Sex and Violence

I have both publicly and personally spoken on the link between sex and violence over the past decade. Pervasive glorification of violence in America is woven through myriad aspects of the culture. You don't believe AG? It's so ubiquitous that whichever douche nozzle purchases the camouflage loafer, deserves the burnt coffee grinds he gets with his half cafe decafe mocha twist bullshit at Starbucks. Seriously, war clothes are not fashion despite what the Milan-New York-Paris set tell you.

Narrowing down the debate, I have spoken intimately about Americans obsession with guns and the gun culture that provides the framework. But this, well that just speaks for itself. Not only is the dispenser unlikely to store a condom in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendation, it's illogical and misogynistic.

Guns, and the violence their owners inflict is prevalent in all communities in the United States. Gun crime has risen steeply over the past four decades in America. Despite the fact groups such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) consistently claim they are the victims in the fight to reduce gun crime and limit gun culture's powers, there may never have been so many guns or gun-owners in America -- although no one can be sure, as no one keeps a reliable account. One federally funded study suggests that an estimated 215 million guns are available to consumers, with 50% of all US households owning one. These numbers suggest gun culture is part of mainstream America's conconsciousness and difficult to defeat.

An average of nearly eight Americans aged 19 and under are shot dead in America daily. In 2005 there were a reported 14,000 gun murders in the US -- with 400 of those included children as victims. Research suggests that homes with guns and abused women in them are six times more likely to be host to murder of the woman.Annually, there is approximately 16,000 suicides by firearm and 650 fatal accidents. Since the killing of then President John F Kennedy in 1963, more Americans have died in private gunfire at the hands of personal gun owners and/or their weapons than those who lost their lives serving in foreign battlefields in the entire the 20th century.

Given these statistics, I am not comfortable with the idea of a plastic gun being used to store and/or shoot condoms. Gun culture and those who support it are unlikely to make strides against these numbers. Yet, at some point we have to say enough is enough.