Explanation of last post....

Well, Ray and I were discussing this and he said I didn't put the previous post in context. It's not that I think the Zebrahead video was bad because of the mostly naked women, etc. I am not getting into the whole "exploitation of women" thing here. People make choices and decisions. If someone chooses to be a stripper to put themselves through college because they enjoy stripping, they don't feel demeaned by what I think is demeaning, if they get a kick out of being seen as just a piece of meat, then they aren't being exploited. Just because I wouldn't do it doesn't make it wrong for someone else to do it. Maybe it just means they have higher self esteem than I do and better view of themselves? And as for the argument that it encourages violence against women, rapists and perverts would exist without strippers, prostitutes or pornography.

Anyway. The problem I have with the bare breasted women in the video is the teen pregnancy rate here. According to NHS, "Teenage birth rates in the UK are the highest in Western Europe. One in every ten babies born in England is to a teenage mum." I can't count the number of prams I see pushed around by teenage girls. And, also according to NHS, 54.5% of conceptions to under 16s ended in legal abortion. Which means that slightly less than half of those girls actually gave birth and are "raising" these children!!! These are the screaming, whining little brats running around Pizza Hut throwing food at one another while their "mothers" (for there is almost never a male in this picture) talk to one another and make it a point to absolutely ignore their offspring. The problem, as far as I can tell, is that they seem to be teaching abstinence and ignoring contraception. One article, that I can't find again, said that the problem was that the age of consent is 16, therefore, they can't really teach 14 year olds about contraception. That seems like a really stupid idea to me to just ignore the reality of the situation. If you can't stop the kids from having sex (no, trust me on this one – you will not be able to stop that), then MAKE IT SAFER!!!

Also, there is a huge problem in this country with STDs. Because commitment seems to be a bit more shunned here, and infidelity seems to be a common thing, and people seem to have a larger number of sexual partners, seem to be more likely to have a one night stand, etc, there are large numbers of people walking around with STDs. The number I saw in the Metro the other day was like 1 in 3. (Note: I don't know that I actually believe that statistic, because the papers have a really bad habit of manipulating numbers to make things seem more dramatic than they actually are.) Regardless of the validity of that ratio, they supposedly have a terribly STD rate, especially for chlamydia. So, if this is the case, then, since it probably isn't possible to change the attitudes of an entire country, maybe the government needs to focus on awareness and disease prevention. Give away free condoms. Teach people that some STDs are passed through oral sex. Encourage people to visit the damn doctor if they think they have an STD!

Anyway, my whole point about the video was that I don't see 1 in 3 people in the UK with a cocaine problem (though maybe that many that have alcohol dependency issues), and yet the thing that was censored was the word cocaine. (I guess I will never hear that Clapton song here...) Do I think that censoring the women would actually help teen pregnancy or STD rates? Not at all. Do I really think that cocaine usage should be glorified? For obvious reasons, no, I have a lot of issues with people who use coke. I just think that the whole thing shows a bit of lack of thought…