MTV’s RJ Berger Trashes Purity Clubs

 

In TV shows from Gossip Girl to Glee, today’s entertainment industry relentlessly pushes the view that teenage sex is glamorous fun completely without significance or consequence. More and more teens are rebelling against the multi-billion-dollar industry’s attempts to manipulate and reduce them to sex objects by embracing a truly “counter-cultural” attitude, which equates sex not with mindless gratification, but with love and commitment. The popularity of romantic stories like the Twilight saga (with its notably chaste protagonists) is one example. Another is the real-life popularity of Purity Clubs, in which teens band together to support one another in delaying sex until they are prepared to make a lifetime commitment.

 

Naturally, those who write television cannot abide the thought of anyone thinking differently than they do, especially when it comes to acting responsibly about sex. Thus, it has become routine for teen-targeted comedies and dramas to have an episode deriding Purity Clubs, denouncing the club’s (generally religious) members as sex-crazed hypocrites. This allows entertainment industry writers to mock their two pet hates, chastity and religion, simultaneously. One such example occurred early in the first season of Fox’s hit Glee, in which Purity Club members were shown engaging in prurient games, with the head of the club becoming pregnant by someone other than her longtime boyfriend.

 

But Glee‘s treatment was mild compared to that shown on the July 16th episode of MTV’s The Hard Times of RJ Berger (10:00 p.m. ET). Given that RJ Berger features “swinger” parents, oversexed teens, and as lead character a teenage boy who exposes himself to the entire school, it could hardly be expected that the show’s writers would look favorably on the idea of teenage chastity. Even so, the wave of vitriol poured forth against abstinent teens on the program can hardly be believed.

 

The episode (oh-so-cleverly titled “Over The RainBLOW”) opens with RJ’s father advising him that a man must “hump a few clunkers before you can fondle a Ferrari.” RJ befriends his new neighbor, the English-Indian exchange student Claire. RJ is initially disappointed to learn that Claire has joined the high school Purity Club; but RJ’s sleazy friend Miles convinces him that Purity Club meetings, organized by religious teens, are actually orgies of non-vaginal sex, including “rainbow parties” in which multiple girls take turns administering oral sex to boys.  RJ attends a meeting with Claire and discovers the rumors are true. 

 

This simple summary, however, cannot convey the depth of hatred the show’s writers have for teens who act responsibly:

 

Miles: “Everyone knows that purity girls are the hugest sluts in school! You ever heard of a rainbow party? The purity kids invented them!”

 

An animated sequence in rainbow colors is shown. Condoms drop from the sky as sexy women in thongs with prominent rear-end cleavage showing dance about.

 

Miles: “They’re also called Everything Butt parties, because it’s everything but sex. You know, like “butt sex.” Like “butt” with two t's. That's how they stay technically pure: saving the baby hole for the Lord.”

 

RJ: “So what goes down at these parties?”

 

A woman places lipstick on her mouth. A zipper opens. Animated lipstick mouths appear.

 

Miles: “Girls do. Apparently there's a punch bowl filled with lipsticks, all the colors of the rainbow. The goal is for each girl to leave her color on as many guys as possible. When they're done, each girl has left her mark. And by keeping the front door nailed shut, they've done it all with God's approval!”

 

RJ is accepted into the club by talking “about God, marriage and Kirk Cameron.”  At the Purity Club meeting, girls read Bible passages, then pass out and apply different colored lipsticks to initiate the new members. The Purity Club girls kneel before the boys seated in a circle, a cross prominently displayed in the background. The lead girl unzips RJ’s pants, preparing to perform oral sex on him, and reacts to the sight of his penis with Biblical terminology:

 

girl: “Noah's Ark! That's a lot of wood. It's one of God's miracles! Do you mind if I say Grace first?”

 

The tendency in the mainstream news media has been to downplay “rainbow parties” as merely an urban legend. But given the fact that a 1995 National Survey of Adolescent Males found that half of boys aged 15 to 19 had received oral sex from a girl, and that a 2004 NBC-People survey of 13- to 16-year- olds found that 12 percent had engaged in oral sex, is it not in some degree irresponsible for MTV to essentially instruct teens in how to have such a party?

 

This is not even to mention the program’s hate-filled invective against religious believers. If America had a la carte Cable Choice, such individuals would not be paying to support MTV’s programming; but under the current cable and satellite TV regime, every subscriber was forced to pay for this show whether they wanted to or not.

 

The Hard Times of RJ Berger is proudly sponsored by Burger King, which showed TWO commercials on Monday night’s half-hour episode. If you don’t agree with the content of the program, we encourage you to make your feelings known to BK.

 

To protest to Burger King about this episode, click here.

 

To learn more about PTC’s Cable Choice campaign, click here.