“In case you’re curious,” I once told the grandchildren, “Granddaddy and I have never had sex on the dining room table.” 

“Nana!” they shouted in embarrassment.

I thought it important for them to know that sex between loving adults is not expressed in a frenzy of the aggressiveness they see on HBO or Netflix.

Book censors believe it’s their responsibility to remove books with sexually explicit content. But I’d wager that in the past month far more kids have watched a movie or series on their phone or iPad than have read a book. What are they seeing? Plenty of what those who censor books think they’re protecting our youth from: sexually explicit content.

My husband, Jim, and I regularly watch movies and series on Netflix, Apple, or PBS. Whether comedy, mystery, or international intrigue, sex is usually part of the story. We can predict early in the drama that the male and female detectives, or the co-workers in a hardware store, or the spy and the spy chaser, will end up having a sexual encounter. It will not be gentle and loving sex but urgent and aggressive, often against a wall, clothes torn off, the insistent clutching of buttocks, mouths moving downward, plenty of groaning. Some of the sexual encounters are lengthy and in great detail. Not much is left to the imagination. 

What do such scenes convey to our youth? They tell males that if they want sex, all they have to do is pin a woman to a wall. Females learn that they too should want aggressive sex. The message to young people is that sex is a biological drive that must be acted upon. Immediately. 

I’m not referring to pornography. That too is easily available to our youth. They only need to do a google search.

So why aren’t censors who have such a concern about what our children read not attacking the entertainment industry? It’s easier to target their local librarians and teachers, who have little power, than Warner Brothers, owner of HBO.

Or maybe I’m just a prudish old lady.