Fear-Mongering, Propaganda and Poor Journalism in the New Zealand Herald

An article in the New Zealand Herald today was brought to my attention via Facebook, and to say the least I was quite shocked. The title of the article was "Sex at 14 - I learned all about it in class" by Elizabeth Binning. It (kind of) tells the story of a teenager from the Hibiscus Coast (North of Auckland) who is pregnant at the age of 17. 'Big deal' so far right? My gripes with the piece started right from the title, and continued through just about every single sentence all the way to the end.

The "Journalist" Elizabeth Binning is pushing for an anti-Sex-Ed angle throughout the whole story, which already shows her colours. Comprehensive sex education is demonstrably the best way of reducing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Abstinence-only education has proven to be a complete failure in the United States (Guardian) and has been ineffective in general (Wikipedia). People who push propaganda against teaching teenagers sexual and reproductive health are not only counter-productive but they are chewing away at the progress that has been made in many places.

Beyond the anti-sex-ed angle of the piece, it is very poorly written, and seems to indicate at one point in the article that the girl in question was raped. "I didn't wind up pregnant because I didn't attend a class. I know all about contraceptives and safe sex. It was purely the fact that I was drunk, it was New Year's, and some older male thought it would be fabulous to take advantage of me." But after emailing the editor expressing concern that the journalist didn't seem to care about the rape, an acquaintance of mine through my University feminist group received a reply that the girl was not raped, but rather that she was drunk and was deceived by the older male that 'pulling out' was an effective contraceptive method. Either way, it doesn't paint a very good picture of the man in question, and it would in my opinion have been much better to focus on that aspect of her story. I have heard it said that the general attitude towards rape in New Zealand is rather blasé, which I find extremely appalling. I believe our rape laws are in dire need of revision, but that is a discussion for another day.

Binning also quotes from this ignorant child as if she was an authority on the matter. No references to studies to back up what the girl is saying? No checking her story to see whether the health teacher at the school was actually getting kids to taste flavoured condoms? I don't know about you, but I'm simply not going to take the word of a 17 year old who got pregnant because she was lead to believed that 'pulling out' was an effective contraceptive method, when "She said teaching young teenagers about contraception won't help reduce New Zealand's high rate of teenage pregnancy rates." I'm sorry, but all the data goes the other way.

Here are some quotes from the article

"A pregnant teenager says sex education in schools does not prevent young people from having sex - if anything, it encourages it."

Really? Data please?

"Amber-Leigh has spoken out in the hope it may help other young teenagers to learn about the importance of having protected sex - or preferably waiting until they are older."

So how about educating them about contraception? I distinctly remember being told when I was 14 years old that "just pulling out doesn't work". Either she wasn't paying attention or her teacher was crap.

This article was not a one-off event either, recently Elizabeth Binning has written 4 "articles" with the same propaganda against sexual health education. Some of the others display even poorer journalistic integrity than the most recent one. Quoting from anonymous sources with no apparent fact-checking is indicative of at the very least an incompetent journalist, at worst someone pushing a dangerous agenda.
The titles of her other 3 articles are:

• Too much 'grubby stuff', so dad steps in - No sources mentioned, story is about a father whose 12 year old son was supposedly recommended to engage oral sex by his sex-ed teacher. I call absolute bull shit.
•  Sex ed shock for angry parents - "Children as young as 12 are being taught about oral sex and told it's acceptable to play with a girl's private parts as long as "she's okay with it"." I call Bull Shit!
• Readers up in arms over sex education - "children as young as 12 are being taught about anal and oral sex and ...Children as young as 11 are being taught how to put condoms on cucumbers, and in some schools 14-year-old girls are practising on black plastic penises.
In one, a female teacher went as far as to give her class of 15-year-olds a rendition of the noises she makes during orgasm." I call BULL SHIT!

No sources are attributed to any of those claims.

Chewing Gum is Disgusting

It’s not often that I write rants (of sorts) but this is one of those things that makes me lose faith in humanity. No, even worse than that, it makes me ashamed to be a part of the human race. In my opinion this is one of the most detrimental inventions to the progress of civilised culture and etiquette. Humanity would be much better off if we abandoned this unnecessary glob.
I’m talking about chewing gum, the thing you masticate with that doesn’t provide any nutrition, doesn’t break down easily and is actually banned in a few cities. What purpose does it serve? To satisfy compulsive fidgeters? To clog drainage systems? To make an obscene mess on any surface it comes into contact with? It is one of the most useless items that is sold on the shelves of our stores.

Why am I writing this post? I’ll tell you why, today I stood on a piece of gum that was on the ground, that wasn’t even 2 metres from a rubbish bin! What kind of inconsiderate, uncultured, uncivilised buffoon would do such a thing? Did the thought even cross their pathetic little mind to place their disgusting oral faeces into a place where it couldn’t cause this kind of response? They are probably the kind of person who doesn’t bother to place ordinary rubbish in the bin, perhaps they even go to the effort to place wrappers down storm water drains, spit on the sidewalk, piss on the seat, talk on the phone in the library, and in general are just a poster-child for abortion.
We do not need chewing gum, in fact, the world would be a much more pleasant place if every country adopted Singapore’s policy on the matter. Chewing gum is illegal there, and possession of it will reward you with a hefty fine. In Singapore, you don’t have to worry about grabbing the under-side of a seat in a public place to move it forward, nor do you have to worry about your knees touching the under-side of a table for fear of getting gum on your pants. You don’t have to worry about sitting on gum, and you sure don’t have to worry about standing in it!

So far I’ve only really discussed the detriment of gum once it has been expelled from the mouth and become attached to a surface it isn’t welcome on. The actual act of chewing the gum itself is almost just as bad. When I see someone chewing gum, it brings forth images of the aforementioned pestilences that the final product can bring forth, but when I HEAR someone chewing gum, with their mouth open, it boils my blood. I absolutely cannot stand that sound. I can tolerate the slurping of a hot drink, or noodles. I can tolerate burping in fact I even partake in festive burping whilst consuming carbonated beverages and beer. But I simply cannot stand the *sslurrack* (my best attempt at a phonetic rendition of the chewing sound) sound that people make when they chew gum with their mouth open.

Incoherent Rant

I've decided to make this blog to vent anger and frustration at the things in life that really get me riled up. This may include but will not be limited to: shitty music, politics, current events, naturopathy, Apple computers, Ipods, fanatics, fanboys, religion, extremists and anime.

If you find yourself unnaturally attracted to any one of the previously mentioned articles, you may find yourself getting pissed off at me, but that is the whole point of this blog. If there aren't people who hate me for writing some of the things I'll be writing, something is wrong.

If you find yourself naturally frustrated at the aforementioned list of articles, then we should hang out, and have a discussion over a nice cold beer.