Protétgez-vous!

The French really are a remarkable people.  They've perfected the art of wine and champagne and are the ones to compare to when other regions attempt, and do succeed, to produce wine (yes, I'm tooting the Northern California wine regions here).  The cheese that comes out of the country is brilliant -- frômage bleu, brie, toutes les frômages sont magnifiques!  A French baguette is to die for -- it's the perfect concoction of flour, water, yeast, eggs, sugar, salt and whatever the hell else you put in bread to make it tasty.  French pastries, especially brioche, has the precise amount of love and butter added to make them the fluffiest, most delightful breakfast treats on the face of the earth -- if you've had a croissant or a nibble of brioche before, you'll know what I mean.  Some of my favorite films are French -- Amélie, Bon Voyage and Venus Beauty Institute being three of them.  And then of course the French gave us the fashion greats -- Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Christian Louboutin, and I can go on.  It's really difficult to hate the French because they've given so much to culture in general.  Granted, I've been to Paris, I wasn't a fan of the Parisian snooty attitude, especially when I spoke in a foreign tongue (that being Latvian) and made every effort to exercise my college French, but, when I ventured to the outskirts of Paris, oh how the French were so kind and friendly!  Therefore, I will continue to admire and appreciate the French and all of their contributions to our lives in general.  


Moving on from gushing....my Godfather, quite surprisingly and oddly, sent me the following video of an advertisement produced in France promoting "safe sex."





To me, the video is BRILLIANT.  I'm not much for being blatantly obvious about sex -- meaning, not constantly referencing or joking about it (though I will laugh if someone cracks a good joke about it).  I do value the importance of "safe sex" and promoting it to all people who will listen.  Sex in the modern world has been devalued and isn't the holy grail of passion so much any more. Well, maybe it is, but there are so many people out there who aren't virgins, who don't value preserving their virginity until they're married.  Indeed, sex is something so commonly used and discussed today that there really is no point in putting it on pedestal.  "You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals, so lets do it like they do on the Discovery Channel."  So old, I know, but still true!  We as humans now embrace the "mammal" instinct and just go for it if we've got the itch.  I do still think fidelity is important -- sex shouldn't be shared with anyone and everyone, especially if you're in a committed relationship.  It's important to value our bodies and who we share them with if we choose to do so.  And since in more cases than not in the modern world, our bodies will be shared with more than one person, it's incredibly important to "proceed with caution" and be sure that our and our partner's best interest in safety is at hand.  


So if kitchy, blatantly obvious advertisements are the way to promote "safe sex" and keep people healthy, happy and satisfying their "mammal" instincts, I'm all for it.  Therefore, lets thank the French for being so obvious about it and throw it in the faces of the conservative Anglo-Saxons and other squares we have to deal with, because if we're moving forward in this modern world and accepting that people are more promiscuous than they were 30 years ago, mind as well keep it interesting.


Protégez-vous!  S'il vous plaît!