comprehensive sex education (we needs it)
This is a staff editorial I wrote for the last issue of the Pacer times. I really want to get more active with volunteering for something sex-positive, I'm going to look into it. But what woulda place like Planned Parenthood need from an art major? I guess there's no harm in asking.
anyways, rambling aside, here's my article.
More Sexual Education Needed for Youth
Anyone who's been to the movies recently might have seen an advertisement that illustrates the need for more comprehensive sexual education. It starts out with stills of a girl and different family members, a possible clergyman and what seems to be her love interest. At the end of the slideshow, a voiceover is heard and a key appears across the screen. A gentle female voice says, "Abstinence, the key to my heart". Around the Aiken-Augusta area, billboards carry the same message, without any further explanation than the phrase and pictures. Abstinence is a word everyone in college has used and heard about, but let's take a look at the dictionary definition so we can all be clear.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary defines abstinence as "The act or practice of refraining from indulgence in an appetite, as for certain foods, drink, alcoholic beverages, drugs, or sex." It seems that lately the word has been monopolized to mean something a lot more complicated than simply refraining from indulgence. Some groups would have young adults defining it as "taking the moral high ground" or even "the only safe way to approach sex". There are groups who go so far as to say that abstinence should be taught in school as the only way to avoid unwanted pregnancy, STDs and emotional repercussions from premarital sex. While I don't disagree that it is the most effective way to prevent all of those things, I believe that more comprehensive sexual education is needed because teaching about abstinence exclusively fails more often than most birth control methods.
What doesn't make sense is why abstinence-only sex education is still considered a viable option for teaching adolescents about taking care of themselves and staying protected. Cultures throughout the centuries have taught the same curriculum to their children and we still have teenagers having sex, getting pregnant, contracting STDs and getting hurt. Even in the Puritan colonies, where any indulgence was considered sinful, there was premarital sex happening where parents couldn't see. Adolescents in strict societies like that were being taught that sex before marriage leads to an eternity in hell and there were still instances of children being born out of wedlock. Nowadays, we have the specter of AIDS and other STDs looming over our sexuality. Abstinence-only sex education programs offer no protection from the dangers other than a false sense of security. It is the easy route for adults who are either too embarrassed to discuss their own sexuality with their children or are too close-minded to believe that their own son or daughter would even think of participating.
Comprehensive education is like a shield to the dangers of sexuality. Children are inundated with messages about sex the first time their parents turn on the tv or bring home a magazine. Even "tame" magazines contain articles that would populate those magazines, such as Cosmopolitan, that are kept hidden on the shelves. When parents kiss each other on the cheek, they are expressing a physical closeness that all young adults are naturally curious about. Any kind of sex education doesn't change the levels of promiscuity in teens. but instead changes what kind of consequences our young population is exposing themselves to. The only time that abstinence education is successful is when it allows young adults to decide for themselves if it's the right thing for them. There are plenty of people who have chosen to be abstinent for whatever reason and it has worked for them. However, these decisions weren't based in fear, but were made after an educated analysis of their options. No good ever came from instilling fear in our youth, and the high rate of teenage pregnancy and STD contraction in the US shows that nothing productive comes from it either.
anyways, rambling aside, here's my article.
More Sexual Education Needed for Youth
Anyone who's been to the movies recently might have seen an advertisement that illustrates the need for more comprehensive sexual education. It starts out with stills of a girl and different family members, a possible clergyman and what seems to be her love interest. At the end of the slideshow, a voiceover is heard and a key appears across the screen. A gentle female voice says, "Abstinence, the key to my heart". Around the Aiken-Augusta area, billboards carry the same message, without any further explanation than the phrase and pictures. Abstinence is a word everyone in college has used and heard about, but let's take a look at the dictionary definition so we can all be clear.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary defines abstinence as "The act or practice of refraining from indulgence in an appetite, as for certain foods, drink, alcoholic beverages, drugs, or sex." It seems that lately the word has been monopolized to mean something a lot more complicated than simply refraining from indulgence. Some groups would have young adults defining it as "taking the moral high ground" or even "the only safe way to approach sex". There are groups who go so far as to say that abstinence should be taught in school as the only way to avoid unwanted pregnancy, STDs and emotional repercussions from premarital sex. While I don't disagree that it is the most effective way to prevent all of those things, I believe that more comprehensive sexual education is needed because teaching about abstinence exclusively fails more often than most birth control methods.
What doesn't make sense is why abstinence-only sex education is still considered a viable option for teaching adolescents about taking care of themselves and staying protected. Cultures throughout the centuries have taught the same curriculum to their children and we still have teenagers having sex, getting pregnant, contracting STDs and getting hurt. Even in the Puritan colonies, where any indulgence was considered sinful, there was premarital sex happening where parents couldn't see. Adolescents in strict societies like that were being taught that sex before marriage leads to an eternity in hell and there were still instances of children being born out of wedlock. Nowadays, we have the specter of AIDS and other STDs looming over our sexuality. Abstinence-only sex education programs offer no protection from the dangers other than a false sense of security. It is the easy route for adults who are either too embarrassed to discuss their own sexuality with their children or are too close-minded to believe that their own son or daughter would even think of participating.
Comprehensive education is like a shield to the dangers of sexuality. Children are inundated with messages about sex the first time their parents turn on the tv or bring home a magazine. Even "tame" magazines contain articles that would populate those magazines, such as Cosmopolitan, that are kept hidden on the shelves. When parents kiss each other on the cheek, they are expressing a physical closeness that all young adults are naturally curious about. Any kind of sex education doesn't change the levels of promiscuity in teens. but instead changes what kind of consequences our young population is exposing themselves to. The only time that abstinence education is successful is when it allows young adults to decide for themselves if it's the right thing for them. There are plenty of people who have chosen to be abstinent for whatever reason and it has worked for them. However, these decisions weren't based in fear, but were made after an educated analysis of their options. No good ever came from instilling fear in our youth, and the high rate of teenage pregnancy and STD contraction in the US shows that nothing productive comes from it either.