"The westernized world"

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:29 PM -0400 6/11/09, Mark Mandel wrote:
>I suspect that Australia is generally considered part of "the western
>world" in all but geography. Since its inception as a nation, it was
>and still is chiefly populated, and dominated, by native
>English-speakers from the British Empire. One would have to check, of
>course.
>
>Is "censor" intended there, or is it meant as "censure"? Can't be sure
>from this quote.
>
>m a m

I'm pretty sure they meant "censor", as in deliberately suppressing
information about birth control, abortion providers, etc.; cf. "the
gag rule".   Actually, neither "censor" or "censure" makes sense with
teens as the object, but I imagine the former is intended to read as
intransitive here.

LH

>
>On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 12:51 PM, Laurence Horn
><laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>
>>  A solicitation I just received asking support to those who seek to
>>  "provide responsible sex education to teens" contains the following
>>  passage:
>>
>>  The US has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the westernized world.
>>  But why? "Abstinence-only" programs censor, mislead and misinform
>>  teens, creating ignorance and a lack of trust.
>>
>>
>>  In the context of such claims and statistics about where the U.S.
>>  ranks, I've seen "the civilized/industrialized" world, the "Western
>>  world", and of course the "free world", and probably others I haven't
>>  consciously noticed, but I'm pretty sure I hadn't previously
>>  encountered "the westernized world". ? Lots of google hits, but I'm
>>  not sure how far back it goes (I don't know how to use Nexis to
>>  search for multiword phrases). ? I assume Australia, Japan and South
>>  Korea are part of the Westernized (but not Western) world, and vice
>>  versa for, say, Bolivia.
>
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