Sex on the editorial pages

THE EDITOR, Sir: I HAVE been reading newspapers in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and of course, US and UK newspapers for over 30 years, and only in Jamaican papers have I come across such frank sexual content on the editorial pages.

Some months ago Dr Garth Rattray wrote about a pretty woman/ugly man couple which perplexed him until a physical examination of the man revealed a huge organ, and this explained, in the thinking of the learned doctor, the apparent mismatch in looks. Last week, George Davis thought he could uplift his readers by an article entirely devoted to the ‘morality’ of very personal, private, sexual practices. Daniel Thwaites picked up the theme in a Sunday editorial page article.

Do readers really want to know that Dr Rattray, a doctor for goodness’ sake, thinks pretty women will overlook a man’s ugliness if he has a large organ or what George Davis makes of certain sex acts? I, for one, do not, and find this content offensive. I invite the editor to google all Caribbean newspapers, African newspapers in search of such offensively salacious content on the opinion/editorial pages. I will be willing to bet my eye teeth, he will find none!

I think the appearance of this sort of material in the editorial/opinion pages of a major Jamaican broadsheet is a symptom of our overexposure to sexual material and we have somehow lost our grasp of what is really suitable for public consumption at all levels, including your editorial/opinion pages.

CAROL ANDERSON WHITE