50 shades of what?

So I turned 40. I wish I could say something momentous happened. Some fundamental change occurred. Or that aliens swooped down and gave me the secret to renewable youth. Nope. Nothing remarkable happened except that I got one day older.

Age really is just a number. You don't feel yourself age. In fact you just continually feel like you. You don't even know you're aging until you die. So there. That's the secret of life. You live and then you die. Everything in between is your life. Its not getting older one should fear, its death. So when you're alive, just relax and enjoy.

Which brings me to my topic at hand. What is all this fuss about with 50 shades? I mean really if you wish to read BDSM porn then just do so and enjoy it quietly like everyone else does. Suddenly this glamorous version of dominion of a woman is sweeping the world and everyone goes doe eyed. Its exactly like Pretty Woman. Making a vice romantic. BDSM is a form of sexual perversion. I certainly don't judge it because I believe it does have its merits among adults. However, my concern is that this romantic version of BDSM has now entered the arena of popular culture. Making it accessible to the most easily influenced, most vulnerable sector of any population, its teenagers.

I recently learnt that sexual intercourse for 12-16 years olds is now legal as long as both partners are in that age bracket. I mean come on! That is just insane. Children that young? That alone was hard to absorb until I was also told that girls no longer needed the permission of a parent or guardian to have an abortion. Any girl at any age can get an abortion without telling anyone! We are opening the doors for sexual promiscuity and lifelong emotional self abuse. Imagine for a second that your daughter could have an abortion and you as the parent would never know.

When I first heard that Singapore bans the chewing of gum in public, I thought what a crazy infringement of my rights to eat what I wish. But their reasoning is starting to make more sense to me. Their streets are super clean. No graffiti on their trains. No trash. Their focus was to start with the smaller problems. Gum being stuck on public facilities was a problem, so they banned gum. Free abortion and consensual sex is a major problem, and fixing it starts with not making 50 shades of grey a romantic movie. Its not romance. Its exploitation.

Lets start somewhere to get our morals back in order.