The Icing on the Cake

For my final blog I hit the jackpot! I found a whole page dedicated to an advice column, er, a sex therapy advice column. This column is probably very helpful to many people who read it and realize they too are going through the same thing. I found it interesting just to read about these people having affairs and being cheated on. This is definitely something you don’t find in American newspapers though it would probably be a big hit if they would include something like this! I enjoyed reading it and think it should be included in our papers. Obviously the Brits enjoy it because it had a whole page dedicated to these letters. 

And the Home Wrecker is...

I read an article about a lawyer who murdered his wife when she was trying to leave him after finding out he was having an affair. This is not unusual, these stories are printed all the time. The thing that got me was that they printed the name and occupation of the woman the lawyer was cheating with.  These details are usually never printed in an American newspaper. I’m not sure why exactly, maybe for privacy reasons, maybe for safety reasons, but names are usually not revealed. This is not so in UK papers. I guess they think that everyone should be revealed when a man kills his wife over an affair. I think that’s only fair. Everyone should know that you are the home wrecker that drove this man to kill his wife.

Two-Sec Hef

It is pretty safe to say that most everyone in the world knows who Hugh Hefner is or has at least heard his name mentioned along with his magazine ‘Playboy’. It is also pretty well known that he has had hundreds of girlfriends and enough sex for a lifetime. Though, what people did not know has now been revealed by Hefner’s ex-fiancé, Crystal Harris. Harris told Howard Stern in an interview that she only had sex with Hefner once during their relationship and that it lasted “two seconds”.  This type of information is nothing new for Stern’s radio show but I can hardly see how this is newsworthy enough for a newspaper, though it was printed in the Sun. Something like this would never be printed in an American paper, one because Hefner would probably sue them over it, two, because it is about someone’s sexual relationship, which is not appropriate to be printed in a newspaper. Obviously sex is not a taboo subject for the Brits. 

Happy Ending?

While reading the Wharf I found a section titled ‘Adult Massage’ and under it was a section for ‘Hostess and Escorts’. I could not believe that these advertisements were in a newspaper! You never see these things advertised anywhere except the internet in the US! Some of them even include websites that you can visit, which I did to see what was there. I could not believe my eyes. All of the massages included what we in America call a happy ending. Now, I know that many people use these services but my concern is for children that may come across these advertisements and decided to look up the website. They could learn way too much too early or even be scarred for life by some of the things they read and see on these sites. I don’t think these types of advertisements should be allowed in a newspaper. They are better off on the internet, though children could still find them, it is a little less likely unless they search for them on Google. 

Advertisements

The only gentleman’s club I’ve ever seen in America was on a billboard while driving down the interstate. These are not advertisements that go on television, in magazines, and especially not in newspapers. I was shocked to find an advertisement for the Spearmint Rhino Gentleman’s Club while flipping through the London Evening Standard. The advertisement featured a girl with very large boobs wearing small strings that were meant to cover her private parts. Though there were no inappropriate parts showing in the ad, I was still very shocked to see this ad in the newspaper. It even had a five pounds entry coupon. Again, you would never see this in an American paper. 

A Casualty of Riots

A gruesome picture of a man who looks as if he has a balloon blown up on the inside of his face stared at me as I turned the page of The Metro. Blood covered his shirt and his eyes were swollen shut. Just looking at the picture made me hurt. This is not something you would find in a US paper. There’s too much blood on the man’s shirt for it to be printed. Pictures like this are too disturbing for American people to see, or so believes the people who have the final say over what goes in the newspaper. I personally think there should be more pictures like this in the US papers so people can see what is really happening around the world. We are so sheltered here, we like to pretend that these types of things don’t really happen because we don’t see them unless we search for them on the internet. I think there should be more of them thrown in our faces like they are in the UK papers, so maybe then, we won’t be so blind to what is really happening. 

Looking for some fun?

One of the things that I found in the London Evening Standard that I thought was funny was all of the advertisements for adult chat lines. You see these types of things in the backs of American magazines but not in an American newspaper. There were at least 6 different chat lines for “older ladies” and “college girls” to call. Some of them even included pictures of girls that were supposed to be sexy but just looked nasty to me. And of course, their boobs were hanging out everywhere.