Two responses to my letter were printed on today's Straits Times Forum page. One from a concerned mother, another of course, from Mediacorp:
Hot babe? Such a girl used to be called 'cheap'
I AGREE fully with Mr Kelvin Lau that 'TV show shouldn't plug premarital sex' (ST, Sept 13). It is confusing for teenagers when, on the one hand, their parents and teachers tell them not to engage in premarital sex or at least delay it till they are more mature and able to differentiate between love and lust, and, on the other hand, some TV programmes are conveying the message that it is 'fashionable' and 'cool' to lose one's virginity at an early age.
I remember watching a TV programme in which a high-school student went round bragging about her first sexual experience.
Some TV programmes and magazine articles seem to suggest that to be 'popular' with the opposite sex, one must have the reputation of being sexually experienced. So, to qualify as a hot babe, a girl is supposed to have many boyfriends and have had many sexual encounters.
In the past, we would call such a girl 'cheap' or 'promiscuous'.
I was shocked when my daughter told me that most of her friends think it is perfectly normal for young women to cohabit and change boyfriends. They also say that these women and their boyfriends do not necessarily plan to marry each other. It seems that cohabiting is just a convenient arrangement for them to meet their needs for companionship and sex.
I hope that such women are psychologically prepared to face the consequences of accidental pregnancy - either becoming single parents or having an abortion if their boyfriends don't love them enough to marry them or share the responsibility of bringing up their babies.
Parents naturally want to prevent their daughters from having to learn the lesson the hard way. That's why they object to premarital sex.
TV producers should be more sensitive to parents' concern. There is enough material elsewhere to corrupt young and impressionable minds.
Lim Choon Kheng (Mdm)
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'Lust' episode a bid to give singles a hearing
I REFER to Mr Kelvin Lau Jit Hwee's letter, 'TV show shouldn't plug premarital sex' (ST, Sept 13).
Mr Lau rightly pointed out that the episode of What Women Want, Really that he saw was a tongue-in-cheek treatment of the topic of 'lust' (that is, lust for material comfort, lust for attention - rather than 'lust' in the sexual sense).
It was an attempt to give the topic a fresh look and to see how today's women define love and passion and how different it is from the conventional notion of lust as we know it.
From an editorial viewpoint, we would not have done justice to viewers if we did not try to provide a cross-section of profiles.
Having included one married couple's perspective on love and passion, it would be incomplete if we did not at least attempt to give the singles a hearing on this subject.
Mr Lau said he was worried the wrong message on sex was being sent to teenagers. We would like to assure him that they are not our target audience, as borne out by viewership surveys of our programmes.
The bulk of Channel NewsAsia's viewers are adult decision-makers and we have to pitch our topics accordingly so that they appeal to professionals, executives and businessmen who form two thirds of our viewers.
Still, we regret that this has caused concern to Mr Lau. Perhaps it was too bold a step to have a dating couple speak their mind on sex. We will be more mindful of such topics in future.
We thank Mr Lau for his feedback. If he or any reader is interested in more details about the editorial of our programmes, please e-mail us at programming@channelnewsasia.com
Han Chuan Quee (Ms)
Senior Assistant Vice-President Corporate Services
MediaCorp News Pte Ltd
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Quite expected actually, because, as one of my students put it, most teenagers DO NOT follow the programmes on Channel NewsAsia.
Hot babe? Such a girl used to be called 'cheap'
I AGREE fully with Mr Kelvin Lau that 'TV show shouldn't plug premarital sex' (ST, Sept 13). It is confusing for teenagers when, on the one hand, their parents and teachers tell them not to engage in premarital sex or at least delay it till they are more mature and able to differentiate between love and lust, and, on the other hand, some TV programmes are conveying the message that it is 'fashionable' and 'cool' to lose one's virginity at an early age.
I remember watching a TV programme in which a high-school student went round bragging about her first sexual experience.
Some TV programmes and magazine articles seem to suggest that to be 'popular' with the opposite sex, one must have the reputation of being sexually experienced. So, to qualify as a hot babe, a girl is supposed to have many boyfriends and have had many sexual encounters.
In the past, we would call such a girl 'cheap' or 'promiscuous'.
I was shocked when my daughter told me that most of her friends think it is perfectly normal for young women to cohabit and change boyfriends. They also say that these women and their boyfriends do not necessarily plan to marry each other. It seems that cohabiting is just a convenient arrangement for them to meet their needs for companionship and sex.
I hope that such women are psychologically prepared to face the consequences of accidental pregnancy - either becoming single parents or having an abortion if their boyfriends don't love them enough to marry them or share the responsibility of bringing up their babies.
Parents naturally want to prevent their daughters from having to learn the lesson the hard way. That's why they object to premarital sex.
TV producers should be more sensitive to parents' concern. There is enough material elsewhere to corrupt young and impressionable minds.
Lim Choon Kheng (Mdm)
------------------------------------------
'Lust' episode a bid to give singles a hearing
I REFER to Mr Kelvin Lau Jit Hwee's letter, 'TV show shouldn't plug premarital sex' (ST, Sept 13).
Mr Lau rightly pointed out that the episode of What Women Want, Really that he saw was a tongue-in-cheek treatment of the topic of 'lust' (that is, lust for material comfort, lust for attention - rather than 'lust' in the sexual sense).
It was an attempt to give the topic a fresh look and to see how today's women define love and passion and how different it is from the conventional notion of lust as we know it.
From an editorial viewpoint, we would not have done justice to viewers if we did not try to provide a cross-section of profiles.
Having included one married couple's perspective on love and passion, it would be incomplete if we did not at least attempt to give the singles a hearing on this subject.
Mr Lau said he was worried the wrong message on sex was being sent to teenagers. We would like to assure him that they are not our target audience, as borne out by viewership surveys of our programmes.
The bulk of Channel NewsAsia's viewers are adult decision-makers and we have to pitch our topics accordingly so that they appeal to professionals, executives and businessmen who form two thirds of our viewers.
Still, we regret that this has caused concern to Mr Lau. Perhaps it was too bold a step to have a dating couple speak their mind on sex. We will be more mindful of such topics in future.
We thank Mr Lau for his feedback. If he or any reader is interested in more details about the editorial of our programmes, please e-mail us at programming@channelnewsasia.com
Han Chuan Quee (Ms)
Senior Assistant Vice-President Corporate Services
MediaCorp News Pte Ltd
------------------------------------------
Quite expected actually, because, as one of my students put it, most teenagers DO NOT follow the programmes on Channel NewsAsia.
