Nothing concerns me more than the state of moral values in our country.
It seems our collective decency is on the run, and it is important that we ask ourselves why and, more importantly, what we can do about it.
I’m no idiot. Sex sells.
Big businesses have no problem abusing that fact as long as they are profiting from it.
Consumers seem to have no problem with it either, considering they are the ones who keep buying into it.
We should have turned a blind eye like previous generations and stopped shopping at stores or purchasing products that use excessive sexuality as a marketing tool.
Instead, we have completely caved in and allowed the influence of idolized sexuality to smother us.
Fifty years ago, people used to be more conscious of the things they were buying and who they were buying them from.
People supported businesses considered to be whole, well-rounded and American. Wal Mart changed all that by making cost consumers’ primary concern. Nothing matters now, as long as purchases are cheap.
I fear we have become a country of mindless consumers who buy, buy, buy, never once considering what kind of people, ethics or businesses we are supporting.
Businesses take advantage of the reality that people aren’t judging business principles when shopping anymore.
Companies have been preying on the easily-influenced American mind for years now, but things have gone overboard recently.
I could talk for days about outsourcing or not paying Americans enough money while CEO’s make millions, but what I am most concerned about is sexuality in business.
Take Victoria’s Secret, for example. Victoria’s Secret was created in the 1970s by a man who felt uncomfortable buying lingerie for his wife. It was supposed to be a welcoming environment for men, built with large wooden walls so no one could see inside.
It was, essentially, a sex shop.
Now, as the biggest lingerie store in America, it sells clothing to women of all ages. Unfortunately, the clothes haven’t changed that much.
Victoria’s Secret, along with pop icons like Britney Spears and crude rap videos, popularized the thong among women, especially young women.
But before the thong was sold in sex shops or to Britney, it was worn by strippers and prostitutes — and it wasn’t to hide their panty lines.
Who and what are influencing our clothes and ads? The sex industry.
Now the thong is a popular female underwear product, and Abercrombie & Fitch has produced a line of them for 10-year-olds.
We need to think about what this means for us, for our children and for society.
People might say, “times are changing.”
Yes, times are changing — for the worse.
Divorce, corruption, younger people having sex, general unhappiness, depression, suicide: these things are just as prevalent as they ever have been, and they may be increasing. This is because we as a culture are submitting to a shallow, sex-focused lifestyle.
Look at what else is increasing: The porn industry is thriving, making $10 billion a year in the U.S. alone. Pornography addiction is exponentially increasing and taking marriages out with it. Porn Web sites are constantly viewed on the Internet.
We need to realize that what we are doing by submitting to changing times is allowing the pornography industry, surely the most loathed industry in the world, to take over.
You can’t walk 10 feet in a commercial area without being bombarded by an advertisement that uses sex to sell. Women’s clothing advertisements in particular are ludicrous nowadays.
The newest Guitar Hero commercial has nothing but Heidi Klum playing the game in her underwear.
Fifty years ago, these kinds of ads or clothes would have been banned, not because they were illegal, but because people simply didn’t approve of them, and spent their money accordingly.
Now they flood our eyesight.
Is it any wonder 15-year-olds are posting nude pictures of themselves on the Internet, 12-year-olds are having sex, and 7-year-olds are wearing thongs?
This is what we are teaching them is appropriate.
Everyone should take a step back and pay attention to the ads they watch and they things they buy.
Think about whether you approve of companies’ means of advertising or the content of television shows.
If not, try to resist giving those companies your money.
We can change society if we want to. We just have to think about what we are buying.
Jordan Rogers is an industrial engineering junior. His column appears every other Wednesday.
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Comments
"easily-influenced American mind"
This statement reeks of your condescension. You're just quite the Awesome Amazing Brilliant Moral Crusader, aren't you? Coming to save us from the evils of big business and sex.
I'm not saying the media isn't over saturated with negative, hyperbolic displays of men and women (it is). I'm defending the American consumer, who by and large, isn't some easily-influenced idiot, but who is looking out for him or herself.
Remind yourself of what it is to be the typical middle class consumer, the usual Walmart shopper. You and your wife both work jobs you probably hate, and barely make your bills. You've got one, two mortgages, or maybe you rent. All this while you try to raise kids, hoping that the economy doesn't get much worse.
You, the consumer, do not care where the product was made, what type of tactics were employed in its fruition, or how it was marketed.
You, the consumer, are trying to get by paycheck to paycheck and cheap goods are the way to do it.
I take great offense in you assuming middle class America is just a sex-crazed slobbering teenage boy who just goes for what's cheap and hot. Middle class America is more worried about survival than about politics.
Excellent article, you're a refreshing breath of fresh air from the Daily. How did that happen?
Sex may sell, but the public and private advancement of sex is also the cutting edge of the liberal agenda. The sewer that is today's society is the proud result of sixty years of liberal rebellion against the American Puritan Ethic.
I'd rather not be Amish.
Sex is a part of life. We don't need to hide it or be ashamed of it.
You'd be shocked if you were to look at mainstream magazines or TV ads from Europe, there isn't this weird stigma attached to sex and nudity like that which exists in America.
The fact that sex sells is because it's natural for us to be drawn to such images, and even more so if mainstream media censors anything deemed "inappropriate" by people such as yourself.
I would argue that your article actually works in the opposite direction of what you would intend. It's just like how every teenager has a natural tendency to defy rules forced upon them by their parents.
You are absolutely right, Jordan.
That's why I fight back, and I think you should join us.
Download free porn on the net like the rest of us.
"I'm no idiot"
I beg to differ.
Only an idiot would try to make this argument. Sexuality (not sex) has been used to sell things since we had something to sell.
Now go out and get laid, dispense with the moralistic crusading and hand wringing guilt, before you get prostate cancer from not using it as mother nature intended.
Mike South
A Gun Totin Libertarian Pornographer
hmm.... anyone can be offended by other people's morals. The trick is to outdo yourself....
You know Leave It To Beaver was just a TV show, right?
What Rogers fails to recognize is that porn is not new, nor is it some horrible plague that has recently sprung up in our society. Erotic depictions date back to ancient civilizations, including Egyptian, Roman, and Greek societies. It has been around a very, very long time, and it is doubtful that it will dissapear anytime soon.
He refers to the porn industry as being the most loathed, but I would beg to differ. The porn industry is as big as it is because so many people enjoy it. While many self-righteous people like to publicly condemn pornography, they usually, in private, share in its tittilation.
He also states that pornography destroys marriages. This is hogwash. What destroys marraiges is not the porn itself, rather, it is the lack of communication between partners. What usually happens is that the husband enjoys porn, but doesn't let his wife know that. She is usually far more hurt by the hiding and deception than the thought that her husband is looking at "naughty magazines". What couples need to do is be more open and honest with each other, talking about what they like and what their boundaries and expectations are.
But, of course, we can't talk about sex in our holier-than-thou puritan utopia, right Rogers?
Sexy is in the interpretation. Fifty years ago there were advertisers that used sex to sell their products, and that continues today. There is more so than ever an interest in where products come from and how they are made. People have always cared about cheaper prices and that is why places like Wal-Mart became successful to begin with. There is no doubt that Wal-Mart and big box stores have problems along with increased globalization to deal with, but these are separate issues that have little to do with advertisers using sex to sell products. If there is fear of becoming a mindless consumer then there are ways to deal with the problem. First the United States for the most part is a capitalistic system and thus we are all consumers. There are misguided people throughout the world that are truly in need of a better education. People should not refer to anyone as mindless because everyone’s story is unique with regard to choices they make in life including shopping. There is little basis for considering the clothing that American people buy in general as being too risqué. The clothing that people have been wearing for centuries all over the world varies with culture. What people would consider sexy also varies greatly even in places where they traditionally wear very little clothing. Does wearing the smallest amount of clothing equal immorality? Not at all, is immorality implied within the article? The author is worried about things (sex-focused lifestyle) that do not correlate to bigger societal problems such as divorce, corruption, general unhappiness, depression, and suicide to use the examples given in the column. Submitting to a sex focused lifestyle leads to all of these problems? Huh, the fact is that all animals have a sex-focused lifestyle; it is how we reproduce, evolve, live and thus survive. Basically if we did not have some sort of sex-focused lifestyle your supposed moral values in this country would not exist. We really need to take a step back if we are worried about what kind of underwear seven year olds or people in general are wearing. My questions would be who cares what underwear people are wearing? People wear mismatched socks because no one will see them. Should I care what socks people are wearing? There needs to be an exchange of information, and increased education about what comes naturally to people, and society. Having rules about what is appropriate is a good thing and will differ across cultures, which is also a good thing. There are laws in place that protect people from what has been considered to be offensive in public and these too vary from place to place. One perception and or moral judgments should not be considered more correct than others when dealing with public information. Turning a blind eye is the worst thing that can be done, when doing so leads to more ignorance.
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