I Write Letters
Jan. 5th, 2009 01:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhameiaI just sent this off to the Star newspaper.
Dear Editor,
In light of the fact that sex parties are held to usher in the New Year, moralists have come seeping out from under coconut shells to express their appalled amazement that people like to have a lot of sex (!) with a lot of other people (!!) and, possibly, an audience (!!!). Why, I ask, are we invested in what other people do with their own bodies? The idea that people participate in such events is a problem - if you think sex is a shameful act that should happen only behind closed doors, rather than a fun-filled activity between consenting adults.
Sure, sex can be an intimate, monogamous act, but that is not the only way it is peformed, and getting angry because other people have sex in other ways than you do is ignoring the variations of human sexuality. Even then, there is always willful ignorance of what's happening with other people's bodies, a mental state unfortunately more often used for issues such as economic disparity and human rights.
And the blame games! What simplistic notions we buy into! "Blame the West!" cry some, as if only Westerners condone sexual activities, completely ignoring the fact that the United States of America has poured _millions_ into abstinence-only programs to discourage pre-marital sex among teenagers, only to fail in preventing teens from having sex before marriage. (They did succeed in one thing: said teens are less likely to use contraceptives.)
"Blame the parents!" cry others, completely ignoring the fact that most parents, for all their flaws, do their best to raise children in an expensive world, in societies that encourage self-sufficient nuclear family setups that are neither sustainable nor supportive to young families, in economies that make it impossible for parents to earn a decent living without leaving their beloved children at home for long hours, just to earn enough so said children can have the best possible starts in life through an education system that runs on money. And that's being optimistic.
Which leads us to the group that cries "Teachers must do their part too!", forgetting that many teachers a) are bogged down with ridiculous administrative tasks that hamper them from the actual job of teaching; b) are trained to spoonfeed children facts and formulas instead of encouraging mental facility and curiousity; and c) are miserably underpaid for the grand task that is Making People.
People are going to have sex anyway; the best thing we can do about that is to encourage safe, sane and consensual sex. We have more important, highly complex issues to worry about than some random people whom we don't know having lots of sex with other people and an audience.
If they publish that entire thing like how they've been publishing the dribble from the moralists, I will treat anyone interested to lunch. Anyone in Malaysia, that is. And it would have to be a cheap lunch. Like, RM1 nasi lemak.
Dear Editor,
In light of the fact that sex parties are held to usher in the New Year, moralists have come seeping out from under coconut shells to express their appalled amazement that people like to have a lot of sex (!) with a lot of other people (!!) and, possibly, an audience (!!!). Why, I ask, are we invested in what other people do with their own bodies? The idea that people participate in such events is a problem - if you think sex is a shameful act that should happen only behind closed doors, rather than a fun-filled activity between consenting adults.
Sure, sex can be an intimate, monogamous act, but that is not the only way it is peformed, and getting angry because other people have sex in other ways than you do is ignoring the variations of human sexuality. Even then, there is always willful ignorance of what's happening with other people's bodies, a mental state unfortunately more often used for issues such as economic disparity and human rights.
And the blame games! What simplistic notions we buy into! "Blame the West!" cry some, as if only Westerners condone sexual activities, completely ignoring the fact that the United States of America has poured _millions_ into abstinence-only programs to discourage pre-marital sex among teenagers, only to fail in preventing teens from having sex before marriage. (They did succeed in one thing: said teens are less likely to use contraceptives.)
"Blame the parents!" cry others, completely ignoring the fact that most parents, for all their flaws, do their best to raise children in an expensive world, in societies that encourage self-sufficient nuclear family setups that are neither sustainable nor supportive to young families, in economies that make it impossible for parents to earn a decent living without leaving their beloved children at home for long hours, just to earn enough so said children can have the best possible starts in life through an education system that runs on money. And that's being optimistic.
Which leads us to the group that cries "Teachers must do their part too!", forgetting that many teachers a) are bogged down with ridiculous administrative tasks that hamper them from the actual job of teaching; b) are trained to spoonfeed children facts and formulas instead of encouraging mental facility and curiousity; and c) are miserably underpaid for the grand task that is Making People.
People are going to have sex anyway; the best thing we can do about that is to encourage safe, sane and consensual sex. We have more important, highly complex issues to worry about than some random people whom we don't know having lots of sex with other people and an audience.
If they publish that entire thing like how they've been publishing the dribble from the moralists, I will treat anyone interested to lunch. Anyone in Malaysia, that is. And it would have to be a cheap lunch. Like, RM1 nasi lemak.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-05 09:34 am (UTC)That's about as bad as pro-lifers in America claiming that BC pills cause cancer and abortions.
If this doesn't get published by tomorrow or Wednesday, I won't know if it was published, since I'll be going down to Singapore. XD People will have to let me know!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-05 10:18 am (UTC)Free condoms -> casual sex -> [STDs] -> inability to donate blood [she also claimed that just having premarital sex PERIOD makes you ineligible to donate blood] -> no blood for blood disease people
My letter went mainly "condoms help PREVENT STDs, and your sexual history vs marriage isn't a concern with blood donations. you should know that, given you HEAD the org."
A family friend who's a doctor got really pleased and contacted me to say so, while my mum goes "...oh dear. looks like you're really an adult now if you know all that much."
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-05 12:00 pm (UTC)And your mum, wow. I mean, you'd think "condoms help prevent STDs" be standard common sense by now. Apparently not!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-05 12:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-05 01:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-05 01:14 pm (UTC)My dad still can't get his head around the idea that i have a boyfriend. Sex? WHAT IS THAT WORD IT DOESN'T EXIST.