MORALITY AND PRESS FREEDOM
by Bidz Dela Cruz
Gone are the days when sex is discussed in hushed tones and mouthing words with sexual and sensual connotation is looked down upon. The sanctity of marriage and the bedchamber is fast becoming a thing of the past. It is not uncommon nowadays to hear conversations that in the past were considered illicit and actuations, which were then considered immoral, have become widely acceptable. It seems that everywhere we focus our attention smut or pornography stares us in the face, assaulting our morals and inhibitions.
Be it in the print media, the boob tube or the big screen, words or pictures shout at us, inviting our senses to be titillated; to some these breeds disgust and disillusionment as to what aid where our world is heading. Is there too much sex in the world today or are we simply over reacting to the deluge that threatens to engulf us?
I came across an old caricature of the famous comic strip Peanuts the other day and I had a small laugh to myself. Sally was muttering words to this effect:
“Yes Ma’am, I got all 50 questions wrong...I don’t think it was my fault though...Last night, I was watching a program In TV that I didn’t want to miss, then I had to read the sports section in the paper. There’s also a talk show on rat Ho that I listen to every night and two of my magazine came in the mail
yesterday. I BLAME IT ON MEDIA!”
This is a clear Indication that a great number of humanity spends part of his/her waking moments glued on a newspaper, television, movie screen and now the latest medium to hit us, personal computers. Our desire to keep abreast with what’s happening around us compels us to read or listen to commentaries and at times even gossips. However, media in this day and age does not only inform and entertain; it has now become a venue to satiate some people’s sensuality while at the same time eroding other people’s moral fiber.
Newspapers scream despicable crimes committed on innocent individuals, while TV airs and sensationalizes rapes and homicides instigated by sexual lusts. Tabloids are big excuses fur pornography tinder the guise of journalism. It seems bare flesh had replaced the traditional banner of tabloids. More pictures of this type In the centerfold guarantees a. sell out, but it is not so with legitimate newspapers. The television is fast undermining the morality of the succeeding generations because sexual innuendos in soap operas and sitcoms. Meanwhile, on the big screen sexual scenes are added to any and all sorts of plots to spice up the story; the more lewd scenes a movie offers, the longer the queues are of those thirsting to view them.
Filipinos are an emotional lot and they easily get carried away with what they read and what their eyes feast on. It is this very characteristic that people in the journalistic profession sought to cultivate. As a result, children become partially knowledgeable and by the time it is discussed to them in the classroom, they, they would have developed a “rich” vocabulary of, if not ideas about this phenomenon. This has greatly resulted In curiosity and experimentation, thus teen-age sex has proliferated and teen-age pregnancies have escalated.
There was a time in the distant past when men and especially women, cover themselves decently. If the vogue then was for women to cover every square inch of flesh, quite the contrary is happening now. Today, fashionable and artsy clothes provide minimum cover. It seems the trend today is to show every possible nook and cranny of the male and female specimen for sensual delectation.
Sexy advertisements have widely encouraged addiction to cigarette smoking and~ drinking wine. Whatever is the rationale behind these advertisements, they had hit the bulls-eye dead center. The more sensuous the model they employ for these ads, the greater the returns they guarantee on sales.
Billboards for outdoor advertising of any type of products be it food or clothes, projects sensuality/sexuality. Most of all life-sue advertisements of sexy films on billboards rub a sexual message to all Toms and Harrys who come across them. And these have not spared the eyes of the young ones. I once had to call the attention of a boy walking on the sidewalk, whose-attention was caught by a large advertisement of a Rossana Roces film. He was so intent in his glare at the sexy actress that he was unmindful of the danger of walking into an open manhole.
Too much press freedom is undermining the decency of a once gentle folk like the Filipinos. Of late, even the priesthood had not been spared of sex scandals. It’s about time that more stringent measures of censure be implemented if we wish to return to a more peaceful environment. Let us put sex back to Its rightful place, i.e. the secrecy of the bedchamber. Let us put a stop to the proliferation of pornographic materials. Let us uphold Christian and humane virtues and strengthen our moral fiber. If we lack the resolve to eradicate the sensationalization of sex in today’s media we hare rushing headlong to decadence and destruction.
The author is a content provider of exam
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