i don't know.  as much as i think the problems have alot to do with society, i can't just blame society.  what about the education system?  you can't just teach abstinance as the only way.  for some, it's just hard to stay pure until they get married.  at least teach something about healthy sexual education. 

what about parents? what about community? what about any other affiliations religious or otherwise?

i mean church makes sex a taboo topic.  making it taboo makes people want to explore.

but i agree....alot of it does have to do with society....

this post isn't exactly the smartest thing i've read. i don't know why it's on the front page.

you go on and on about how sex is wrong and sex is bad and divorce rates and so and so. where is the logic in all of this? why is pre marital sex, or sex among teenagers bad? do you have any evidence that the oh-so-dangerous media is to blame for divorce rates?

some of us just happen to like sex. it has nothing to do with britney spears or a poster on the highway, a movie starring jessica alba or a tv show where two eighteen year old kids have sex. of course i know what sex is and of course it is going to happen. i don't regret losing my virginity to my tenth grade boyfriend, at all. i've been having sex for five years and i'm not married, not pregnant, not full of std's, not brainwashed, not a teenage mother nor am i in some way a bad person. in fact, i'm doing pretty fine, thank you.

'How can we expect teens and adults to stay pure or faithful when all we are doing all day is beating people over the head with "It's ok, just be safe" No It's not ok! So what can we do?'

the fact that you think sex isn't such a taboo issue has nothing to do with whether or not you will be faithful to your partner. at all. as for the 'pure', why do you feel like you need to keep others 'pure'? why isn't it alright to just 'be safe'? it has worked for a number of people, you know? worry about your own purity and stop trying to force your opinions and beleifs on others for once. let us worry about our own genitals and divorces.

Did you know that America has a shockingly high teen pregnancy rate compared to other industrialized countries (we're talking like European countries here)? The last time I was in Europe, there were billboards with half-naked women on them and they played porn on TV at night. They are completely oversexualized as well as we are, but the difference is that they accept their sexuality in ways that Americans have difficulty doing. Sexuality is as much a part of you, as your intellegence and personality, so why repress it? Accepting yourself as a sexual being doesn't mean that you're okay with the overt sexual images that are shoved at us every day, but it does mean that you become more comfortable with who you are and that you educate yourself about sex. Education is the key. Why do you think we have such a high teen pregnancy rate? Our sex education system sucks, and we let our teens learn about sex from TV and music. So, instead of hiding from sex and sexuality, why not accept it as a part of yourself? If you do that, I have a feeling you might not be so worried about what other people are doing. 

@one_eared_batman - I resonate with the truth of your post...

:[ today;s society... blehhs.

The reason why TV shows are like this is because this content stimulates people.  Sex was built to stimulate and it gets attention.  That's why sex and "appeal to status" are the primary ingredients in all advertisement.  This is what works for most people, and this is how various networks, advertisers, and stockholders get paid at the end of the day.  Does it pollute the culture?  Does it wear down time-built morals?  Does the market have a stake in making us as pliable and spongelike in absorbing media messages?

My opinion: Yes, Yes, and Yes.  I think it's the same thing I think as selling cigarettes, pornography, or alcohol.  A free society will decline under market forces unless it's members maintain their own independent moral ethical, and spiritual centers.

Our cultural treasure is being traded for dollars.  Unless it stops, I think it will be the American failure.

Marco

@Leia_C - Wow, that's a pretty uneducated thing to say - that the fall of the Roman Empire was due to "sexual openness".  You realize that Rome was not only crime and corruption-ridden, but that in the 3rd century A.D. Roman soldiers pulled back from the Rhine-Danube frontier to fight a civil war in Italy, thus leaving a large part of the Roman border open to attack - and Germanic hunters and herders started taking Roman lands, eventually overthrowing Augustulus Romulus in 476 A.D.?  Actually, Christianity turned the Romans from war-hungry pagans into pacifists, and no one wanted to fight for Rome anymore.  I'll take strength and survival over weakness and death any day.

@BaCkWooDsThInkiNG - Maybe the reason why there are more divorces in the church is because Christians are actually following the Bible and marrying multiple people and divorcing the ones they don't like after the procreate with them.

@Moktral - no, YOU got it wrong.  when something becomes LEGAL, society has no other grounds to stop it.  That's the first step.  The second step is to lower the product to pander to human nature's basest inclinations.  Smut and porn get entrenched into the social fabric - and drag social interactions down to that level.  This ends up being very harmful to the stability of the marriage relationship, and the health of the family.
So get with it see the real picture, and adjust your thinking. 

Great post and full of truth. What's a parent to do?  The best we can under these circumstances.  We do not have cable tv, so that helps.  Also, whenever my boys are with my husband in stores, their father turns all the magazines with half naked women on the cover around so that our boys do not have to look at them.  A cashier once asked him why he even bothers since he knows that as soon as they leave, they're going to be turned back around and my husband says that at least his sons didn't have to be forced to look at it.  In this way, we hope to protect their purity a little longer.  We know it's out there and their going to be faced with it sooner or later.  Personally, I'd prefer it's later.   

@hrimfaxi - You're right, that's in the Bible.  But Jesus rebuked that practice.  There are a lot of behaviors mentioned in the Bible as being practiced, but that doesn't mean the practices were spoken of as being a good thing or even a right thing.

The church has only half of it right by marrying.  They marry, but they forget that it's a forever thing, that love is a choice (not a feeling).  They know the Bible says "it's better to marry than to burn [with lust]" but that it also says "God hates divorce."  There's an allowance for adultery by one or both of the partners, but even with the exception it still says it is better that the two stay together.

I mentioned that there is a higher rate of divorce among Christians because they are the ones actually marrying anymore.  I believe when secular society was still marrying about as much as the church was, that the divorce rate was nearing equal.  Now that secular society drifts more toward immorality, the divorce rate is down only because the adultery/fornication rate is way up.

Thanks for the add! I'm sure we'll make many beautiful Xanga memories together.

I'm just curious about why you treat the media as some sort of multi-headed hydra, as a foe that you, mighty Heracles, must vanquish. But you're posting on Xanga, a hugely popular blog database made popular through media online, in movies, and on TV shows. Xanga itself is run by media ads...

If media is the root of all evil then where is some proof? How about some statistics about Amish community crime rates, teen pregnancy, etc. who since they have very limited exposure to media... or perhaps from many of the rural areas of china vs the eastern urban areas?

@Alex_Horschack - When being featured it is a given that what you say will be undermined, twisted, and ultimately comes out as the opposite of what you are trying to say. i don't know where you got the idea that I am anti-media. I am against some of the current medias methods of selling products. Media is necessary for life and therefore is impossible to be against.