Pligget
Little to say for myself


Sunday, September 07, 2003

A Bunch of Tossers

  
The Great Communicator links to this article about a recent Doonesbury cartoon. It referred to the recent evidence that regular masturbation reduces prostate cancer risk in certain age groups. I mentioned the news at the time, albeit light-heartedly. In the article it seems that 19 out of 34 newspapers polled said that they would not publish the strip, because it included the M word.

It's just staggering to me that they even considered it. They decided to publish an innocuous alternate strip, on grounds typified by one editor:
"You know what they say about pornography: 'You know it when you see it.' There is a line between what's acceptable and what's offensive dialogue in a community like ours. For me, this crossed the line. I knew it when I saw it."
Pornography? PORNOGRAPHY??

I'm too shocked to find adequate words for this. I thought we'd managed to jettison all that superstitious bunkum about wanking being a source of shame. I also thought that the main missions of our great free press were to inform, educate and demystify.

After all, we're talking about saving lives here. About a risk-free, costless, universally available and (let's not beat about the bush) thoroughly enjoyable way of reducing the risk of a terrible disease that kills too many young husbands, partners and fathers in every corner of the world.

Not only that, the news may even be the catalyst for a revival in the sexual relationships of troubled couples everywhere. Imagine: something thrilling that a couple can share at the most intimate level, in the knowledge that they're making a positive contribution to life expectancy - and feeding their relationship at the same time.

But no. Instead of encouraging anything that might help to spread the good news, we get blinkered and backward censorship, with the usual get-out clause:
"Other newspapers may feel differently, and that's what makes this such a great country."
"Great" isn't the word I was looking for.

P.S. Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone were to announce a finding that regular masturbation reduced the risk of cervical cancer too? I can't imagine the Women's Pages of many newspapers, even the more backward mid-western ones, being shy about that - but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

posted by Plig | 01:20 |

Comments: Post a Comment
Forget the sentimental notion that foreign policy is a struggle between virtue and vice, with virtue bound to win.
Forget the utopian notion that a brave new world without power politics will follow the unconditional surrender of wicked nations.
Forget the crusading notion that any nation, however virtuous and powerful, can have the mission to make the world in its own image.
Remember that diplomacy without power is feeble, and power without diplomacy is destructive and blind.
Remember that no nation's power is without limits, and hence that its policies must respect the power and interests of others.
Hans Morgenthau

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts
Bertrand Russell

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one
Albert Einstein

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative
Martin Luther King Jr.

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man
Bertrand Russell

I think it would be a good idea
Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization

There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun
Pablo Picasso

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others
Groucho Marx

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it
Mahatma Gandhi

Always make new mistakes
Esther Dyson
archives
blogs I like
Mr. Happy
me-ish
Poor Man
Plastic Bag
Making Light
Electrolite
Body and Soul
Sideshow
Little Red Boat
Great Communicator
The Autoblography
Londonmark
Matthew Yglesias
Troubled Diva
Wherever you are
What you can get away with
Mad musings of me

Team Leadership
CB2020
MyLandmarkForum
Neale's Blog

< # Blogging Brits ? >

The look of this blog owes much to Mena Trott, but everything posted to it is my copyright, unless I say otherwise. If you want to use or quote any of it, please do the decent thing and let me know.