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It's not just teens who need sex education, their parents and grandparents could use extensive courses in sensuality and pleasuring too, according to an intriguing study.
It is certainly not surprising to anyone who reads and follows sex-related information. In fact, sex educators have been advocating for adult and senior sex education offerings for years.
In a world that focuses on the youth of its generation, the sexual needs of older folks are often neglected. I am a senior, a 54-year-old woman, who is also disabled. The unmistakable message to me from society is that my sex life is o-v-e-r, kaput, fineto.
Well, hell no! In fact, I have a better sex life now than I did 20 years ago, before my disability began to intrude on all aspects of my life.
Sex IS life. To deny that to aging populations is to strip them of their humanity instead of their clothes. They need to know how their bodies work, and how to make them work to receive and give the ultimate pleasure possible.
The following article, from LiveScience, underscores not only the importance of sex throughout our lives, but an unusual venue that some people are getting sex ed: At home parties that sell sex toys
Read the article below in its entirety, or directly at its website. And remember, the only time you're too old to have sex is when you're too old to draw a breath!
Many adults in the dark when it comes to sex ed
Public health educators, hosts of sex toy parties aim to inform 'sexually illiterate' U.S. adults
By Stephanie Pappas for LiveScience
"When Patty Brisben got into sex toy sales in 1983, she promised herself that she'd learn as much as she could about human sexuality. It's a promise that has come in handy over the years, especially since she's launched her own in-home sex toy party company, Pure Romance — and as CEO, has found herself running a fleet of employees who are half-salespeople, half-sex educators.
"I have grown women, they could be 40 and 50 years old, that will come [to parties] and say they don't even know and understand their body parts," Brisben told LiveScience. "That's not good."
Discussions regarding sex education usually revolve around educating teenagers. But increasingly, sexual health researchers say, adults are in need of sex education, too. When Bill Taverner, director of The Center for Family Life Education at Planned Parenthood of Greater Northern New Jersey, spoke at his parents' retirement community about sexuality and aging recently, the crowd — all older adults — was bigger than the turnout of any other session ever scheduled by organizers.
"They let me keep talking for three hours," Taverner, the co-author of the Planned Parenthood-published book "Older, Wiser, Sexually Smarter" (2009), told LiveScience.
Sexual illiteracy
There are a few reasons why adults have burning questions about an act most have been practicing for years, researchers say. For one, formal sexual education is uneven. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2002, only 22 states and the District of Columbia mandate sex education in their public schools (35 states mandate lessons on HIV and sexually transmitted diseases). Many of those states require an abstinence focus; others leave the nuts and bolts of lesson planning to local districts, where quality varies, according to the Kaiser report.
The result is a "sexually illiterate" population of American adults, said Michael Reece, a professor of health at Indiana University.
"Most adults just don't have the basic education about their bodies, the bodies of their sexual partners, relationships, sexual behaviors," Reece said. "We really have this deficit, I would say, across the country."
Even if every teenager got the best sex education available, Taverner said, it wouldn't be enough. Advice given to teens won't be as useful at age 60 when you're dealing with the physical changes of aging.
'Teachable moments' at sex toy parties
That's where people like Brisben come in. Sex toy parties, it turns out, are what public health educators call "teachable moments." Much like the Tupperware parties of the 1950s, sex toy parties involve inviting a group of women (parties are almost always female-only affairs) into a hostess's home for a combination soiree and sales pitch — but instead of soup mugs and sandwich keepers, the products in question include lubricants and vibrators.
It could be just another example of sexual consumerism, but Brisben doesn't see it that way. She's partnered with Reece and his colleagues at Indiana University to provide online training for all Pure Romance salespeople. The training module, which includes text, video and quizzes, covers the gamut from relationships and communication to STDs and sexual arousal.
The idea, Brisben said, is to create a comfortable environment where women can ask questions and get good answers. The most common questions, she said, tend to be about lack of libido and pain during sex.
Sex ed in the golden years
Other educators are seeking out adults in venues that are rarely associated with sexual education: churches, retirement centers, volunteer organizations such as Kiwanis clubs — even nursing homes. Here, the seminars revolve around later-life dating, physical changes, and the need for intimacy and touch.
"The major sex education for older people is being done by the pharmaceutical community, and we're concerned that that focuses on some pill you take and doesn't get at the major issues, which have to do with relationships and communication," said Peggy Brick, a sex educator who co-authored "Older, Wiser, Sexually Smarter" with Taverner. Brick also founded the Widener University Consortium on Sexuality and Aging, a group dedicated to sex education for older adults.
"My main theme is that people need new expectations," Brick told LiveScience. "If they expect sex to be like it was when they were a teenager, they're going to be disappointed. It's different, and in fact it can be considerably better, but people have to understand the changes."
One example of such a change is what's known as the refractory period for men, Taverner said. The refractory period refers to the time men need after an orgasmbefore they're physically capable of orgasming again. For male teens, the refractory period could last just minutes, while it could take days for older men.
"If no one has ever sat down with a man to talk about this important change, he would very understandably think that something is wrong with him," Taverner said.
Besides running sex-ed courses for older adults, Brick runs trainings for caregivers in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Staff may not understand that elderly people are sexual beings who need space to build intimate relationships, she said.
Ageism is a big problem when dealing with sexual education for older adults, Taverner said. Sex is portrayed on television and in movies as the domain of the young and pretty, he said, which can trigger body image issuesin older people. And young people underestimate how sexual older generations are, Taverner said. When teaching college students, he often asks them to think about how sexual they'll be in 50 years.
"Most of them give themselves high marks," he said.
But when he asks them to think about how sexual their grandparents or older acquaintances are, the numbers drop precipitously.
"People have an internal sense that we all want to be sexual beings throughout our lives, but we don't like to think of older adults as sexual beings," Taverner said. "We often think of the sexuality of older adults as something to joke about."
To Pure Romance's Brisben, any opportunity to educate is a good one. She's seen more discussion of sexual problems on television, she said, which she sees as a good sign that people are "opening up those doors."
"Everybody has sex, everybody does!" Brisben said. "It's part of what happens in life, and so if you don't take responsibility and you don't ask these questions, it's going to continue to be the ugly elephant in the room."'
— The Curator
Adult toys have gone mainstream in a big and surprising way, with female-only sex-toy parties now the rage nationwide, regardless of regional religious ideology.
When I was a kid, it was Tupperware home parties that caused a sensation, today that idea has been turned on its head. Now, those almost identical home parties have been converted into the perfect venue to sell adult sex toys and related items directly to women.
It is fascinating and also somewhat nauseating to realize that both marketing ploys peddle plastic that promises happiness to women.
“We argue that sex-toy sales follow the exact patterns of Tupperware sales but, since the artifacts sold are for the bedroom rather than the kitchen, foster an even greater sense of intimacy between the women – which has both positive and negative consequences for thinking critically about the commodification of sexuality, bodies, and lifestyles in our capitalist culture,” writes Martha McCaughey and Christina French in a journal article.
“Vibrators and other sex toys constitute the technological route to a self-reflexive body project of female orgasm. We ask to what extent such a body project, achieved primarily through an individualistic, capitalistic consumption model, can offer a critique of normative discourses of heterosexual sex and identity. Is this new plastic purchased at parties liberatory or just another form of containment? In other words, how much Tupperware does a woman really need to buy, before she’s been bought?” the women ask.
“My other ride is a Rabbit Pearl,” the authors quote an automobile bumper sticker.
There are almost as many different companies to contact for these “ladies nights” as there are women who want to host one.
Here’s one web advertisement, with the company name removed:
“These parties are fun, true. But they're also educational! Your Consultant is trained by sex health experts and arrives at your party with answers to the most intimate questions. She'll also tell you about new techniques and tips for improving your relationship with your partner! Where else can women discuss sexuality in a safe, comfortable setting? Your guests will remember your party for the great time they had, but also for the way it changed their lives.”
This company says it “has been enhancing the sexual relationships of our clients with sensual products designed to promote intimacy and communication between couples. We are recognized as the premier sensual products, party plan company in North America.
“Sensual aids and toys have been used dating back as far as recorded history. Today they are more popular than ever, yet many people need or want to be discreet about purchasing such items.
“Through our in-home parties, we are able to bring the value of product knowledge, education and confidentiality simply not found in the retail environment.”
In addition, this company, and all of the others, promise women a secure source of income, saying, it “offers women the opportunity to own and manage their own business, while promoting sexual awareness and well-being. Our direct-selling business model provides generous rewards and recognition for our independent consultants.”
Well, I say: BUNK!
Now, don’t get me wrong, I have always loved sex toys, I just don’t think this powerful marketing strategy revised for the new millennium is the right one for these products. Like Martha McCaughey and Christina French, I worry that it’s all just another way to make women into a commodity, including packaging their sexuality into giggly for-ladies-only parties.
And, like the authors, I fear linking the marketing to an intimate venue where women share personal secrets, only increases the likelihood they will buy, buy, buy! Finally, I fear this type of marketing will reach into additional generations of women.
Women are rarely given a chance in our society to truly understand their own sexuality, needs or desires. Without that basic knowledge, it is impossible to know whether a sex toy would be useful or not.
About 30 percent of all U.S. women report never having had an orgasm! That is a shocking statistic. It is important that women learn how their bodies work, what turns them on, and how to express that desire.
Sex toy parties do none of that. In fact, the vast majority of women who attend these parties buy products they believe their husbands or male partners will like – not products they, themselves, will enjoy.
It is all about how to make themselves appealing to the opposite sex, what sexy lingerie to wear, how to please and fulfill their man – the same messed-up agenda that women have been force-fed for decades. No wonder the economic template is 1950’s-60’s classic Tupperware.
Many of the women who attend these parties do not feel comfortable talking about sex or sex toys in other environments, and the marketers are banking on just that. They want these women to be nervous, even anxious, and to see their “parties” as the easiest, safest way to improve their sex lives for their men – so that they will become better wives and girlfriends.
Where once women were sold plastic containers as the end all and be all of the perfect wife’s arsenal, so too these parties promise vulnerable women sexual superiority through the knowledge and use of sex toys and intimate items.
Women should be free buy sex toys if they are interested in them. They should feel comfortable enough to buy them on their own, or with their partners, or not buy them if they do not want or need them. They should NOT be treated as though their real sexual needs and desires should only be addressed within the boundaries of an all-woman conspiracy that closes its ranks and offers only silence to the world.
Women deserve respect, information, and choice. Marketing sex toys at them by trading on the unique friendships between women within their own homes is obscene. It masquerades as an opportunity for women to earn money at home, and help other women. In point of fact, it creates an environment that pretends real concern for women’s lives. The truth is this is marketing, pure and simple.
The “consultants” at these parties are generally NOT sex therapists or relationship experts. They are the Best Buy associates of sex toys: they know how the gizmos work, that’s all. They can’t help you improve your intimate life, only you and your partner can do that. If you are unhappy with your sex life, do something about it. Talk to your partner, seek real help. Going to a party and buying a sex toy or related item from a stranger will do nothing but make your wallet lighter.
In the future, I will be launching a new feature on this blog: Inside the Adult Toy Box. It’s goal will be to describe the advantages of some of my favorite sex toys. It is not designed to supplant a woman’s choice, or to influence anyone to buy a product in lieu of understanding their own body and their needs. It is meant solely as providing information, my personal opinions and preferences.
The Internet has opened up a whole new world of information literally available at the tap-tap of a key pad. If you do not know about sex, the way your body works, and are too uncomfortable to talk to someone directly then: Research, research, research!
If your relationship is not what you want it to be, talk to your partner or seek real help from trained professionals, etc. Don’t be fooled by marketers who could care less about your real life and sexuality, but solely on making the next sale.
—The Curator
This time, they hope what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas: ROXXXY the sex robot had her cumming-out party in Sin City, so to speak, and all that was missing was an after-smoke.
In what is billed as a world first, a life-size robotic girlfriend complete with artificial intelligence and flesh-like synthetic skin was introduced by a New Jersey company to adoring fans at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. It seems that Roxxxy is poised to revolutionize the sex toy industry.
Can anyone say Stepford Wives?
"She can't vacuum, she can't cook but she can do almost anything else if you know what I mean," TrueCompanion's Douglas Hines said, clearly devoid of any subtlety whatsoever. "She's a companion. She has a personality. She hears you. She listens to you. She speaks. She feels your touch. She goes to sleep. We are trying to replicate a personality of a person."
A male sex robot named Rocky is in development by TrueCompanion.
Can anyone say Stepford Husbands?
At the Expo demonstration, the sexrobot said, "I love holding hands with you" when it sensed that its creator touched its hand. Another action, this one unprintable, elicited quite a different vocal response from Roxxxy.
The level of sophistication demonstrated was not beyond that of a child's talking toy, but Roxxxy has a lot more brains than that – there's a laptop computer (which is included with every purchase) connected to cables coming out of its back. It has touch sensors at strategic locations and can sense when it's being moved. But it can't move on its own, not even to turn its head or move its lips. The sound comes out of an internal loudspeaker.
Hines, founder of the Lincoln Park, N.J.-based TrueCompanion LLC, said Roxxxy can carry on simple conversations. The real aim, he said, is to make the doll someone the owner can talk to and relate to.
"Sex only goes so far – then you want to be able to talk to the person," Hines said.
The phrases that were demonstrated were prerecorded, but the robot will also be able to synthesize phrases out of prerecorded words and sounds, Hines said. The laptop will receive updates over the Internet to expand the robot's capabilities and vocabulary. Since Hines is a soccer fan, it can already discuss Manchester United, he said. It snores, too.
A Japanese company, Honey Dolls, makes life-size silicon sex dolls that can play recorded sounds, but Roxxxy's sensors and speech capabilities appear to be more sophisticated. Hines' goals are certainly more far-reaching.
An electrical engineer and computer scientist who formerly worked on artificial intelligence at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Hines said he was inspired to create the robot after a friend died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. That got him thinking about preserving his friend's personality, to give his children a chance to interact with him as they're growing up. Looking around for commercial applications for artificial personalities, he initially thought he might create a home health care aide for the elderly.
"But there was tremendous regulatory and bureaucratic paperwork to get through. We were stuck," Hines said. "So I looked at other markets."
In 1993, Hines designed "Trudy," his first sexbot that the inventor admits was not as "user friendly" as the current model. It was during his work at Bell that Hines learned the latest artificial intelligence systems, which assisted him in the development of the robot.
He unveiled Roxxxy with a lot of fanfare, which cost between $1 and $5 million to develop and took about two and a half years to produce. Hines said he combined his background with the expertise of 18 artists and engineers from three countries to create a robot designed to "deliver the best in robot sex."
"It's really a labor of love," he said.
But, the broader goal of the company is still to take artificial personalities into the mainstream, beyond sex toys, Hines said.
"The sex robot thing is marketing – it's really about making a companion," he said.
In a 2007 book, "Love and Sex with Robots," British chess player and artificial intelligence expert David Levy argues that robots will become significant sexual partners for humans, answering needs that other people are unable or unwilling to satisfy.
But even though Roxxxy is "always on," her attraction isn't supposed to be about only sex.
According to TrueCompanion's Web site, she "can carry on a discussion and express her love to you and be your loving friend. She can talk to you, listen to you and feel your touch."
The dark-haired, lingerie-clad Roxxxy prototype robot is modeled after a Caucasian fine arts student and is 5 feet 7 inches (170cm) tall and weighs 120 (54.43kg) pounds, and "has a full C cup and is ready for action," according to Hines. Owners can customize Roxxxy's features and change her race, hair and eye color, and breast size.
The anatomically-correct robot has an articulated skeleton that can move like a REAL woman but, as previously mentioned, can't walk or independently move its limbs. The Robotic movement is built into "the three inputs" and a mechanical heart that powers a liquid cooling system.
“She knows exactly what you like. If you like Porsches, she likes Porsches. If you like soccer, she likes soccer," Hines said.
Prospective owners can pick from the five different "personalities" depending on their individual preference. There is Wild Wendy, who is outgoing and adventurous; Frigid Farah, who is reserved and shy; Mature Martha, who provides the matriarchal kind of caring; a young unnamed doll with a naïve personality; and S&M Susan, who is...uh...available for more adventurous types.
Customers ordering the robot online detail their tastes and interests much like online dating sites but here, the information is used to get the mechanical girlfriend in synch with her mate.
"She knows exactly what you like," Hines said of Roxxxy, noting that Rocky will also come with personalities.
Roxxxy will chat with her flesh-and-blood mate, and touching her elicits comments varying according to personalities. She is wirelessly linked to the internet for software updates, technical support and to send her man email messages.
Roxxxy is also Wi-Fi capable, and her little quirks, like the way she holds your hand, can be shared with other sexbot owners through the True Companion Web site. Wi-Fi also makes Roxxxy easily upgrade-able, in case a new OS debuts, or – shudder to think – she catches a computer virus!
After customizing their TrueCompanion personalities, owners can then share the programs with others online on the company's website, according to Hines.
"Just think about wife or girlfriend swapping without actually giving the person to someone else," Hines said. "You can share the personality online."
Hines sees his creation as not only a recreational innovation but as an outlet for the shy, people with sexual dysfunction, and those who want to experiment without risk.
Roxxxy versions are priced from $7,000 ($A7,634) to $9,000 ($A9,815), depending on features. The sex robot is available in the U.S. and Europe and will eventually be available globally, according to Hines.
The AVN Adult Entertainment Exposition takes place annually in Sin City, side-by-side with the Consumer Electronics Show. As technology fans convene on Vegas for the gadgetfest, they're also given the opportunity to visit AVN for a dose of the content that drives is often assumed to drive technology adoption.
—The Curator
At Duke University, a school that likes to tout its cutting-edge research, a sex toy study being conducted by a behavioral economist and student health workers has roused criticism from the clergy.
For much of October, researchers recruited female Duke students to take part in a "sexually explicit" study on Tupperware-style parties in which sex toys, not kitchenware, are the draw.
The ads, which were posted around campus and on a research study Web site, sought female students at least 18 years old to "view sex toys and engage in sexually explicit conversation with other female Duke students."
Participants will be asked to complete online questionnaires about their sexual attitudes and behaviors and visit the lab for a "one-hour party" with seven or eight women. Not only will the students be asked to complete a second questionnaire a couple of months later, they will receive a gift bag, and be given the opportunity to purchase items at a significantly reduced rate, according to the ad.
The study is being led by Dan Ariely, the James B. Duke professor of behavioral economics in the Fuqua School of Business. He declined to discuss the purpose of the research, saying it could taint the results. A spokesman for Duke said the sex-toy party project went through the peer review process.
Father Joe Vetter, director of the Duke Catholic Center, was so troubled by the ads that he contacted Ariely, the professor of behavioral economics at the Duke business school, and senior fellow at the Duke Kenan Institute for Ethics involved in the study.
"My understanding is there is a concern on campus about promiscuity," Vetter said.
In recent years, some university health centers have touted sex toys as alternatives to risky sexual behavior and serial promiscuity. The study, Vetter said, was designed by health care workers to see whether such approaches work.
"I'm concerned about promiscuity also," Vetter said. "And to be honest, I don't have the solution...My concern is these students are in this developmental phase, and I don't think it's a good developmental practice to just tell somebody to just sit around and masturbate. I don't think that promotes relationships."
Vetter hopes to take up the topic on Sunday with students. He wrote for the Sunday bulletin: "Can We Talk About Sex in Church?"
Efforts to reach Ariely and others in charge of the research project were unsuccessful. The ad no longer appears on the Web site, Duke officials say, because the study is filled and is no longer accepting volunteers.
Michael Schoenfeld, Duke's vice president for public affairs, said research is an important part of the university's mission. All studies using human subjects go through a rigorous peer review process before they can begin, he said.
"Not all research will make people comfortable. In fact, there's a lot of things, there are a lot of questions, there are a lot of issues that are studied at a university that make people uncomfortable," Schoenfeld said. "That's how we get an understanding of things like ethics (and) behavior."
Academic freedom and the need for research doesn't shake Vetter's belief that Duke would be better off ending the sex toy study.
"It's not fostering relationships, and it seems to me that one of the things that we want young people to do is to figure out how to have deep, intimate friendships and relationships," he said. "I would draw the line at a different place. I don't think that it's a good idea."
Sophomore Taylor Sites said she heard about the study from her roommate and said she didn't see anything wrong with it.
"Anyone who is interested, sure, why not?" Sites said. "(It's) not that big of a deal."
Graduate student Christopher Nafis said he was surprised Duke would conduct such a study.
"I wouldn't think college students would be particularly interested in that kind of thing," Nafis said. "It seems like it might be embarrassing for a lot of people to talk publicly about what kind of sex toys they are buying."
"I think it can give the impression that the university is endorsing behavior that I don't think the university should endorse," Vetter said. "I don't think that's the intention of the university, but I think it can be perceived that way."
(“In recent years, some university health centers have touted sex toys as alternatives to risky sexual behavior and serial promiscuity. The study was designed by health care workers to see whether such approaches work.” Bravo to the Duke Blue Devils! I think studies that try to find the truth, especially from young adults, about their sexual behavior to better improve and promote safe sex should be lauded, not attacked! Behavioral studies do not INFLUENCE human behavior they RECORD it, for God’s sake. Should we do nothing to learn and just accept more and more unwanted pregnancies, AIDS, and other STD's? Time we stopped being so freaked out by anything and everything related to the most natural human act there is. The conservative right has had way more than their 15 minutes of fame. It’s time we make decisions that are in people’s best interest, not mindlessly follow in lock-step behind anyone who claims they speak on behalf of religion!
— The Curator)
In Saudi Arabia, which enforces absolute adherence to Islamic Law and strictly segregates the sexes, it is verboten to discuss sexual matters openly, or especially in public.
That unforgiving taboo has been underscored this month in Riyadh when the goverment handed down strict punishment, which included suffering lashes and/or imprisonment, to five men and a female journalist allegedly involved in a provocative TV talk show interview that aired in July.
On Saturday, the female journalist was sentenced to receive 60 lashes for her links to a Saudi-owned Lebanese TV station that broadcast the show in which a Saudi man appeared to boast about his sex life, outraging Saudi conservatives and leading to the his Oct. 7 imprisonment.
The female journalist, Rosanna al-Yami said Saturday that a Jeddah judge dropped all charges that she had been directly involved with the program, on the Beirut-based network LBC. However, al-Yami said the judge sentenced her to receive 60 lashes for having been a part-time employee for LBC's Saudi operations. The judge said that LBC had lacked the appropriate operating license.
"It's a punishment for all journalists through me," al-Yami told Associated Press by telephone Saturday.
"They just said the channel was illegal. But the Saudi minister of information himself appeared on LBC a couple week ago," she said.
al-Yami is believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to be given such a punishment. The charges against her included involvement in the preparation of the program, and advertising the segment on the Internet.
Her sentencing comes after a sales clerk with Saudi Arabian Airlines, Mazen Abdul Jawad was convicted Oct. 7 of offensive behavior. He was sentenced to five years in prison and is to receive 1,000 lashes.
His sentencing stemmed from his appearance on the LBC weekly talk show "Bold Red Line," in which he talked about picking up girls and having sex with them.
In the program, which aired July on the Lebanese LBC satellite channel, Abdul Jawad, 32, describes an active sex life, and even displays sex toys that were blurred by the station.
The divorced man with four children talked about the first time he had sex, and explained how he met women in Jeddah on the Red Sea coast. He also showed sexual aids he employed.
Extra-marital sex is illegal in Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative societies in the Arab world.
“Abdul-Jawad was referring to other people’s sexual experiences and the aids were provided by LBC,” according to his attorney, Sulaiman al-Jumeii. “He wasn’t talking about himself.”
The attorney maintains that his client was duped by the TV station, and was even unaware in many cases he was being recorded.
The same court that sentenced al-Yami on Saturday had also sentenced Abdul-Jawad.
The content of the program violated the country’s media policy, Information Ministry spokesman Abdul Rahman al-Hazza said in a telephone interview in Riyadh in August. Saudi Arabia prohibits the use of sexual content on TV, in newspapers, or in books and magazines.
On Saturday, al-Jumeii told The Associated Press that not trying his client or al-Yami before a court that specialized in media matters at the Ministry of Culture and Information was a violation of Saudi law.
"It is a precedent to try a journalist before a summary court for an issue that concerns the nature of his (her) job," he said.
Three friends who appeared on the show with Abdul Jawad were sentenced to two-year terms in prison, and ordered to receive 300 lashes each; while a cameraman who helped film the episode was sentenced to two months in jail.
al-Hazza told The Associated Press on Saturday that he had no details of al-Yami’s sentencing, and could not comment.
When it aired in July, the interview spurred more than 200 people to file legal complaints against Abdul-Jawad, who was dubbed a “sex braggart” and the “Saudi Casanova” by the Saudi media, which cited many people in the kingdom as saying he should be punished. The Jeddah and Riyadh offices of LBC, which is controlled by Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, were forced to suspend operations after the program aired.
Abdul Jawad later apologized, saying producers at the TV station had tricked him into some of his accounts.
"My client has been presented to the people as a scapegoat to cover up the real culprit LBC," al-Jumeii said.
Saudi Arabia enforces a strict version of Islam, requiring people to pray five times a day, banning women from driving and denying them work or travel without a male relative’s permission. Cinemas are prohibited, and religious police patrol shopping centers enforcing Islamic law, including preventing unmarried men and women from mingling.
(It is impossible for a westerner like me to relate to such strict behavioral standards. Even from a religious perspective, it is very, very difficult if not impossible for me to understand such requirements. It is, however, vital to remain respectful of other cultures and religions, and to strive to refrain from passing judgment.
It is essential that cultural patterns are reported, and that information runs freely between all societies regardless of religious or political beliefs, especially including societies that do not mirror our own. Understanding should be a universal goal if there is ever to be true peace between disparate countries. Information and communication is THE key to making that goal a reality.
I strongly believe that each US citizen has an ethical and moral duty to ensure our culture remains free, but it is NOT our job to impose those Democratic principals and values, or to force the religious freedoms that we enjoy upon the rest of the world. If any society wishes to embrace a broader view, their members must make an informed decision to do so. Change must come from within ---The Curator)
