Faith Groups Call Supermarkets to Cover Up the 'Smut'
Children are openly exposed to sexually explicit displays in such commonplace venues as grocery stores, and faith groups are speaking out to put a stop to shelving the sex advice that many magazines put out.
The latest issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine – a popular young women's magazine casually placed at the checkout counters of supermarkets – headlined "62 Sex Moves" on its front cover.
"Now that we have candy-free aisles for parents who don't want their children exposed to unhealthy stimuli as they go through the grocery check-out lanes, smut-free aisles are long overdue," said Dr. Janice Crouse, senior fellow at Concerned Women for America's Beverly LaHaye Institute, in a released statement.
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Other faith groups have begun to take action, sending out a letter to 558 supermarket executives telling them to "either cover up the sexually offensive headlines and photos on the front covers of magazines displayed at check-out lanes or to display them elsewhere."
Morality in Media, Inc. and American Decency Association, faith organizations that uphold decency in American media, warned that magazines with such explicit content and images to children could violate "harmful to minors" state laws and asked that the supermarket executives consider implementing policy that would not allow minors to purchase sexually explicit magazines.
Pornographic literature has increasingly made itself available on the market, many times in forms that seem harmless to children. Chicklet literature was labeled as "pornographic" by many Christians who have warned parents that even an encouraged activity like reading among children is something to be wary of.
"Parents have to be constantly diligent to protect their children's innocence," said Crouse. "It is reprehensible that they can't even go to the grocery store without having to be concerned about their children being exposed to smut and titillating headlines."
According to a national poll conducted in 1999, 73 percent of Americans thought such headlines as those on Cosmopolitan were "inappropriate" and 60 percent favored stores covering up headlines or not displaying them at check-out counters where they are clearly visible to children.
As Morality in Media stated, "That's pornography made available at the family supermarket."
