Oregon Daily Emerald
Monday, November 22, 2004
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■ In my opinion
Real sex happens
A woman in a bath towel asks a
football star to hold off on playing the
game and take care of some of her de
sires. He refuses, she drops the towel
and jumps in to his arms; football will
have to wait.
This pre-game skit during an ABC
Monday Night Football intro Nov. 15
has been deemed offensive by view
ers and the Federal Communications
Commission, as it made the grave
mistake of alluding to the fact that
people sometimes have sexual rela
tions. In accordance with rules that
also limit allusions toward women
who have body parts, the FCC is ques
tioning ABC’s judgment (read: moral
integrity?) in airing the incident.
Many upset audience members have
called the commission to complain.
Rest easy America: Thousands of your
citizens are spending their energy pre
tending that sex doesn’t exist, so now
you don’t have to.
There certainly does seem to be
something wrong with the acute mo
mentum against this situation, which
is quickly becoming costume malfunc
tion number two. Instead of a nude
breast, this skit showed actress Nicol
lette Sheridan’s bare back leaping into
the embrace of football player Terrell
Owens. Not that there aren’t serious
problems with both of these television
events: De-clothing women’s already
sexually exploited bodies is no great
step forward in the movement of sexu
al progressives. Yet no one seems up
set about those issues; instead, there
is an uprising of furor over the simple
idea that sex occurs.
Sexuality on television is not a
novel concept. According to a 1999
CNN article, 67 percent of network
shows contain sexual content, and
one can only assume that this count
AILEE SLATER
FURTHER FROM PERFECTION
has most likely risen. Of course,
the sexuality portrayed in most
instances is ambiguous, and occurs
outside the view of the camera. Still,
condoning sexuality as long as
it happens away from the lens can
only leave citizens with the message
that sex is okay, as long as we don’t
see it. Instead of real sex, and
the implications or responsibilities
of this act being shown, we promote
fake sex wherein everyone is
white and heterosexual, always
blond or muscular, and fears such
as pregnancy, STDs or rape do not
exist. Everybody orgasms at the
same time, every time, as observed
in the disembodied sighs from be
yond the viewpoint of the audience.
This fake form of sex is readily ac
cepted. Wait, but, I thought every
one has amazing orgasms when they
wash their hair. ...
Another important facet of this
obscenity charge is race. With so
many covert images of sex on televi
sion, it seems more than mere coin
cidence that this particular incident
involving an interracial couple is
causing conflict. Are we that back
wards of a society that racial and
sexual stereotypes would result in
cries of obscenity? The diversity
present in this scene, sadly unique to
network television, should be laud
ed rather than regarded with disgust.
Much of the argument against the
sexual innuendoes present in this
sports broadcast is that it was shown
during a time when families weren’t
expecting a sex scene. True, which is
why we should also eradicate every
beer commercial ever made, as well
as Herbal Essences ads, from sports
broadcasts. When families don’t ac
knowledge, and indeed campaign
against, the image of real sex, children
come to believe that the act is some
thing to be hidden and not discussed.
Further down the road they are less
likely to talk with their parents or oth
er adult figure about birth control, dis
ease prevention, or, heck, even tech
nique. If the message is that two
consenting adults having sex is bad,
but oiled up women in bikinis swoon
ing over liquor is fine, kids receive a
seriously skewed version of sexuality.
It may be cliche, but when it comes
to issues of sex, the European model is
still the best. According to a 2001 Advo
cates for Youth document, France has
550,000 fewer teen pregnancies per
year and 160,000 fewer abortions. The
average age of first sexual intercourse is
18. Yet, commercials and television in
this and other European countries com
monly feature explicit references to sex,
as well as bare body parts. Interesting
that the opposite of U.S. indecency
guidelines gamers the societal results
that we are still searching for with our
hopelessly puritan ideals.
So, what does this say about our
nation’s policy? If the definition of in
sanity is repeating an action over and
over and expecting different results,
then U.S. policies of obscenity on tele
vision as related to healthy sexuality
and family morality are clearly insane.
aileeslater@ daily emerald, com
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■ Editorial
For better or
worse, U.S.
bureaucrats
are changing
For better or for worse, bureaucratic reshuf
fling is a post-election reality for every admin
istration. There is nothing unusual about this
year’s exodus of officials from Bush’s Cabinet,
the CIA, the State Department and other levels
of government. But some second-term replace
ments are better than others.
Sen. Arlen Specter
(R-Penn.): BETTER
A shoo-in to head the Senate Judiciary Com
mittee, Sen. Arlen Specter’s appointment hit a bit
of a snafu last week after he said in public that
the Senate was unlikely to confirm a justice to the
Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade.
Oops. Cue the Christian Right. Radicals always
save their best venom for the moderates in their
own party. And from this side of the aisle, it is
kind of fun to watch. Will the pro-life “pray-ins”
bury Specter? Only God knows.
Alberto Gonzales: BETTER
Sure, he called some Geneva Convention pro
visions “quaint,” and he supports the USA PA
TRIOT Act. But let’s look on the bright side: The
man picked by President Bush to fill John
Ashcroft’s crazy shoes disagrees with his prede
cessor on numerous points. For example, Gon
zales doesn’t think that dancing is a sin, so
we’re already moving in the right direction. Fur
thermore, he has anti-abortion groups up in
arms, a la Arlen Specter. In an interview with
the Los Angeles Times in 2001, Gonzales said,
“There are no litmus tests for judicial candi
dates. ... My own personal feelings about (abor
tion) don't matter. ... The question is, what is
• the law?” Such reasonableness has the presi
dent of the American Life League, Judie Brown,
foaming at the mouth. In a letter, she wrote,
“Why is President Bush betraying the babies?”
Sen. Harry Reid
(D-Nevada): WORSE
With the loss of Sen. Tom Daschle, the Democ
rats have elected Sen. Harry Reid as their new
Senate minority leader. Calling this four-term,
red-state donkey a moderate is a significant un
derstatement: He is a pro-life Mormon who often
breaks party ranks. For example, he voted for a
ban on partial birth abortions. On Thesday, Reid
spoke of uniting the two sides of the Senate and
working with the President, not against him. The
New York Times describes him as “close to Mr.
Bush.” We describe him as a Bush ally. When
will the Democrats become a true opposition par
ty? Apparently not for the next four years.
Stephen J. Hadley: WORSE
The new national security adviser, replacing
Condi Rice, is probably the last person who
should be advising the president on national se
curity matters. The Sept. 11 commission
blamed Hadley for the lack of pre-terrorist at
tack focus on al Qaeda. He has been connected
to almost every bit of misinformation coming
from the White House, including the lies in the
president’s 2003 State of the Union address, the
lies leading to the war in Iraq and the lies about
an Iraq/al Qaeda connection. Most significant
ly, he led the planning for postwar Iraq, accord
ing to the Washington Post, and we all know
how that turned out. I guess we get four more
years of not believing a word that the adminis
tration is saying about anything.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Jennifer Sudick
Editor in Chief
David Jagemauth
Editorial Editor
Steven R. Neuman
Managing Editor
Gabe Bradley
Freelance Editor