I find myself stuck in the middle of an on-going moral battle with my local store. Believe me, I didnt really want to get involved in such a ‘campaign’ of sorts…really, I didn’t.
It began when the local store underwent refurbishment, and the ‘top shelf’ of the magazine stand ended up being no higher than my chest. It’s really not that high in all honesty. Upon re-opening, I noticed that they had started selling a lot of the latest ‘lad mags’, Nuts, Zoo, Loaded, etc. I also noticed how explicit in image and text the magazines were.
It’s not that I was really shocked…I’d spent the first 19 years of my life immersed in these kinds of images, I guess as any young guy would be. However, what struck me the most was simply how inappropriate the covers of these magazines were in relation to their height from the ground. I am easily 6ft 4″, and the top shelf came no higher than my chest. Additionally, none of the covers were wrapped in black wrappers to conceal them.
I found myself so annoyed that they would allow small children…young children to view these publications just as easily as they could read the comics. Taking a moral and ethical standpoint I raised this with the store in question, but was told that they would simply “pass the message on”…hmmm! Anyway, nothing changed after a couple of weeks, so I decided to get in touch with the store’s head office. Yes, they seemed to be sympathetic to the issue at hand, and promised to make some changes. They reversed the magazines on the display stand for a week…ummm, well that was it really!
Months have now passed and nothing has changed. Ahhh, well some things have changed…the covers of the magazines continue to get more and more explicit. The lastest features proudly display fully naked women almost kissing each other, with the title “girl on girl action”…or better still, a fully naked woman with the strapline “stone me”. I’m not sure they realise how close to reality this would be in some countries!!
Listen, I’m a dad of 3 small kids and try as hard as I can to parent them well. Within my home, I have jurisdiction as to what they watch, read, and listen to in an effort to help shape them into great kids / great adults. Within the home I am able to steer them, direct them, instruct them and shape them to become all that they could be, whilst respecting those around them. Yep, I get it wrong a lot of the time, but I try to do better the next time round.
However, what do you do when the world at large seems to go against what you’re teaching them? How do I teach them that the objectification of women is a bad thing when all these magazines ’seem’ to show women enjoying themselves being photographed nude. Even more than that, how do I teach them about a moral lifestyle when the media would seem to be setting a different agenda?
Seriously and simply put, how much change can one person really make when he KNOWS that these publications take the moral low-ground? How can we affect change in this country when no-one will respond or listen to reason?
Thankfully, I’ve come across an organisation called, “The Front Page Campaign”. I’ve been in contact recently to see what my options are in regards to affecting change in my community..I hope to get back some favourable information. If you’re just as worried as me, then by all means take a look at http://www.thefrontpagecampaign.org.uk/
…see what you think!
