So, I read in an article the other day that a few BYU professors discovered that swearing in teen-targeted movies is on the decline. Apparently they did a study of G, PG, and PG-13 movies and found that there was less swearing then in previous years. I know. I was surprised. My first thought was that perhaps they are removing swear words to make room for more sexual content. As if teenagers need to be exposed to more sexual content.
On those same lines, apparently there was a group of teens who went to the Utah State Capitol to picket for more Sexual Education in high schools. I thought that was interesting. My high school really had no form of what is most commonly referred to as Sex-Ed. Of course, I somehow didn't have to take a health class, so that could have been where I missed it. At the time I didn't really feel deprived, but I could see how some teenagers would want more. After all, in Latter-day Saint culture, and perhaps in others, sex is kind of a "hush hush" subject. A lot of parents don't even address it, at least my parents didn't. I don't know where I would be if one of my sisters didn't explain a few things to me. Imagine not knowing anything about a girls "time of the month." Without knowing some of the basics, you could get caughts saying some pretty dumb and innappropriate things. In this way, I could see sexual education being necessary, when it's educational. However, if it crosses over into the realm of making teenagers feel like they need to be sexually active, or that things like masturbation are considered good from a scientific perspective. Then it could become a platform for the instructor or other students to express their opinions. I think it would need to be handled very delicately. Appropriate information needs to be presented, and questions could be handled in an anonymous way. In this way, I think it would be informative for those students who wish to attend, without crossing lines and interfering with religion.
Back on the subject of swearing. I attended a training for work with some adult males who were not members of my church. I was a little surprised to find that they swore in everyday conversation. Call me sheltered, but I haven't been around many people that say the F word in casual conversation. And I spent 2 years in Australia, the land of profanity. They consider it less of a swear word down there. It could of been my suit,tie, and nametag, but people didn't say it that often unless they were really angry about something. I just found it interesting. For some reason I thought that in educated circles I would hear less of it, but I guess I was wrong. I would suppose that no group, religious, social, or ethnic would be completely devoid of it regardless of beliefs. That is a prime concern of many religious leaders. That living in the world as they do it becomes harder and harder to keep certain habits from forming. That's all I have to say on the subject. Perhaps I'm more peculiar then I think.
