Taxi, taxi!
In the news this week – condom dispersal in taxis, pubs, and clubs – and binge drinking and its impact on the nation’s sexual health.
The first piece of news – what an original and bright idea! Health Promotion departments (if any still exist following the purge of Health Promotion departments, sorry ‘health improvement’ – new ‘buzz word’ – in the NHS ‘restructuring’) have been touting this sort of stuff for the past ten years at least – these ideas, plus others such as condoms in barber shops (something for the weekend sir?), work with football clubs, campaigns with bus companies and fast food outlets – none of this is new. Will anything change as a result of yet another call to arms? Doubtful. Unless these ideas are given long-term government funding and are mainstreamed as part of everyday sexual health work, rather than rolled out at Christmas, the summer holidays, or somebody’s pre-Valentine’s day bright idea to meet a government target before it’s sidelined as another target takes precedence, they will always be faddish projects making guest appearances as a headline grabbing sop to the media, then put away again for another season or year.
Binge drinking and sexual health? Nothing new there either. Again, the research has been there for so long that when people consume too much alcohol, their inhibitions go and people end up in situations, which depending on the circumstances they regret – or they don’t ; let’s be honest, whilst the SRE guidance re making people more confident to discuss sex is a great idea, a lot of people are inhibited when discussing sex, and for some people, like it or not, a little of the demon drink loosens tongues just enough to make that first approach – hard to believe huh! The issue becomes a concern when levels of intoxication lead to a lack of control, the loosening of inhibitions – and garments, and consideration of condoms – protection and contraception – goes out of the window in favour of the biological hard-drive. Problem is the hard-drive isn’t protected in this case and we end up with viruses, firewalls breached and software programmes that take 9 months to remove from the system. Etc. If you get my drift.
At the same time the link between sexual health and binge-drinking was revealed to the nation, we have the media frenzy surrounding the Christmas party held by members of the Manchester United football squad at a hotel in the city – an exclusive affair, a chance for the team to let their hair down, with lots of attendant young women, and flowing drinks. Or so we are informed by the media. Central to the lurid headlines is the allegation that a woman was raped at the party – and that a young player has been arrested. The implication being…we’ll leave that one to the tabloids, but it is also of interest that this occurred in the week when the England football team installed a new coach, one Fabio Capello, a man from a different football culture – and from a culture with a different attitude to alcohol.
The point of this is that in Italy, whence Signor Cappello hails from, being drunk in public is unacceptable, and drinking to excess is viewed as unattractive – very different from the night on the town in Valhalla, let’s get pissed and off our heads, have a punch-up, British beer – and sex and chips and gravy, we’re the fat slags, tits oot fer the lads (with a reference to Viz comic of course) revelling that is the staple of young British nightlife in our villages, towns, and cities; it’s part of our culture – and it’s going to take a sea-change of enormous proportions to turn it round to one where alcohol is something you drink sensibly with a meal – and not as a pre-requisite to a drunken fumble and leg over up a side alley; behind the bike sheds; or in a taxi. But at least the condoms will be free in the taxi; the question is when it comes to the crunch and the heat of passion will anyone bother to remember to put it on?
Leave a Reply