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The way we see it…
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The latex was pulled over our collective eyes recently. Apparently, even as adults, we still are too young to have our “virgin eyes” presented with certain materials.
If you have gone into The Boise State Bookstore within the past week or so, you were very likely offered a book filled with coupons.
What is interesting (in the smash-your-head-against-a-wall-out-of-frustration kind of way) is the content removed from the coupon booklets. After receiving complaints from a few parents, The Bookstore administration thought they should remove a coupon for The Ozone condom shop. The publishing company hired temps to rip out 15,000 of the coupons.
Here at The Arbiter, we couldn’t help but feel the need to address this situation. A tremendous portion of our lives and identities are tied into Boise State University. Last we checked the college campus is one of the prominent environments in American culture that is receptive to sexual activity and sexual health.
Apparently we have been mistaken. As it turns out, Boise State is just another tool for reticent parents to control the lives of their children from a morally comfortable distance.
The most stinging illustration of why this is so irritating relates directly to the purpose of condoms. The parents had coupons removed that promoted safety and health. The coupons provided a direct link for students to reduce the risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. According to the Journal of Sex Research 90 percent of college students are sexually active.
The removal of these coupons is commensurate to the removal of coupons for taxicabs or M.A.D.D. In those cases, they do not advertise for the consumption of alcohol, but instead educate and provide a safety net. The action itself is not the focus of the advertisement. Rather, it injects an environment of safety into a potentially risky situation.
The coupons are not intended to spread sexual activity, just to make sure people are safe if they choose to have sex. The simple point is that they were just coupons, no different necessarily than any of the other coupons presented in the booklet. It was just a piece of paper offering to sell an item at a discount as mandated by the storeowner.
Regardless, students are going to engage in the activity. A person’s decision to have sex is their personal decision that is based upon a life’s worth of experience and values. What The Bookstore and some parents decide isn’t going to change anything. Young college students will experiment and we should therefore promote sexual safety.
As students at BSU, we should demand information and options that will further our ability to be healthy, intelligent people. The moral of the story is, if you’re gonna love, use the glove.
The way we see it is based on the majority opinions of The Arbiter editorial board. Members of the board are Shannon Morgan, editor-in-chief; Bob Beers, opinion editor; Dale Eisinger, culture editor; Colby Stream, news editor; Jenny McBride, news coordinator; Kirk Bell, sports coordinator; and David Carrillo, production manager.
