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July 30, 2004
Our son Justin just
graduated from college and came home for a few weeks to regroup before
heading off for a new life in Florida.
Sorting through his
belongings and packing boxes, we came across the twelve VCR tapes of
James Bond movies Justin recorded many years back during a week-long
Bond marathon on television. Forty years of 007 tradition…Moneypenny,
“M”, vodka martinis, shaken not stirred, gadgets in watches, cars that
sail and fly into space…all of it tightly packed into a box headed for
Florida.
Bond, the ultimate
Man...always clever, swift, rough, rugged, deft, handsome,
smug, suave, debonair. Bond…always a survivor.
Not anymore.
But it’s not what
you might expect. Bond is not in danger of death from villains,
double-crosses, guns, crossbows, or bombs. Nope.
It’s the action
under the sheets that has Bond one step from the grave.
Professor John
Ashton, a director of public health in the UK, has just pointed out
the obvious. If James Bond were a
real person, the good professor tells reporters, he would have almost
certainly been HIV positive. 007 is more at risk from careless sex
than he is from any arch enemy.
Beginning in 1962
with Ursula, Eunice, and Daniela, straight through forty years into
the new millennium with Denise and Elektra…The World is Never
Enough when it comes to Bond and his women. No matter how swift
the action and dangerous the situation, in each and every movie 007
always has time to “make whoopee” with a new Bond woman.
Liberated by
Hollywood magic, Bond and his eternal harem are free to flow with
their sexual urges. No matter how short the friendship, or how
fleeting the relationship, 007 and his woman of the moment inevitably merge in a
big-screen sexual romp.
According to
Hollywood, sex is everything wonderful…anytime, anywhere, and with
anyone.
According to
medical realities, sex is only wonderful…in the right time, in the
right place, and with the right person. And no gadget known to
mankind will save Bond…or the rest of us…from the inevitable.
Medical realities
are amassing in data to prove the truth of what abstinence educators have
been teaching over the past twenty years. Professor Ashton raises the
same alarm. Sex has consequences, both good and bad. And the bad
consequences of sex will not disappear, no matter how big the denial
is from those who promote condoms and “safe sex.”
The medical
realities are these. The world is engulfed in a major STD epidemic.
We now have over 20 serious STDs responsible for death, infertility,
and incurable infections. New national figures just released for
England,
where Professor Ashton lives, show a dramatic increase of STDs.
Syphilis is up 28 per cent from the previous year, and chlamydia is up
by nine percent. No wonder.
Condoms are not
fail-safe. They are subject to failure…and lots of it. For teens and
pregnancy, condoms fail approximately 20 percent of the time.
Condoms are never
fail-safe. They have no documented effectiveness in preventing
humanpapilloma virus (HPV) infections, the virus responsible for over
97 percent of cervical cancer. Genital herpes viruses infect one in
five people over the age of twelve… partly owing to the fact
that they live on body areas not covered by the condom. These are just a few of the realities that never touch Bond.
Hollywood profits
from building the illusion that Bond will never die…from anything.
This
makes for great movies. But in our hearts, we know the truth.
We know it’s an
illusion when we see 007 dodging a hail of bullets, skiing off the
top of the Alps and landing with a downhill swoosh of grace, sailing
down the slope, around the trees, and over the rocks…his hair unmessed
and his body unsmashed.
In bed, the
illusions are no less spectacular. Bond has been allowed to dodge
STDs, pregnancy and abortion through ignorant movie “madness.”
Illusions make
great movies. But they are deadly in real life.
No doubt about it.
If you want to Never Say Die, take note. Bond is a great
thrill to watch. But he is no role model for living a life in the
real world…on the slopes…in space…or under the sheets.
Copyright © 2004 Jane Jimenez
April 30, 2004
Condoms: A Failure to Protect
Question: Did James Bond ever
marry?
Answer: Come back next week for
the answer...
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