Don’t Say Penis!

The double standards in America never cease to amaze me.  In a era where MTV’s “reality” show Jersey Shore regularly applies the acronym “DTF”, meaning “down to fuck” to young women they meet in clubs, Barney on “How I Met Your Mother” spends nearly every episode trying to deceive women into having sex with him and then finds the most emotionally brutal ways to get rid of them after they do, and cartoons still air which depict the most violent of attacks on the characters (think Loony Tunes and Tom  & Jerry), but we dare not say penis on television. Excuse but WTF?! Degrading and using women and violence is okay as long as you do not ever say the proper name for a body part for any reason??!!

My roommate I were getting ready the other morning and she came out from her room and told me that a commercial for the “Dr. Oz Show”, a show, hosted by Mehmet Oz, MD, that discusses various health issues from a medical perspective, had bleeped out the word “penis”. The show airing later that day was going to be discussing the lifecycle of the penis as a “barometer of a man’s health” but in the commercial for the upcoming show the station bleep out the word “penis”. I do not understand this! We are just talking about the name of a body part that half of the world has! Would they bleep the word “foot” if the show was about keeping your feet healthy? Or how about the word “colon” if they were talking about the lifecycle of your bowels or colonoscopies? I find this bleep absolutely absurd!

Even worst, my roommate later told me she mentioned the commercial’s bleep to her co-worker. The co-worker agreed with the bleep! Saying that she understands the need to keep “that word” off the TV where children may hear. What do people think - if your kid hears the word penis the parent will have to explain how people have sex? There are other functions of the penis, such as urination! Can we say urethra on TV?

I hate to be so brash but I think this is stupid. Penis, penis, penis, penis!

P.S.

Just before I was about to post this blog, I found this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/mar/16/tampon-vagina-kotex-advertising I not only can you not say “vagina”, you cannot even refer to female genitalia by saying “down there” but don’t worry Viagra users, apparently you can still say “erectile dysfunction” in your AD….