Post: #1

Take a look at the billboard in this BBC article. The text below says "Sugar Daddies Destroy Lives".



Some pretty heavy shaming language, to say the least.

Post: #2

(03-15-2013 03:58 AM)Soma Wrote:  Take a look at the billboard in this BBC article. The text below says "Sugar Daddies Destroy Lives".



Some pretty heavy shaming language, to say the least.

I think you're not understanding the cultural context. All I see is a pregnant teeanage slut on a bench who gets what she deserved after having transactional sex with an older dude at a ghetto bar. The language used isn't particularly 'shaming.'

The billboard is targeted towards 10 - 14 year old girls, as mentioned in the article, who are tempted to go for transactional sex but are not educated as to the consequences. I'm fine with the billboard.

Post: #3

Yeah, I've actually seen this billboard which is very culturally relevant.

These older guys are exchanging sex with very young girls for rides to school and very small amounts of money in very poor communities, which is extremely not good considering the unwanted pregnancies and the spread of HIV to these girls.

Post: #4

I'm in my mid 30s and I've got no qualms about "shaming" men who are my age, and cruise high school parking lots looking to pick up 14-15 year old girls.

Post: #5

They have a big problem with AIDS, 1 in 3 young women have it

They are not doing enough shaming as far as I am concerned

You have never been to SA, it is a hellhole full of crime, rape, AIDS and racial tensions

Post: #6

(03-15-2013 04:54 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  I think you're not understanding the cultural context. All I see is a pregnant teeanage slut on a bench who gets what she deserved after having transactional sex with an older dude at a ghetto bar. The language used isn't particularly 'shaming.'

The billboard is targeted towards 10 - 14 year old girls, as mentioned in the article, who are tempted to go for transactional sex but are not educated as to the consequences. I'm fine with the billboard.

I'm afraid I've been misunderstood: I'm not "for" or "against" the billboard, and though I'm no South Africa expert I'm well aware its current problems. I just found it interesting that the state used such explicit language for a PSA as I've never seen such a thing in a G20 country.

(03-16-2013 05:42 AM)Kentucky Wrote:  They have a big problem with AIDS, 1 in 3 young women have it

They are not doing enough shaming as far as I am concerned

You have never been to SA, it is a hellhole full of crime, rape, AIDS and racial tensions

Thank you for your penetrating insight, Kentucky. Care to tell me which other places I've never been to?

Post: #7

This kind of ad will have exactly zero effect on AIDS pregnancy or anything else. The problem is that, culturally and politically, the authorities are only permitted to shame the men involved. But transactional sex is just that - a transaction. And transactions have (at least) two parties. The girls involved have their own things going on and are just as "guilty". And don't tell me they are gold diggers/sugar babies in order to survive, or to help their poor families etc. That's a load of rubbish. They likely use the money for designer jeans, mp3 players, smartphones and all the usual stuff.

Yes, the men are older, so should be expected to be more responsible, but if they are targeting underage girls and/or underage girls are targeting Sugar Daddies then there's an even bigger issue here: stat rape. Outlets like the BBC will tend to misrepresent the age of the girls downward (for sensationalistic and political reasons) so they are not a good authority on what the average age the girls involved actually is. My guess is that most will be 16+, and therefore expected to have some degree of decision making power. The fact that the decisions they make are harmful to society and themselves (in the long term) is unfortunate, but there is no hope of a solution when authorities are only allowed to address half the people involved in an issue.Iit's like trying to clap with one hand.

Post: #8

(03-18-2013 12:05 PM)Bad Hussar Wrote:  My guess is that most will be 16+, and therefore expected to have some degree of decision making power.

Bro, I've worked in South Africa's ghetto hospitals. There are 13 and 14 year old pregnant girls coming in all the time. It's real and it's happening at your local ghetto bar.

Post: #9

(03-18-2013 12:29 PM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  

(03-18-2013 12:05 PM)Bad Hussar Wrote:  My guess is that most will be 16+, and therefore expected to have some degree of decision making power.

Bro, I've worked in South Africa's ghetto hospitals. There are 13 and 14 year old pregnant girls coming in all the time. It's real and it's happening at your local ghetto bar.

I have no doubt it happens, and I think when the girls are that young it is a big problem. Not that the police will have that much success but a much older man with a 13 year old girl should be prosecuted for statutory rape.

My problem is mostly that in practical terms only tackling one side of the transaction will get the authorities nowhere. It just turns into grandstanding where everyone jumps on board to take shots at the Sugar Daddies and "feel" like they are doing something, when they are having no effect at all.

Until I see official reaction also castigating girls for being Sugar Babies I can't take this program seriously.

Post: #10

South Africa's that lovely place where grown men with some AIDS rape babies believing this will cure them of it.