A modest proposal

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I’m gonna be frank and honest here: I’m gonna offend a lot of you. And I don’t care.

Sex; I know it’s cliche, but everybody thinks about it, especially at this level of readership. It could be the hormones and such, but I’m not gonna go into that path of detail.

Instead, what I want to talk about is the mass propagation of sex via modern day media. To me, it seems there a group of people who want sexuality to be a very public and open thing. That’s why you see billboards with half-naked women on them. Companies like Coca-Cola use sex to their advantage, designing their bottles to look like the curves of an attractive woman This way, men would be subconsciously attracted to it for reasons beyond their conscious faculties and purchase this product.

I know a lot of you are thinking, “Well, what’s wrong with that? Shouldn’t sex be something more open? Less taboo?” You may be thinking that women should show more cleavage,that children should watch Lady Gaga videos as part of the school curriculum, that Muslim women are oppressed and undermined because of the hijab they choose to wear.

Well, here’s what’s wrong, public orgies and soft-core on primetime television. Sex used to be something mysterious and even meaningful. It was the physical manifestation of “true love.” It was a chance for a husband and wife to really become intimate with each other and build a strong relationship with open dialogue without fear of judgment. It’s how the human race is propagated. It was something that couples used to actually enjoy and was a secret that only they shared.

But now, with this mass propagation of sex, we as a society have become desensitised. It doesn’t mean anything anymore, it’s just something that all the cool kids are doing. If you don’t do it by a certain age, you’re a “loser.” Remember when the word “virgin” was a term of respect (e.g. Virgin Mary), rather than being a somewhat derogatory term? (The film “40-Year-Old Virgin”)

The media has planted a false delusion of “needing” to be with someone romantically and created a false deprivation of sex. They’re just trying to make you need something so they can make money off you and have power over you, because you have this intense need that you want to satisfy. This newly-found sense of desperation makes you vulnerable and an easy target for the hidden powers and corporations.
And every time we watch that crap on television, or are exposed to the half-naked people on billboards and magazine covers, our expectations become too high. Now, every guy wants to marry a porn-star. Women want expensive and unnecessary plastic surgery. We are just setting ourselves up for disappointment and becoming more plastic than actual flesh.

All the movies are about it. No television show is without it. Commercials scream it at you. All music is about it. Sooner or later, I guarantee we’ll descend to a level where we’ll be doing it like cows and bulls in Old MacDonald’s pasture, openly, publicly, with multiple partners, and sometimes without consent. That’s bad, because victims will be created, rape will become less of a serious crime, and we’ll be distracted from actually advancing as a society, because instead of devoting research and development into developing a drug to help battle cancer, we’ll be trying to come up with the next miracle pill that’ll help initiate and maintain erections!

With summer just around the corner, I would like to remind everyone that there is nothing wrong with dressing modestly. I think that both men and women should adopt a dress code that respects their peers and academic superiors. Do we really have to wear tight yoga pants, v necks, or go topless to gain attention and respect? Can’t we achieve that by expressing our ideas and opinions in an educated fashion and trying to make the world a better place? Can’t we ascend from a level where people are only respected by how they look?  I personally believe that, instead of spending an hour and a half trying to look “sexy” every morning, we could and should spend that time trying to brainstorm ideas on how to efficiently provide clean water to remote communities, or empower women with education in impoverished nations, or solve the Somalian crisis. Perhaps all those mental resources we use trying to survive in a sexually driven society could actually be used to be awesome instead.

Seriously, let’s grow up.

Mhmoud Essalah
Contributor

1 comment

  1. Caitlin 5 April, 2012 at 22:13

    Thank you for writing this. I am glad that I am not the only one with this opinion!

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