First, let it be said that I'm no prude. I didn't see Striptease because I think Demi Moore is a great actress. I own some embarrassingly misogynistic rap music. Hell, I lived in Greenwich Village for a year - no prude am I.
That being established, let me say that I am disgusted by the volume of smut the media is putting out today. And I'm not talking about a bare ass on NYPD Blue - I'm no Bible-thumping moron who writes nasty letters to the networks.
I'm talking about Lovephones, a sick sex talk radio show that operates ostensibly as an advice line. I'm also talking about Singled Out, MTV's lewd rip-off of The Dating Game, which owes its success primarily to the low-cut outfits of Jenny McCarthy, a Playboy bunny.
Speaking of MTV and rip-offs, the network recently premiered a television version of Lovephones, so that topics like masturbation and sodomy can be discussed in living color.
Now, I don't have a problem with the frank discussion of sex - I don't blush when Alanis Morissette goes down on somebody in a theater. But that's only one line in one song - the reference is made, the point is taken, and the song goes on to different things.
Lovephones, however, discusses nothing but sex for hours every night. Sexual intimacy is a personal, serious matter that is directly linked to life and (nowadays) to death - but shows like Singled Out portray it as comical and cheap.
The media now use sex to fill the spaces between the commercials as if it was Top 40 bubblegum - instead of music, sex is now constantly repeated.
And that's my problem: constant exposure. If you see or hear something enough times, you become desensitized to it; you no longer pay it any regard. If you listen to Howard Stern enough, you get the impression that sex is casual, like a sport.
Some people don't watch a lot of sports and some are obsessed with them. Games can be good or bad, including periods of disappointment and exhilaration. You can even call up radio shows and discuss sports.
But after all is said and done, sports are just games. Sex is not a game and it should not be treated as such. Unlike sports, sex entails responsibilities and consequences - consequences that should not be discussed in the same context just because they both can be entertaining to a mass audience.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "Ridiculous! No adult is going to be corrupted just because he or she watches Lovelines."
Ahhh, but adults don't spend their time watching MTV or listening to The Buzz. The target audience for such stations is teenagers, who are an ignorant and impressionable group, to say the least. Those kids are exposed to this wave of filth at the same time they are forming their sexual identities. Is this wise?
I'm not saying that these sex programs alone are a danger to our youth, but they are part of a bad precedent.
Night after night, these smut purveyors dispel some of the most important taboos in our society, propagating the "if it feels good, do it" mentality that has been attacking the moral foundation of this nation ever since the '60s.
No, I don't blame Lovephones for the rising rates of juvenile crime and teen pregnancy, but I do point to it as an example of the moral decay which has made such problems possible.
All I'm saying is that this steady diet of filth that our teenagers are consuming is more dangerous to the values of our society than rap music, violent video games or coming too close to the dancers at topless bars.
What are our priorities anyway? Adults in the privacy of the Pussy Kat Lounge or pervert programs available to any kid with a radio?
Ginsburg is a senior political science major.