Oh no, Brent Bozell of the far-right Media Research Center is very upset about Dan Savage’s new show on MTV, Savage U, and he has written a column about it!
MTV is now trying to lure young viewers with a saucy sex show in the “advice” category. They didn’t reach for Dr. Drew or God forbid, Dr. Ruth, or an actual doctor of anything. They turned to filthy sex columnist and gay activist Dan Savage.
Filthy! Why, he’s honest about sex and doesn’t shame people for wanting to have it, not even a little bit! How can people possibly learn about sex without first learning about terrible, sad, dejected guilt?
Savage explained to the Los Angeles Times that “The idea is we’re going to talk to these kids whether the parents want us to or not…It is an aggressive act. It’s not just feel-good, wishy-washy nonsense.”
Yes, because they are college students and they deserve to be spoken to like adult human beings.
In other words, there’s no room for virtue here. When a college boy says he wants to know a woman’s personality before engaging in sex, co-host Lauren Hutchinson says, “Well, your mom’s not watching this TV show, so what do you really think?”
Heaven forbid a person think for himself.
MTV wants us to know that Savage’s homosexuality makes him more qualified as a sex therapist. Exaggeration? In an online promo, Savage boasts “straight people correctly intuit that gay people know more about sex than they do.”
Well, Dan is pretty good at what he does. That’s why so many millions of people, of all sexual orientations and genders, have been reading his columns for decades.
The show begins with the disclaimer “Dan and Lauren are not licensed therapists. Dan isn’t even a licensed driver.” Still, they call it “a crash course in the real sex ed.” But this isn’t sex education. It’s just provocative, raunchy sex chatter, complete with lots of shots of shocked faces and laughter. It’s much more entertainment than education.
Talking about sex and having fun at the same time? Does Not Compute.
Savage’s first stop on the show is the University of Maryland. A small crowd there has gathered to giggle at his advice. He starts by reading cards from the audience. “Do guys really expect girls to remove all their pubic hair? And does that mean I have to do it?” Har, har. Savage answers: “You should style your vulva however it is you want to style your vulva.” Brilliant.
Okay, but how is this bad advice?
But just in case, the next ad break included a commercial for the Norelco Bodygroom Pro. There was also an ad for Axe dandruff shampoo that ends with a young man surrounded by three girls wearing just towels. MTV’s selling sex at almost every moment.
Because sex sells…don’t blame Dan Savage, Brent. Blame the free market.
Here’s another example of the Savage style at work. On a card, a woman complains: “My boyfriend is into something really weird. How can he get over it?” Pedophilia? Bestiality? Necrophilia? Who knows, and Savage doesn’t care even to ask. “He can’t. He won’t. He never will. And you should be willing to, as I always like to say in the column, be good, giving, and game. There are no normal guys. And if you dump the honest foot fetishist, you will marry the dishonest necrophiliac.”
YET AGAIN, how is this bad advice?! Because what I hear from Mr. Brent Bozell is just whole lotta “you college kids, get off my lawn, but don’t you dare go have sex!,” and not much qualitative criticism of what Dan Savage is saying. And the fact that “really weird” in Brent’s mind goes directly across all the other possible fetishes and straight to pedophilia, bestiality and necrophilia is, well, really weird to me.
What if the boyfriends likes whipping her? Or hanging her outside a window? Specifics would only ruin the droll dismissal of any idea of a normal, functional sexuality.
OR AS DAN SAID, maybe he’s just into feet?
At one point in the MTV show, Savage lectures a couple having “unprotected” sex that “Pregnancy is the ultimate sexually transmitted infection.” A child is a disease? How sick is that? He tells the female: “You can get birth control that’ll knock your eggs out for a year. You should. You must! Oh my God!”
My guess is that the couple doesn’t want children? I am aware that in Wingnut World, sex without the possibility of childbirth is evil indeed [while still being icky and shameful], but in the real world, heterosexual couples have intercourse and would like to avoid having babies. In which case it is very smart for Dan Savage to tell the couple to please look into birth control. Perhaps, as a father himself, Dan Savage understands the difference between wanted and unwanted children.
Savage argued “A lot of young people don’t have good sex education. This kind of program, where we are having fun and there are jokes and people are talking about sex and tend to be a little embarrassed, they laugh and it actually helps. It helps people learn to enjoy themselves and laugh along.”
True.
I don’t even watch teevee, but now I want to watch Dan’s new show. Is it on Netflix? Inquiring minds want to know.
