Who is Responsible for Protecting Your Penis?

In Jamaica, there has recently been a lot of hype over the dance craze known as “daggering.” The dance mainly consists of rapid dry-humping to dance hall music, likening itself to its English translation of “cabin stabbing” (could they be a little more graphic?).

Before reading any further, take a look at the following Youtube video.

(Don’t feel obliged to watch the entire clip; a minute or less should suffice.)

Disturbed? Intrigued? Angry? Surprised? Turned on?

These are the mixed reactions that daggering has elicited. And if you know anything about dance history, you’d know that this isn’t the first time a society has had a negative reaction to a new dance move. Elvis’s mild (by today’s standards) pelvic thrusts were enough to make producers show him from the waist up, in fear of a public outcry. Is daggering just another dance style that society simply hasn’t grown accustomed to yet?

Not exactly. In the case of daggering, there’s more to it than the simple claim of inappropriate hip movement. Jamaica’s Broadcasting Commission is the group behind the ban of this kind of music, which often contains references to daggering and could be considered lewd itself.   The JBC’s basis for restrictions on this music is the spate of broken penises that have occurred from this erotic dancing.

Yes, the Jamaican government is stepping in to prevent broken penises. I don’t necessarily disagree with the restriction of this music on public radio; I wouldn’t want this lewd content available to my five-year old cousin. In fact, up until very recently this music has been limited to Jamaican dance halls; the public playing of this genre is new to Jamaica. Raula Brown, an Atlanta-based Jamaican DJ, told Newsweek, “That kind of music has always existed in Jamaican culture, but the only place you could hear it or experience was in the dancehall.”

But why are they focusing this law on broken penises? I don’t believe it’s the government’s responsibility to protect men from a tear in the covering of the erectile tissue. You might as well enforce laws against rough sex. This is a personal and (although painful) minor injury for a man, and the government has no business getting involved in this respect.

If the Jamaican government is acting on behalf of public health, then why don’t they just say so? They should be solely interested in the effects this musical content has on younger ears, not on adult penises.

But what if this isn’t the case; maybe the Jamaican government is intentionally exaggerating the issue of the broken penis in order to have a basis for this ban on daggering music. Then the question is why do they feel the need to come up with an excuse? Is for the betterment of society not reason enough? I know that I would support this ban for the sake of protecting children from exposure to it’s content, but this stance makes me seem pretentious. Who am I to tell another culture (one that I’ve never experienced and therefore could not truly understand) how to raise their kids?