Fire Up Your Sex Life

Burn something today in solidarity with the young women of Swaziland. They're torching their tasseled scarves, which are sort of like promise rings, except that a guy with 12 wives does the promising for you. AP reports:

At dawn Monday, thousands of Swazi girls removed tasseled scarves symbolizing their chastity, abandoning an ancient rite that was revived to combat the modern scourge of AIDS.

King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch, reinstated the umchwasho rite for five years in 2001, banning sexual relations for girls younger than 18. But the move was ridiculed as old-fashioned and unfairly focused on girls--and the king himself was accused of ignoring it…

They dropped the tassels in a heap, which state radio said would be burned at a public celebration Tuesday marking the official end of the chastity rite.

Whole delightful thing here.

ACLU asks why taxpayers are paying for promise rings here.

Comments

[joshua corning]

"ACLU asks why taxpayers are paying for promise rings here."

And i ask why is the government paying for AIDS at all....why should i pay for others risky behavior...i will defend thier right to do it...but i sure as hell shouldn't have to pay for it.

[Rich Ard]

Swaziland's government?

[linguist]

"...unfairly focused on girls--and the king himself was accused of ignoring it..."

Nice. Pig.

[linguist]

Joshua,
You make a good point. I was pretty shocked to be told by a (admittedly promiscuous) gay friend of mine that nowadays gay men WANT to get HIV, because the drugs are so good they end up in better shape than normal folks, and hey, the gov pays for all of it! AIDS is now seen as a one-way ticket to easy street...for a while...according to my friend.

[Julian Sanchez]

"nowadays gay men WANT to get HIV"

The whole bug-chasing phenomenon has been around for a while, but if your friend was claiming to be talking about anything more than an incredibly tiny proportion of the gay male population, that's some grade-A bullshit.