Keeping them ignorant
Jan. 26th, 2004 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asherisI admit, "abstinence only" sex "education" is one of my hot-button issues.
Adults want teens to make intelligent decisions about sex.
You can only make intelligent decisions if you have the facts on which to base such decisions.
Despite all facts to the contrary, the "abstinence only" crowd insists that telling kids anything about sex will just "give them ideas", and the only decent thing to do is just tell them sex is bad and wrong and you should never do it until you're married. (When, apparently, it's supposed to suddenly become a good, non-scary thing. As long as you're making babies.)
We know that doesn't work (hasn't ever worked throughout history, as far as I can tell), and the numbers prove it. Heck, children see so much sex on TV and in the movies and magazines that they already have ideas. Sadly, much of what they think they know is dangerously wrong.
As most of us have known for getting on a couple decades now, ignorance on these issues can kill you.
Giving teens the facts about sex and sexuality leads to more teens waiting until they're older to become sexually active. When they do become active, they're safer and healthier about it. Education about facts greatly reduces teen pregnancies. Study after study shows this to be true.
But no, no, can't have any facts getting out. That would be a bad, bad thing.
I suspect that a lot of those uptight, ultra-religious-right prudes would rather just require that all 10-year-olds be fitted with chastity belts that can only be removed by clergy following a church wedding.
Adults want teens to make intelligent decisions about sex.
You can only make intelligent decisions if you have the facts on which to base such decisions.
Despite all facts to the contrary, the "abstinence only" crowd insists that telling kids anything about sex will just "give them ideas", and the only decent thing to do is just tell them sex is bad and wrong and you should never do it until you're married. (When, apparently, it's supposed to suddenly become a good, non-scary thing. As long as you're making babies.)
We know that doesn't work (hasn't ever worked throughout history, as far as I can tell), and the numbers prove it. Heck, children see so much sex on TV and in the movies and magazines that they already have ideas. Sadly, much of what they think they know is dangerously wrong.
As most of us have known for getting on a couple decades now, ignorance on these issues can kill you.
Giving teens the facts about sex and sexuality leads to more teens waiting until they're older to become sexually active. When they do become active, they're safer and healthier about it. Education about facts greatly reduces teen pregnancies. Study after study shows this to be true.
But no, no, can't have any facts getting out. That would be a bad, bad thing.
I suspect that a lot of those uptight, ultra-religious-right prudes would rather just require that all 10-year-olds be fitted with chastity belts that can only be removed by clergy following a church wedding.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-27 02:47 pm (UTC)Consequentially, when I married my first husband he almost lost his penis. I didn't know what it was and so I thought there was a snake in the bed. You can see what kind of results that would have had.
Proper lubrication should be a must-have component in sex education. Early on in my first marriage, both of us decided that Vicks would work just as well as vaseline since it was the same slippery substance. Again, predictable results.
You can't keep them from getting pregnant if they don't understand the biological process. My mother used to be a registered nurse. She loves to tell the story of a fifteen year old she saw during her rotation in maternity; the girl had gotten pregnant because they'd been petting and some of the sperm was released on her skirt. It then made its way to the appointed place with predictable results.
For that matter, proper education could take the shame and embarassment out of gynocology examinations. If that were to happen, less women would die of cervical cancer and breast cancer that went undetected.
But you already know this.