Taboos...

I was following the hurrah over Saints (#t), the new TV show in Kenya, and was bemused to see that Kenyan TV stations censor words like condom, God and sex. Yes (NTV wewe, even in England we hear about your nonsense). In 2011, at 20.30 on a Monday, this stuff still happens. The obvious questions were why the show was not given a later time slot, but more importantly, what exactly did they think would be achieved by censorship of that nature?!

It amazes me that some people still think that the only way to achieve anything is by clearly pointing out what’s taboo, because that obviously means our children will do the opposite, the non-taboo thing. Take Hosni Mubarak (and all other dictators really) as a crude example. He banned people from protesting, because he figured that would stop them. He didn’t care to find out what it was they wanted, but he assumed that saying ‘no, don’t do that’ would stop them. Ha! We are all children at heart: if you tell me not to touch something, I will want to touch that very thing. It’s not rocket science.

Censoring the word condom or sex. Did you think that would mean less Kenyans would think about sex? Or the 15 year old awake at 8.30pm (given all children under the age of 8 are probably asleep) wouldn’t be able to work out what the word was, or what it meant?! Jokes (for lack of a better insult). The person that devised the plan is a joke. The plan itself is a joke. The desired end...joke. The very opposite happened: people spoke about nothing else but the words that were censored, and you know what, that conversation was cool, and was about sex. So, joke’s on you. Mr Censorship (and all you dictators that think oppression lasts forever).

The Kenyan society is dominated by young people that don’t necessarily subscribe to their parents’ way of thinking. This is not due to a lack of respect (however hard my mother argues to the contrary), but rather, a result of exposure to a bigger sphere of influence. We all watched TV from a much younger age, had our first kisses before we could properly spell the word ‘awkward’, and generally pursued the forbidden fruit because our parents made it taboo, and hence fashionable. It’s a fact of life. Part of that discovery is a heightened awareness of ourselves as sexual beings. That doesn’t mean that all we do is do it (though for some of us...). It means that we simply don’t think a sexual identity of any sort will earn us dibbs next to Lucifer in the broiling chamber of doom (relax people, no need to shout ‘Shotgun not’). I and many of my friends are aware of our sexuality. Some choose to abstain, many choose to explore, and others choose to be liberal. We talk about it, and we respect each other, whatever one’s decision.

But good news for the censoring public and our parents; they need only be patient. Apparently, sex and all other fads, are like a time bomb...ticking, ticking, ticking, BOOM!!! and then there’ll be nothing left. According to the Sunday Time Magazine (Style section), loads of previously promiscuous people are over it. They did the sex thing, they experimented with partners, drugs and sexual openness, including, and preferably for that era, literally being snapped doing it. And then, they got over it. In fact, people actually report a sense of relief when they stop feeling sexy mid-forties, because perhaps they can carry on with knitting and cupcake baking while their partner finds a new hobby (usually a twenty-something girl that can only be described as VIVACIOUS, and with nipples more erect than the Berlin wall). One member of this ‘over-it’ era said ‘sex was cool when we were the only ones doing it openly and could flaunt it, you know, like cocaine. Now the village idiot’s doing it, so it’s time to find something new like, abstinence’. A bit like facebook and twitter then, huh?