Foremost on my Mind: The Need for a Cover-up

 

I don't know if I'm too old or too rushed, but I never really noticed that cigarettes are now always hidden behind shelves with closed doors. I noticed this at my favourite gas bar the other day, and I felt like a real dorkmeister when I asked the clerk what was in the cupboard.

"Where are you from," he chortled, "Milk River?"

Now that I think about it, cigarette ads have been removed from magazines, television, and any other media that might corrupt those pure young lungs. I just don't know who is going to break the news to those in the Ministry of Health and Welfare, but kids are smoking more than ever, and the quest for protecting the lungs, lips, and lives of our young people has failed.

But if they want to pour their energy into something necessary, something pro-active, try this one on for size: Put the filthy girlie magazines behind closed doors, too. Whereas the cigarettes are out of sight and out of reach, the print pornography is right there, both within view and within touch. Usually at eye level of the victims they're trying to entice.

It's so bad that the magazine wrap probably hides more skin than the cover girl's clothing—or lack thereof.

I think there is an obvious parallel here: On the one hand, there is a potential for damaged lungs, stinky pores, and shortened life; but on the other hand, there is the potential for a damaged mind, rotten relationships, and corrupt life. The latter, of course, is far, far worse.

Smokers may do serious harm to themselves and themselves alone (unless you want to pull out the second-hand smoke argument), but oglers do damage to themselves and far too many people around them. There is no doubt that incidents of rape, sexual assault, and other similar assaults have their roots in accessible flesh magazines.

This may or may not strike you as irrelevant, but just wait till your own daughter or wife is attacked.

I've got sons--lots of them, in fact-- and I am finding that most groceries stores, gas stations, and even malls are no longer safe to take them to. Now before you hardline libertarians have a meltdown, please hear me out: It is my duty to raise these (mostly) teenagers to respect the opposite sex; it is also my duty to show them that women are to be cherished, loved, and respected, not ogled, fondled, and used (or is it abused?).

Many television ads, select magazines, and a plethora of websites send all the wrong messages about women. I need to protect my kids—as well as myself, no less—from these evil, corrupt displays. In fact, I can't even buy groceries in most major grocery stores, as I stand at the till, without being affronted by the prettiest Hollywood babes in the skimpiest of Hollywood's fashion.

By the way, exposure to such flesh is bad on all accounts, not just for us guys: Women, young and old, look at those babes and I am certain that, to a person, they are consumed with everything from envy to hatred to fear. I'm not sure if that's really healthy thinking. That creates a lot of serenity and security—not.

The knock on the Victorian era was that they lived as if there was no sex (although I'm still not sure yet if that's accurate); but the knock I have on our imploding culture is that we live as if there is nothing but sex.

It is indeed troubling that by simply standing near a checkout, my young men can be teased, tempted, and tantalized without actually doing anything, simply looking around while waiting. And the other troubling thought is that by speaking out against (better: writing about) this distinct form of child abuse, some of you may see me as an old wizened prude, with no love of life or no life of love.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

It's a matter a priorities, isn't it? In other words, we hide things that will corrupt the body (cigarettes), but expose (pun intended) things that corrupt the body and the soul. Far, far better we place the cigarettes by the till and the print pornography behind closed doors.

At least then that would be the first step in getting the skin covered up.