Thursday, 22 November 2018

God's loophole

DZ has been very remiss, and hasn't written anything for some time now. Now in (semi) retirement you'd think wouldn't you that time would press heavily and he'd be on here non stop.

None of it. I'm busier now than I ever was when I was employed and can't keep up with everything on my ever expanding "to do" list. Also the appearance in his life of a new lady has been something of a distraction. I didn't see that coming.

So what has dragged him back to the word processor? Has he become deeply concerned about some new absurdity within the NHS? No. Has the GMC once again demonstrated their unfitness for purpose? Almost certainly but not that I've noticed. Brexit? No. Trump? No. Though both would be rich sources of material.

Regular readers here will be aware that I'm not averse to railing about the weird obsessions and control freakery of religions. In particular their obsession with sex. Specifically their consternation about people having it and enjoying it. Particularly women. Religions in general are terrified of female sexuality, and see women as having to be totally controlled in this area. Female genital mutilation is perhaps the most extreme example of how this control is enforced. Lest you think this is about to turn into a tirade against Islam it must be pointed out that John Kellogg (of corn flakes fame) strongly advocated ablation of the clitoris in young girls using phenol, in the USA in the 1880s.

FGM is of course illegal now in the USA, isn't it?  But that doesn't mean that they don't have their own means of trying to suppress sexuality. One of these is the "purity pledge", or "virginity pledge"

But where there's a will there's a way. And youngsters who want sex can find a way to circumvent the spirit of the pledge while technically abiding by the letter. And as this article shows many, including a former president of the USA, take the view that when it comes down to it, only vaginal sex counts as doing the deed. Even the bible seems to support this view.

And so it seems that a proportion of young people have found a loophole that they can exploit. Rather sweetly summed up in this little song.