Juventud Rebelde (newspaper)
Encyclopedia
Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
of the Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas
Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas
The Young Communist League is the youth organisation of the Communist Party of Cuba. Its membership is voluntary and selective, and counts more than 600,000 active members.-History:...
(Union of Young Communists).
On October 21, 1965 Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
described the newspaper as "... a paper devoted mainly to youth, with things of interest to young people, but that must try to be a quality newspaper whose content could be interesting to all kinds of readers."
Juventud Rebelde, reggaetón, and sexuality
As the newspaper has published articles by journalists demonstrating a stance against reggaetónReggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
. The paper claims that "something must be done" about the music style that has become popular among youth, as artists in the genre commonly glorify "luxury, lust, vice" and the use of drugs and alcohol. The vice that the paper sees reggaetón as promoting encompasses everything from violence to dressing in a certain fashion to sexual behavior. Sexual behavior, the newspaper has argued, is promoted by all aspects of the genre, from the "repetitive beats" and "suggestive lyrics" to the "licentious dance moves" , which the paper likens to "'making love with clothes on'"
The heightened level of misogamy has also been expressed by the journalists newspaper, pointing out that "the viewpoint of coarse and crude male domination —constantly minimizing the conscience of the feminine sex— that oozes from (reggaeton) lyrics, is simply degrading"
Although Juventud Rebelde takes such a hard stance against the loose sexual morals that it claims reggaetón artists hold, the newspaper has also been known to hold an "open, healthy non-judgmental attitude toward sexuality" . A regular feature of the periodical is a semi-scientific series of articles written by a Cuban sex therapist that includes detailed information on subjects like "the G-spot
G-spot
The Gräfenberg Spot, often called the G-Spot, is a bean-shaped area of the vagina. Many women report that it is an erogenous zone which, when stimulated, can lead to strong sexual arousal, powerful orgasms and female ejaculation...
" . This brings into play the question of how open a view of sexuality is too open in Cuba, and what can be said on the subject without drawing criticism from the Communist Party.