Stories from a long time ago
I was looking at my collection of "stickie notes" on my computer last night and noticed I had one labeled "To post on lj." I looked at it, and there were all these ideas of things to write about on here. I wrote these down a long time ago... in fact, it wouldn't surprise me if I wrote them down over a year ago.
Here's one I wanted to share from the subway....
I was on the 1 train (while I was still living in the city), probably going down to work (while i still worked at MLB), when I noticed a pregnant teenage girl sitting with her mother on the opposite side of the train. I felt a little bad, and then I noticed that this pregnant teen was drinking something from a McDonald's cup, and it made me feel sadder. Like - here's this girl, who's terrified, holding her mother's hand while she's probably going to the Dr.'s, or coming back from, and she's probably upset at the situation she's in. And on top of that, she's just eaten some greasy, disgusting, unhealthy, McDonald's food. To me, it showed me what this baby's future looks like. Also - sad because I knew this teen's life as she knew it had ended - and she went from carefree teen to mom. I was relieved to see her mother with her, so at least maybe she won't have to do it alone. But think of all the teen mothers who do have to do it alone - or give their child up for adoption - or have to go through the trauma and pain of an abortion.
Which I guess leads me to think about the state of sex-ed in this country and the fact that there are people out there who believe in abstinence only education, and turn a blind eye to anything else. I mean - I'm pro-choice- because I feel like it is a woman's choice if the situation is hard, or emotionally she can't handle it. But think about all the abortions we could prevent if there was education out there for kids about having safe sex - and schools would have condoms available for them to use - and promote their use. Then maybe we would have at least some layer of protection from teen abortions. It's really very sad.
On top of that, there's a layer of why teenagers are having sex so young in the first place. You can't just blame in on society, or just blame it on the parents, but you can't just let it continue to get worse. Younger and younger kids are having sex, or being sexual and sexualized - look at these baby clothes:
Do babies really need to be sexy??
I'm not going to show pictures, but what about thongs for pre-teen girls? Is this really necessary? And I don't think I need to mention Bratz dolls, do I?
I will mention that these dolls are aimed at girls ages 6-12 and they have other "ages of dolls" intended for even younger girls.
Here's a Bratz Babyz doll.
Now, you look at this and tell me if this is appropriate for a 6 year old - or even a 12 year old??? Cropped top, low rise skirt, whore boots... painted nails.. WHY ARE WE ALLOWING OUR KIDS TO HAVE THIS AS A ROLE MODEL???
Honestly, I wish that there was something I could do to help stop this kind of advertising to kids. There are groups out there, but the likelihood that these compaines will actually stop the production of their most popular item other than Barbie is very very low.
They're not the only ones who give bad messages to our kids - but it is very much impossible to stop all the magazines, movies, tv shows, and all the other media that sends these kinds of "goals" to kids. And we wonder why there are so many teens who have unwanted pregnancies - we send out the message that you need to be sexy to be liked, and there's no education about safe sex. Well, something has to change. I'm just not sure how.
That was a bit of a tangent from my original story, but it's how I feel nonetheless. Check out "So Sexy, So Soon," and then tell me if you don't agree with me. It's an excellent book written by two very enlightened women who have researched this topic very extensively. I highly reccomend it. Thank you to cynima for letting me borrow it!
Here's one I wanted to share from the subway....
I was on the 1 train (while I was still living in the city), probably going down to work (while i still worked at MLB), when I noticed a pregnant teenage girl sitting with her mother on the opposite side of the train. I felt a little bad, and then I noticed that this pregnant teen was drinking something from a McDonald's cup, and it made me feel sadder. Like - here's this girl, who's terrified, holding her mother's hand while she's probably going to the Dr.'s, or coming back from, and she's probably upset at the situation she's in. And on top of that, she's just eaten some greasy, disgusting, unhealthy, McDonald's food. To me, it showed me what this baby's future looks like. Also - sad because I knew this teen's life as she knew it had ended - and she went from carefree teen to mom. I was relieved to see her mother with her, so at least maybe she won't have to do it alone. But think of all the teen mothers who do have to do it alone - or give their child up for adoption - or have to go through the trauma and pain of an abortion.
Which I guess leads me to think about the state of sex-ed in this country and the fact that there are people out there who believe in abstinence only education, and turn a blind eye to anything else. I mean - I'm pro-choice- because I feel like it is a woman's choice if the situation is hard, or emotionally she can't handle it. But think about all the abortions we could prevent if there was education out there for kids about having safe sex - and schools would have condoms available for them to use - and promote their use. Then maybe we would have at least some layer of protection from teen abortions. It's really very sad.
On top of that, there's a layer of why teenagers are having sex so young in the first place. You can't just blame in on society, or just blame it on the parents, but you can't just let it continue to get worse. Younger and younger kids are having sex, or being sexual and sexualized - look at these baby clothes:
Do babies really need to be sexy??
I'm not going to show pictures, but what about thongs for pre-teen girls? Is this really necessary? And I don't think I need to mention Bratz dolls, do I?
I will mention that these dolls are aimed at girls ages 6-12 and they have other "ages of dolls" intended for even younger girls.
Here's a Bratz Babyz doll.
Now, you look at this and tell me if this is appropriate for a 6 year old - or even a 12 year old??? Cropped top, low rise skirt, whore boots... painted nails.. WHY ARE WE ALLOWING OUR KIDS TO HAVE THIS AS A ROLE MODEL???
Honestly, I wish that there was something I could do to help stop this kind of advertising to kids. There are groups out there, but the likelihood that these compaines will actually stop the production of their most popular item other than Barbie is very very low.
They're not the only ones who give bad messages to our kids - but it is very much impossible to stop all the magazines, movies, tv shows, and all the other media that sends these kinds of "goals" to kids. And we wonder why there are so many teens who have unwanted pregnancies - we send out the message that you need to be sexy to be liked, and there's no education about safe sex. Well, something has to change. I'm just not sure how.
That was a bit of a tangent from my original story, but it's how I feel nonetheless. Check out "So Sexy, So Soon," and then tell me if you don't agree with me. It's an excellent book written by two very enlightened women who have researched this topic very extensively. I highly reccomend it. Thank you to cynima for letting me borrow it!