moments after they were born.
Unlike Mrs Karen Alexandra Tan with the wannabe snooty name, I much prefer the former scenario. Of course, I would much prefer that my children not be having sex till they were well and ready for it; if they chose to be foolish in their youth, I would much rather that they didn't spend the rest of their lives being punished in one way or other for one moment of folly. It's very sad to realise that so many in Singapore choose to live with the mentality that pretending that there isn't a problem will translate into a reality where such a problem doesn't exist.
Once again, I only have one word- Seriously?
Technorati Tags: Singapore, traditional mindsents, sex education
Ondine tossed this thought in at 10:25
2 thoughts...
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At 2:59 pm
chemgoddess said... I agree with what you've said; seriously, singapore's society still has a long way to go in changing deeply entrenched and ancient mindsets, esp with regard to sexuality.
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At 4:49 pm
Little Miss Drinkalot said...
Ditto about the WTF reaction. Why do the words "prude", "narrow-minded" and "vacuum-cleaner up arse" come to mind??