I know I should not be surprised at what you report here, but my jaw dropped at the incredible ignorance of the person at your undergraduate college, and then even further on the proposed ordinance... I hope the proposed ordinance is defeated by parents who have the right to raise their children with appropriate moral guidance. While it is true that our environment is full of endocrine disrupting chemicals that, especially, feminize boys (e.g. from estrogenic compounds in plastics), and we can EXPECT this will become evident at puberty, until the child is a legal adult at age 18, we should not be pandering to their still-developing sexual identity. This obsession with sexual everything instead of outwardly directing our youth to be engaged in helping others in our community with more fundamental needs - food, clothing, shelter, etc. - instead turns them inward to self-obsess over their sexuality.
My own upbringing was marred by things I saw on the television - thankfully I had some wholesome shows, like "The Brady Bunch", I watched as a kid to learn how healthy families dealt with problems/crises. But as a teen, I'm not sure "The Love Boat" taught me good moral values with regard to sex and relationships. Commercials at that time were getting more and more daring in terms of sending sexualized messages to kids. Today they are out of control, but I stopped watching TV in college, making the conscious decision to lead a "real" life and not waste time on fictions nor on bad world news I couldn't do anything about. I then read Jerry Mander's book "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television" which cemented my resolve to never own a TV and minimize my exposure to it.
Anecdotally, in high school I was close friends with a girl in my class who shared my same love for astronomy and science, but we spent HOURS on the phone counseling one another on our "problems". At some point, my parents discouraged me from communicating with her because it was dragging me down the route of suicide. But my friend persisted and somehow attended some meetings for lesbians, then confessed to me she believed she was lesbian and was in love with me. I was kind with her, but suggested to her that her thoughts and feelings were mainly because I was the one person who seemed to care for her most in the world... I suggested to her that this clouded her perception of her sexual identity and that she and I (around age 15 at the time) had more growing up to do before we could really figure out our sexual identities. (I'm sure I worded it more awkwardly, but still kindly and gently... and certainly I was not 100% sure where my attractions were... but for me God was first - even though I was confused about God at that time too! - and I knew I was too young to really understand all this stuff!)
We saw each other less and many years later she was happily married to a very handsome man and they have raised two beautiful boys who are now going out into the world with solid Christian moral values. I guess with the new ordinance, I would have been fined $1000???
I married in my 30's to a man 21 years older. Took me a long time to find someone with whom I was sufficiently intellectually compatible... wish we were more spiritually compatible, but he has a good moral compass, so that's as close as we get on that front. Through all that has happened in recent years with all the craziness in the world, I can only say I am blessed to have him in my life. And we have NEVER had a television in our house!
I know I should not be surprised at what you report here, but my jaw dropped at the incredible ignorance of the person at your undergraduate college, and then even further on the proposed ordinance... I hope the proposed ordinance is defeated by parents who have the right to raise their children with appropriate moral guidance. While it is true that our environment is full of endocrine disrupting chemicals that, especially, feminize boys (e.g. from estrogenic compounds in plastics), and we can EXPECT this will become evident at puberty, until the child is a legal adult at age 18, we should not be pandering to their still-developing sexual identity. This obsession with sexual everything instead of outwardly directing our youth to be engaged in helping others in our community with more fundamental needs - food, clothing, shelter, etc. - instead turns them inward to self-obsess over their sexuality.
My own upbringing was marred by things I saw on the television - thankfully I had some wholesome shows, like "The Brady Bunch", I watched as a kid to learn how healthy families dealt with problems/crises. But as a teen, I'm not sure "The Love Boat" taught me good moral values with regard to sex and relationships. Commercials at that time were getting more and more daring in terms of sending sexualized messages to kids. Today they are out of control, but I stopped watching TV in college, making the conscious decision to lead a "real" life and not waste time on fictions nor on bad world news I couldn't do anything about. I then read Jerry Mander's book "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television" which cemented my resolve to never own a TV and minimize my exposure to it.
Anecdotally, in high school I was close friends with a girl in my class who shared my same love for astronomy and science, but we spent HOURS on the phone counseling one another on our "problems". At some point, my parents discouraged me from communicating with her because it was dragging me down the route of suicide. But my friend persisted and somehow attended some meetings for lesbians, then confessed to me she believed she was lesbian and was in love with me. I was kind with her, but suggested to her that her thoughts and feelings were mainly because I was the one person who seemed to care for her most in the world... I suggested to her that this clouded her perception of her sexual identity and that she and I (around age 15 at the time) had more growing up to do before we could really figure out our sexual identities. (I'm sure I worded it more awkwardly, but still kindly and gently... and certainly I was not 100% sure where my attractions were... but for me God was first - even though I was confused about God at that time too! - and I knew I was too young to really understand all this stuff!)
We saw each other less and many years later she was happily married to a very handsome man and they have raised two beautiful boys who are now going out into the world with solid Christian moral values. I guess with the new ordinance, I would have been fined $1000???
I married in my 30's to a man 21 years older. Took me a long time to find someone with whom I was sufficiently intellectually compatible... wish we were more spiritually compatible, but he has a good moral compass, so that's as close as we get on that front. Through all that has happened in recent years with all the craziness in the world, I can only say I am blessed to have him in my life. And we have NEVER had a television in our house!