The ‘Just do it’ Effect
Yes, a jokey cartoon to the left to introduce my blog however that’s the end of the laughs.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the way we promote sex in this country and the more I think about it the more I disagree with it. There seem to be countless posters around Youth Clubs, Colleges, Schools and hospitals and adverts on radio and TV which promote safe sex, which is a good idea, however these adverts also actively promote what I call the ‘Nike Effect’, by which I mean the approach to sex that as long as you’re doing it safely then ‘just do it!’. The more I think about this the more it bugs me, it’s great that the government and NHS are trying to make sure young people are aware of AIDS and infections however how many young people know that pretty much all methods of contraception are only 99% effective? Do the government share this with their condom adverts? nope, and perhaps I’d have less of an issue if they were promoting safe sex when two people are in a loving relationship but this poster to the right really gets on my nerves.
It seems to me that this particular campaign isn’t just promoting safe sex but promoting one night stands, yes in the psters story the person knows the guy however it’s just about sex, just about a one night stand and I think this is the risk we’re running in the way we promote safe sex in this country. Not once is the idea of waiting promoted, nor even the idea of being in a loving relationship. Rather than trying to change the sexually flippant attitude of people the government seem to have embraced it and endorsed it. Yes, perhaps they see it as the best way and I’d agree that if young people are going to have sex then safe is by far the best option, but why don’t we inform of the advantages of waiting?
Many people would link this sexually flippant attitude to the low self-worth of many teenagers today and they may be right. However I also think it’s perhaps down to the expectation we put on them, if we expect young people to do drugs, have sex and be wreckless then they are (well some are), perhaps we should be more expectant of them.
Overall I think the sexually flippant attitude which we are promoting to young people is wrong, I think it’s important to promote safe sex but also to promote meaningful relationships, important to promote waiting as an option for safe sex. Love is not based on sex, sex is merely one of thousands of ways to show someone you love them, perhaps we should promote the idea that waiting is going to make that sign of love to someone that bit more special.
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I don’t think these organisations are trying to promote sex in a flippant way. This is the view the majority of people have about sex and this is what is eyecatching and relevant to them.
It’s all very well living in the Christian bubble that believes sex is best for marriage but this is what society is really like (spend a day at my work and you’d understand…)
At the end of the day it’s the lesser of two evils to promote safe sex over uneducated-it’s-best-for-marriage-but-might-happen-anyway sex. It seems an awfully huge waste of time and effort to promote a religious view in our pluralistic, ‘whatever floats your boat’ society. It would be such a huge paradigm shift that it would take years and years and thousands of pounds in health care costs before it may or may not have an impact on people’s attitude to sex.
I tend to agree with Laura, this about living in the real world. Yes its better to wait, as Christians that should be our stance and is, by definition the better safe thing to do…
However, general society treat casual sex as, well, as casual thing. Therefore this must be addressed. Neither do I agree that this about self worth, I think thats only true in some instances.
My opinion is that in young people its more about peer pressure. With adults its more about thats what you do, its ok, it doesn’t mean anything.
Neither is the campaign promoting love either, if it were would the campaign not tell us to love each other like we would want loving (if thats not too biblical)…
I do agree that we need to remember we’re in the real world, speaking especially from a youth work perspective.
Perhaps a campaign promoting love wouldn’t solve the problem, I think the problem is the idea of ‘just doing it’ has already sunk in an been accepted
Laura, I also agree about the whole Christian bubble things, you can’t be in a christian bubble, I think as Christians we need to be out in the world, but not to fit in
Maybe the issue is more about propriety - when I think of the people in my office I see a group of people who are all very happy and self confident but they lack propriety and they don’t see any value to it. The programme Ladette to Lady was a good example of the values that are missing in our society and it’s not necessarily exclusively Christian ones.
[...] may remember a while ago I posted on the ‘just do it effect’ (link). Now the issue I had (you may remember) was that the goverment were pretty much promoting the [...]
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Mark Tiddy
In his spare time Mark plays several instruments and enjoys song writing.
Read more about Mark here
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