Bawlin' Over Balls [warning, sarcasm within.]

I recently saw a bit of a blurb on TLC (otherwise known to me as PEC or the People's Exploitation Channel because of their documentaries) about a lil' something-something called purity balls.

My first thought was "Weird."
Once I heard what it was about, my second thought was "Disgusting."

So basically a young girl signs her virginity off to her daddy so that he can protect it. Protection...cool, right?! Actually, I find it pretty disgusting. After hearing things like "How great it would be for her to say 'I've kissed but one man in my life'?" Sure, it'd be nice, but that's quite farfetched. It isn't unnatural to pick a random person off the street (wait, it is...) and interview them about their love life only to find that they've had more than one partner over a lifetime depending on their age.

There are quite a few--and I use this word lightly--problems that I have with this particular practice.

• The ages involved are not, at all, regulated in any way. Not in any rational way at least. Upon reading numerous articles about purity balls (and even on the website of the founders, Randy and Lisa Wilson, in an article posted on the site) there are girls ranging in age from four to twenty-something. Nothing disgusts me more than taking personal choice from a girl who hasn't even lived a decade, not to mention probably has absolutely no idea what virginity is since her parents wish to keep her pure.
• What the f**k is this s***t?!? Regarding the age issue and how little these children actually know about their reproductive systems, how they work and will work, what they can do with them, and what may happen to them if they don't take good care, here's a little quote from one of the 10-year-olds gettin' purified...

Three of his daughters are with him tonight, including 10-year-old Taylor. I
asked what purity means to her. "I don't really know," she says, and she's shy
about talking about all this. "But it means you make a promise to your dad to be
a virgin until you are married and not have a lot of boyfriends."

• But what about the boys?! The boys have their own ceremony. Except it doesn't put them down and tell them that they're vulnerable--apparently he's blessing people with his shade and influence.

"Boys become men by watching men, by standing close to men. Manhood is a ritual passed from generation to generation with precious few spoken instructions. Passing the torch of manhood is a fragile, tedious task. If the rite
of passage is successfully completed, the boy-become-man is like an oak
of hard-wood character. His shade and influence will bless those who are
fortunate enough to lean on him and rest under his canopy." -Preston Gillham

• Where are your mothers? Nowhere actively in this kind of ceremony. Not even in the manhood ceremony since manhood can only be passed from man to man. I'll give them that. You certainly can't have a dainty female who needs to be protected passing years of her non-wisdom to her son since carrying his whole body within her disgusting reproductive bits.
• There's that stigma again...and it's that stigma about sex and women. Not just how they should be the ones protecting their virginity (which I hate to talk about in noun form, just take a look at some of the questions on Scarleteen about how to know if a virginity is still there) but also how they're not strong enough to protect themselves and there needs to be a manly-man around to help such a poor, poor soul.

I admit, this was a bit of a rant, and it will lead to a post about abstinence-only education fo' sho'. For now, just think about what you want to do for yourself, and if you really want to bond with your dad...just take some cooking classes, please.

Enlist, Serve, Learn.

No I'm not talking about the Canadian Army. I'm talking about the All-Girl Army.
This is amazing. Finally a chance for young women from 10-23 of all shapes, sizes colours, and types to express themselves with some sort of authority. I find it important that young people are given a voice, especially when they're the age group that gets labeled the most.

I especially enjoyed reading a post by Irmelin called Se(x)education. It tells about how sex-ed was taught to her, and how Scarleteen (a BIG favourite of mine) showed her how it should have been. Her story is quite moving, if I may be a little bit cliché.

Here's some news; I've sent in an application to be in the AGA. It's really exciting for me! Hopefully I'll get chosen. I LOVE this project.

And interestingly enough, it's influencing me to write more.
Great, eh?

Total Drama Island Drama!

While doing some lurking around at IMDb.com I decided to search one of my favourite shows, Total Drama Island.

Huzzah! A Canadian show with Canadian stars and Canadian characters in a Canadian setting (it's said that it's "somewhere in Muskoka, ON). When I saw this show for the first time, I fell in love with it immediately (however due to my inability to remember when all of my favourite shows air I didn't watch it regularly). It's such a great show. It's a cartoon reality TV show that pokes fun at things like Survivor and Big Brother using the concepts of elimination, surveillance, challenges and such, but in a way that makes it both down to earth and exaggerated (watch the show if you're confused).

Even though the first season is finished, I was happy to know that TDI was airing in the states on Cartoon Network. I don't know, maybe it's just the fact that I love when Canada shows off in the US, but it struck a very nice chord with me. However when I was lurking at IMDb.com I found three things that made this chord quite dissonant.

• Here, a "viewer" is surprised to hear "children" saying "get bent" and guys saying things like "hot chicks". I understand that you live in a sheltered world, but that doesn't make sixteen year olds children. And at least they're not saying "F**k you!" or "a nice piece of a**." Doesn't anyone understand that if they're worried about their kids watching junk they shouldn't be watching TV at that time anyway? In the US (the country where most of the complaints are coming from) it airs at 9:00ET/10:00 PT. When I was in fifth grade my bed time was 9:30. Another thing. This is a show aired for ages 12-14. Seven year olds, will not get most of the jokes. And who cares if the rating is Y (C-C8)? The last time I checked, each human was put on this Earth with common sense. Don't watch it if it's "bad".
• Here another "viewer" as well as some others say that the show is mocking homosexuals. This clearly wasn't the intention. Being a person who knows a bunch of teenage guys, they're always trying not to sound "gay". It wasn't a joke making fun of gays, it was a joke making fun of how stupid guys sound when they're trying not to sound gay. And someone else in the same thread even has the guts to emphasize the fact that something about homosexuals is in a children's show. Why does it matter? It's funny how being PC can bring out the homophobe in some people. Catdogwordpainter pretty much sums up my feelings in this post.
  
• And then there's the whole Why is Leshawna so ghetto? issue. Well, for one...she's a stereotype. So there. Why isn't anyone saying Why is Gwen a goth? or Why is Owen fat? Because everyone's minds have already associated her ghetto-ness with being black. No one really associated Gwen's gothiness or Owen's fatness with being white. Why? Because there are extremely ghetto black people out there. If you don't believe me, get out of your house...or don't if you're "...scared [of getting] shot." I mean there's D.J. and he's really brawny but he LOVES animals. No one has yet commented on that.
  

So there. We give the US something nice, and they pout. I think it's about time they had something at least a little bit realistic on Cartoon Network.

Playing word toss sucks.

"Oh my god, that was so racist!"

"Well, how come you didn't pick girls this time? That's sexist!"

These are just some of the few word-slinging sentences that I've heard being used by younger children in my school. And I don't like it. In my gifted class is where I've seen it most, surprisingly. If I say that Andrew, a Vietnamese guy, is Asian, then Leena or some other junior-division student in the class will say "that's racist!" when it isn't. Here's the definition of racism.

/rā'sĭz'əm/

1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

Hmm...I don't think that I said that Andrew could do certain things because he was Asian, nor did I say that Blacks were superior to Asians. Racist? No. Observant? Yes! These days children like to repeat words they hear all over. And this isn't doing us any good. Just because I recognize that certain people come from certain backgrounds doesn't make me racist. Many people put forth their identity using their culture. The problem lies in training children to be tolerant and politically correct. Political correctness does two things to a child. One, it makes them over-aware of what they say and in result comes the "I Don't Mean To Be Racist, But..." phenomenon. I've heard that phrase too many times in my short, 14-year life.

" I don't mean to be racist, but last night, there was this episode of Family Guy where Cleveland was a taxi driver and he saw Brian and offered him a ride, but Brian used an excuse and said that he had to pick up milk for Lois. Isn't that funny?"

No, it's not.

So as a last statement I will say this:

If there is no intention behind your action, the action is at its worst, un-intentional.