Talk about mixed messages. The rather inappropriately named Arts & Education channel is promoting the new series of Gene Simmons' Family Jewels with the tag line "One man, 4800 women?" Ironically the promotional campaign for the third series, which starts tonight, kicked into high gear (with the release of the rather sick widget pictured below which compares the mating habits of several animals, including Simmons) the same day a government CDC report came out that revealed that one in four teenage girls has an STD. The results are even more shocking when you consider that only 50% of the girls surveyed even admitted to having sex. The statistics were even worse for African American female teens, with nearly half having an STD (think about it, that means that statistically speaking 100% of black teenage girls who admit to being sexually active have an STD).
"The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure, and teenage girls are paying the real price," said Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards in an AP interview. While our schools and doctors operate a "don't ask don't tell policy" due to confidentiality concerns, since parents would have to be told of any positive STD results, America's teens are having sex, picking up potentially life-threatening diseases, and find it hard-to-almost-impossible to get treatment because of our current laws, and the fear of church-driven parental retribution. This mass head-in-the-sand policy is clearly not working, and in the meantime we have A&E glorifying one gross (male) individual’s inordinate amount of sexual conquests, while promoting a reality TV show about a family. Don't get me wrong, I'm no prude, but we need a reality check, some balance, and some real arts and education here.
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