The Need to Speak Up
I’ve been silent for two weeks, mainly because I’ve never really seen the need to voice my opinion on certain events/topics that have been dominating local news. But something I read today just got me so riled up that I thought it imperative that I make my stand clear.
The Canon Photo Marathon that ended two weekends ago had several of my friends signing up for the task. Participants had to interpret three themes: Playtime, Challenge, Passion. That’s fine. I thought they were lovely themes that really brought out a lot of ingenuinity in those striving to win big. I really liked the picture that won for “Passion” for the Youth category (above), since anyone that equates faith and belief (superstitious or otherwise) with Passion is cool in my book. What I SERIOUSLY didn’t like, however, was the overall winner’s interpretation of “Playtime” (below).
What kind of a message is that? Catholic point of view notwithstanding, anyone that equates what looks like an anti-AIDS commercial with “PLAYTIME” is seriously barking up the wrong tree. I don’t want this to sound like a religious debate, so I’ll leave out the Catholic Church’s views on contraception (which I’m sure is common knowledge anyway). But ultimately, this is about SEX.
Yes, sex is enjoyable. Yes, sex is fun. Yes, sex gives the people involved a intense rush of pleasure. No one questions these, especially not the Church. But to consider sex (or even the hint of sex, in this case) to be simply PLAYTIME is sending a distinctly discomforting message to the rest of Singaporean society.
I do not doubt for a second that there is a good number of Singaporeans (probably a majority?) who consider sex to be little more than casual entertainment. But having a majority feel that way does NOT make it fact.
Like it or not, sex IS the highest form of communication two people can share. Logically, it goes WAY beyond the ideal of two people just being together silently and yet having the best ‘conversation’ ever. Yet so many people today consider the latter to be more romantic than the former. And decisions like these do NOT help.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Hm. I’m glad that we agree: just because sex is the highest form of communication two people can share doesn’t make it mutually exclusive from the fact that it can and should be fun for both parties, a “playtime”. However, just because it won the category of “playtime” doesn’t mean sex is SIMPLY “playtime”. That conclusion is a bit, well… for lack of a better word, simplistic. Rather than perceiving it as a mechanism for demeaning the act of “making love”, how about looking at it as a statement calling for people to sit back and laugh at how much sex has been complicated by religion and thought - and, if you would allow it to be - a criticism on how Love has become similarly stymied by intellectualism and organised religion. Plus, it’s not really an anti-AIDS commercial because it is promoting the use of condoms which I think goes a lot further than the comments by the Archbishop of Maputo or the Pope for that matter.
November 21st, 2007 at 9:52 am
And here I was thinking that no one had any response to my post.
Thanks Tim for your points!
Just to put my "anti-AIDS campaign" comment into context, several years ago, a safe sex campaign in Singapore used a similarly half-headed woman with the same seductive smile SANS condom to represent the inherent dangers of unprotected sex. I guess that image stuck for me.
Apologies for not making the reference clearer in my post.
November 21st, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Oh, I love your writing - it’s a bit more religious than I’m used to, but it’s brilliant all the same. I kinda wish more of us would blog. I’ve read the blogs of a few others, and yours by far the most interesting read.