GUEST ARTICLE
WHEN
UNCLOTHED IS UNFITTING: Thoughts
on Selling with Sex
Jonathan Edwards once said that godly
people can, as it were, smell the depravity of an act before
they can explain why it evil. There is a spiritual sense
that something is amiss. It does not fit in a world permeated
with God.
Ephesians 5:3 says that some things "are not fitting" among saints." "Fitting-ness" is
not always easy to justify with arguments. You discern it before you can defend
it. That's good, because we have to make hundreds of choices every day with
no time for extended reflection.
But from time to time we need to pause
and give rational, biblical expression why something
is not fitting. Some years ago I came to that point when,
week after week, a local newspaper put scantily clad women
on the second page of Section A in order to sell underclothes.
I wrote a letter to the paper with nine reasons why they
should stop using this kind of advertising.
Perhaps my reflections will help you deal with the hundreds of abuses of God's
good gift of sexuality in our culture. Here is what I wrote.
As a 14-year subscriber and reader of the [name of paper omitted], I
am writing to express the persuasion that your sexually
explicit ads that often turn up in Section A are increasingly
offensive and socially irresponsible. I mean that the
effectiveness of catching people's attention by picturing
a woman in her underclothes does not justify the ads.
The detrimental effects of such mercenary misuse of the
female body are not insignificant. The harm I have in
mind is described in the following nine persuasions.
1. This
woman could not go out in public dressed like that without
being shamed or being mentally aberrant. Yet you thrust
her out, even in front of those of us who feel shame
for her.
2. This
portrayal of a woman sitting in her underclothes at a
table with a cup of tea disposes men to think of women
not as persons but mainly in terms of their bodies. It
stimulates young boys to dwell on unclothed women's bodies
and thus lames their ability to deal with women as dignified
persons. I have four sons.
3. The
ad stimulates sexual desire which in thousands of men
has no legitimate or wholesome outlet through marriage.
In other words, it feeds a corporate, community lust
that bears no good fruit outside marriage, but in fact
many ills.
4. The
ad makes sensibilities callous so that fewer and fewer
offenses against good taste feel unacceptable, which
spells the collapse of precious and delicate aspects
of personhood and relationships.
5. The
ad makes thousands of women subconsciously measure their
attractiveness and worth by the standard of rarefied,
unrealistic models, leading to an unhealthy and discouraging
preoccupation with outward looks.
6. The
ad feeds the prurient fantasies of ordinary men, lodging
a sexual image in their minds for the day which can rob
them of the ability to think about things greater and
nobler than skin.
7. The
ad condones the proclivity of males to mentally unclothe
women by reminding them what they would see if they did,
and by suggesting that there are women who want to be
publicly unclothed in this way. This reminder and this
suggestion support habits and stereotypes that weaken
personal virtue and jeopardize decorous relationships.
8. The
ad encourages young girls to put excessive focus on their
bodies and how they will be looked at, adding to the
epidemic of depression and eating disorders.
9. The
ad contributes to dissatisfaction in men whose wives
can't produce that body and thus adds to the instability
of marriages and homes.
I realize
that the bottom line is big bucks for page two, and lots
of attention for [name of department store omitted]. But
please know that at least one assessment of your standards
of fitness for print is that it is part of a tragic loss
of modesty and decency that may, for now, feel like mature
liberation, but in generations to come will reap a whirlwind
of misery for all of us.
From
John Piper, A
Godward Life, published by Multnomah
Books.
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org.
|
