December 3, 2004
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First Joe Camel, Now Banana Bananas. Brightly colored or flavored condoms? No, no, too appealing to the kiddies. No, they're not being banned in the state, but the public health department of Illinois won't order and distribute them anymore. This line slays me:
A spokeswoman for the governor said Blagojevich feels the condoms are inappropriate because they encourage sexual activity.
Ummm, if you're deciding between raspberry and chocolate, you're already past a certain milestone of consideration, no?
On the other hand, it's not really up to a public health department to put some, aha, flavor into my sex life. If you're too poor (or too cheap) to buy your own, I don't think the PHD is responsible for any ornamentation beyond ensuring that a) you don't pop out a kid and b) you don't pass on a disease.
And if the rationale that had been given was more along the lines of, "We will no longer purchase these 'fancy' condoms because we'll save money," that's a reason that everyone can go along with. I'll be the first to applaud such a responsible dispensation of my tax dollars.
But the reasoning here, that it "encourages" sexual activity, betrays the underlying bias as the pendulum swings and swings. Cutting corners is one thing, but this smacks of a challenge.
Comments (5)
It's a question worth asking. The problem is the answers lie in the area of sociology and group dynamics which sadly are so complex that they're still largely in their infancy. I would say that we really don't know whether fun condoms help or hurt the situation of teen sex.
You could make a strong argument for needing to appeal to the kids so that they use them for an activity they're going to engage in anyway.
You could also make a good argument for the notion that they help to foster an atmosphere of fun and acceptability to an activity that they are already engaging in, but it would really be better if they didn't. Hence, they may encourage more sex to occur than might without them.
Personally I don't care which they do at this point because if you can't back up what you say with facts, then it's just an opinion. What they really need for this sort of thing are studies to actually track, (as best you could hope to with a subject everyone lies about) both of these kind of options so that we have hard data to compare.
Then you actually have to use the data rather than emotional reactions when making a decision. Usually that's the harder part.
First off, flavors and colors only matter if you're looking at it -- so far as I recall, oral sex (with a condom, no less!) doesn't necessarily lead to the type of interaction that results in pregnancy. I mean - why waste money on fancy flavors and colors if you aren't going to be looking at it OR tasting it?
Second, have they ever TASTED those flavored condoms? UGH!
hah!
Good point jennconspiracy! I could guess, and say that the whole process revolves around a certain kind of male sex fantasy.
He walks into a dimly lit room over to the bed and says "Your prayers are answered senorita, I am here. Say hello to my little glowing friend Pedro. He's red hot, hot, hot just for you. Then there's oral sex, where the banana, or taco, or whatever flavor comes in handy, just long enough to get him excited. Last there's traditional sex, the color and flavor's potential having been largely exhausted at that point so we don't need them anymore. Actually so has the man's, you can toss him out in a minute or two also if you want.
Alternatively, wouldn't that then be a case for keeping them? Less chance of getting pregnant if you're doin' the oral thing. And, despite the, yes, appalling taste of them, oral sex with a condom is even safer sex than without.
Hey maybe we could start up a gourmet flavored condom company for the more discerning sex fiend. Only the very finest flavors are featured in our collection. We could offer gift baskets with assorted sex toys for the holidays. No more dull oranges from Florida.
Comments are closed.