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Since I have a 26 month old nephew, I've found myself watching more Sesame Street lately than I have in years. The kid knows all the Muppets names on sight, and yet still hasn't learned to say "grandma" yet. That's a heavy tool for creating imprints, and more power to them.
So I think it's great that this will be on South African TV. The only people I think who have nearly as much use for some honesty about that is the Chinese, and, well, good luck there... However, and it may go against the grain, I actually don't think this specific Muppet should be integrated into the American Sesame Street. It's not as widely pervasive here as it is there, and while no one wants it to get any worse, it also is dwarfed by a good many other terminal diseases. If something along those lines is desired for the American version, have a Muppet with an unspecified, noncontagious but probably fatal illness, but show that character as active and upbeat. It's just that by HIV's very nature I don't think we need to be discussing these topics with our two to seven year olds. Yes, there are a great many ways to contract the disease, but first and foremost is unmediated exchange of carrier fluids, and the true of it is that far more often than not, that exchange happens during sexual contact.
But bringing homosexuality into the equation is just obnoxious, to the extent that even a great many Republicans are probably embarassed of a backward, anachronistic few in their own ranks. |
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