Gender Equality and Abstinence-Only Education
A recent conversation sparked a controversial, if somewhat unusual idea. I was talking with a few people earlier today, post-GRE, and we started talking about sex-ed and abstinence-only education. I won't belabor how we got to this point of the conversation, but I thought I'd share a point that I eventually raised.
Let me begin by acknowledging a few assumptions:
1 - Abstinence-only education is referring to programs who ward off students from intercourse, not sex acts of any kind. More specifically, I'll be addressing abstinence-only programs that are secular, not religious.
2 - It is assumed that since teens are horny little buggers, they'll continue to have some kind of sex life, but in the presence of abstinence-only education, they will be limited in their activities. IE, they can still get to third base.
3 - We will be discussing sex in terms of physical intensity. Issues of emotional connection, self-esteem, and similar issues are to be discussed at another time.
4 - The presence of outliers and aberrations to the norm are acknowledged, but not part of this discussion of generalities.
5 - For simplicity we're not going to be discussing the growing trend of anal sex as an alternative to intercourse.
If one looks at abstinence-only education from the standpoint of gender equality, it can be argued that men stand to lose much more than women, primarily on the grounds of sexual satisfiaction. In an abstinence-only educational environment which assumes that teens will still engage in manual stimulation and even oral sex, but will not engage in genital intercourse, men statistically speaking, lose out on more.
I say this primarily with regards to the quality of available orgasm. For most women, intercourse is not a sure-fire way to achieve a satisfactory orgasm, or any orgasm for that matter. Because the majority of female stimulation is centered around the g-spot and the clitoris, manual and oral stimulation are often times the prefered methods. As a result, it is still possible for a women to reach an orgasm of considerable quality without genital intercourse.
This is counter to the male experience, where manual and oral stimulation are usually subpar to intercourse. At the risk of sounding crass, while every guy has at least one oral experience of exceptional quality, most will contend that the preferred method of reaching orgasm is through intercourse. This has to do with the nature of stimulation to the penis (and is the subject for another discussion). As a result, men are limited in the quality of orgasm that is concievably available given the parameters.
At the end of the day, this is a discussion of quality of (sex) life. Despite being in an abstinence-only environment, women's orgasmic potential as it were is not inherently hampered, whereas men's will be.
We now return you to your regularly schedule journal.
Let me begin by acknowledging a few assumptions:
1 - Abstinence-only education is referring to programs who ward off students from intercourse, not sex acts of any kind. More specifically, I'll be addressing abstinence-only programs that are secular, not religious.
2 - It is assumed that since teens are horny little buggers, they'll continue to have some kind of sex life, but in the presence of abstinence-only education, they will be limited in their activities. IE, they can still get to third base.
3 - We will be discussing sex in terms of physical intensity. Issues of emotional connection, self-esteem, and similar issues are to be discussed at another time.
4 - The presence of outliers and aberrations to the norm are acknowledged, but not part of this discussion of generalities.
5 - For simplicity we're not going to be discussing the growing trend of anal sex as an alternative to intercourse.
If one looks at abstinence-only education from the standpoint of gender equality, it can be argued that men stand to lose much more than women, primarily on the grounds of sexual satisfiaction. In an abstinence-only educational environment which assumes that teens will still engage in manual stimulation and even oral sex, but will not engage in genital intercourse, men statistically speaking, lose out on more.
I say this primarily with regards to the quality of available orgasm. For most women, intercourse is not a sure-fire way to achieve a satisfactory orgasm, or any orgasm for that matter. Because the majority of female stimulation is centered around the g-spot and the clitoris, manual and oral stimulation are often times the prefered methods. As a result, it is still possible for a women to reach an orgasm of considerable quality without genital intercourse.
This is counter to the male experience, where manual and oral stimulation are usually subpar to intercourse. At the risk of sounding crass, while every guy has at least one oral experience of exceptional quality, most will contend that the preferred method of reaching orgasm is through intercourse. This has to do with the nature of stimulation to the penis (and is the subject for another discussion). As a result, men are limited in the quality of orgasm that is concievably available given the parameters.
At the end of the day, this is a discussion of quality of (sex) life. Despite being in an abstinence-only environment, women's orgasmic potential as it were is not inherently hampered, whereas men's will be.
We now return you to your regularly schedule journal.