Will the press be ever free from being blamed for everything that goes wrong in the society? About a month ago, I had a call from a friend inviting me to an end-of-the-month jam at one of our watering holes. Never one to miss an opportunity of a good night-out in decent company, I jumped at the chance. Half-way into the night, Mike, a journalist, who now runs his own advertising company, told me he had an axe to grind with female journalists who, according to him, were currently obsessed with writing about nothing but sex.

My eyes narrowed. I reminded him of his active journalism years, and how his column in a smutty weekend newspaper attracted thousands of readers because of what he had to say about his escapades with women. “At least, I wasn’t quoting anybody out of context,” he defended himself. “I wrote about the things that happened to me.” So, what was his experience this time? He told me: “One of you Nosey Parkers phoned me a while ago wanting to know ‘what is it about a woman that makes you want to go to bed with her?’ I reminded this female journalist, who is also a good friend, that I was a happily married man but she insisted on an answer to what she tagged a general poll – Nothing to do with me.

Maybe a generous smile, I kidded. But she was serious about the topic and refused to accept the flip answer. She wanted the truth. I then told her that there was no truth really – it all depends on the individual.

‘Pleeeeesel” She shrilled down the phone, Just tell us yours.’

“Recognising the distress of a fellow journalist on deadline, I told her to just put: ‘I am attracted to anyone with the good sense not to want to go to bed with me.’ In the next edition of her magazine, I appeared along with seven other men in an ‘exclusive’ devoted to ‘what men really want in bed.’ She’d managed to fish out a copy of a photograph of me from their file with bottles of choice drinks in front of me and a cocky leer on my face.

“To the horror of my wife, who got hold of the magazine before I did,I was quoted as saying that ‘nothing turns me on as much as the unobtainable woman who refuses to go to bed with me!’ It took me a long time to live it down. I tell you – especially with my mother-in-law who would go to her grave believing I am a chronic philanderer. Your colleagues must have got their cue from their foreign counterparts! I got to the office a few days after this incident to find the photocopy of a company magazine article in my secretary’s waste paper basket. The article was titled; ‘Rogues’ Gallery: the full frontal picture guide that proves they’re not at all the same!’ The point was illustrated by photographs of 36 penises, each inscribed in red ink with nicknames.

The hapless organs had been shrunk: to tiny square boxes, the boxes were then neatly laid in a grid! The photocopy unfortunately, came out slightly blurred. My angry and frustrated secretary must have tossed the blurry copy face up in the bin. There it remained, staring forlornly at the ceiling, waiting for me to spot it!

“What exactly is it with you lot? The impression that you cater to a new sexual aggression in your readers is reinforced by a selection of cover-lines from magazine issues currently on the newsstands. Topics like: ‘Sex and Exercise: If you want more of one, you’d better do more of the other! Why men still can’t get it right in bed; The Smart Girl’s Guide to sex … The list is endless. Boy, have you got sex on the brain!”

On and on he went! He obviously had done his research well, and in spite of his seeming protest, was quite proud of his observation. It was a while before I had the opportunity to remind him that sex is everywhere and is virtually hitting you in the face all of the time.

The journalist’s job is to let their readers know the products on offer! My friend hadn’t done with me yet. “The obsession with sex is nothing new,” he agreed, “though it has previously tended to manifest itself in women as an obsession with avoiding it rather than with having as much of it as possible. But you journalists have now stripped sex of its myth – your obsession with sex is almost lacking’ ·in old-fashioned romance. We no longer read stories of love-struck men pinning after a reluctant prey. You have simply reduced matters of the heart to a political science problem: how to manipulate men so they do the things you need!”

I asked Mike who he would rather settle for: a woman who knows what  she wants and goes after it instead of dithering and pretending she’s not interested; or the one that plays hard to get only for him to find out she’s been got by his more aggressive friends?

“What a question?” he hooted. “How exactly would you know what you want when the average lady is decked in fake boobs and bums! All over the place, women’s anatomy is so enhanced by plastic surgery and gadget that when you eventually get through all the ‘packaging’ what you have on offer is no longer palatable!”