Perceptions about sex
I'm reading this really interesting article in the Health section of the Washington Post. It's actually two articles, contrasting attitudes about sex in the US and western Europe; I think they do a good job of illustrating how different it is. I absolutely agree more with the Western European way of addressing sex and sex education; so much so, in fact, that I'm taking the liberty of re-writing the article here so you people can read it.
Pieere-Andre Michaud, chief of the Multidisciplinary Unit for Adolescent Health at the University of Lausanne Hospital in Switzerland and a leading researcher in European teen sexuality, dismisses the idea--widely held in the United States--that sex constitutes risky behavior for teens. In an editorial in May's Journal of Adolescent Health, he wrote:
"In many European countries--Switzerland in particular--sexual intercourse, at least from the age of 15 or 16 years, is considered acceptable and even part of normative adolescent behavior. Switzerland, he noted, has one of the world's lowest rates of abortion and teen pregnancy. Teens there, like those in Sweden and the Netherlands, have easy access to contraceptives, confidential health care and comprehensive sex education.
A 2001 Guttmacher Institute report, drawing on data from 30 countries in Western and Eastern Europe, concluded: "Societal acceptance of sexual activity among young people, combined with comprehensive and balanced information about sexuality and clear expectations about commitment and prevention childbearing and STDs within teenage relationships, are hallmarks of countries with low levels of adolescent pregnancy, childbearing and STDs." The study cited Sweden as the "clearest of the case-study countries in viewing sexuality among young people as natural and good."
Cecilia Ekeus, a nurse midwife with a PhD in public international health who works with the Institute of Women and Child Health at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, says Swedish society teaches that sex should occus in a commited relationship "and also that teenagers should use contraceptives, be informed and take responsibility. But in general we are open and positive and think that it's ok."
In Sweden, compulsory sex education starts when children are 10 to 12. Without parental consent, teens can get free medical care, free condoms, prescriptions for inexpensive oral contraceptives and general advice at youth clinics. Emergency contraceptives are available without a prescription.
Religion tends to insert itself less in government policy on sex education, contraception and abortion in Western Europe than in the United States, says Michaud. The Catholic Church exerted minimal influence in Switzerland's AIDS prevention campaign, he said. "All in all, the church has been very tolerant and does not really get involved in sexual matters, " Michaud wrote in an e-mail.
Straightforward messages on how to prevent STDs and teen pregnancy help offset the impact on teens of sexually explicit ads, movies, and other mass media--as ubiquitous in Western Europe as in the United States, said Robert Blum, chair of the Department of Population and Family Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Western Europe also attaches more social stigma to teen pregnancy and teen motherhood than do some American sub-cultures, says Bill Albert, spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, a U.S. group: "The focus [in Western Europe] is much more on preenting pregnancy and less on sex itself," Albert said.
Although some experts argue that economic, education and racial diversity in the US distort national figures and invalidate comparisons with more homogeneous Western European countries, Michaud said he has studied Swiss teens who have dropped otu of high school, used drugs or lived in disadvantaged areas of the country. They tend to use contraceptives regardless of economic status, he said.
"My feeling is that it is impossible to have a double message toward young people," Michaud said, in a phone interview from his Lausanne office. "You can't say at the same time, 'Be abstinent, it's the only fair, good way, to escape from having HIV... and at the same time say, 'Look, if you ever happen to have sex, then please do that and that and that.' You probably have to choose the message."
Abstinence, he said, is not something the Swiss press on teens. "We think it's unfair. It's useless. It's inefficient. We have been advocating the use of the condom... and I think that we tend to be successful."
Joan-Carles Suris, head of the research group on adolescent medicine at the University of Lausanne, puts it another way:
"The main difference is that in the States sexual activity is considered a risk. Here we consider it a pleasure."
Interesting stuff. Now I'm going to go lie down and get over this fucking cold before tomorrow morning. :P
Peace, love, and shaggy hair--
Cat
Pieere-Andre Michaud, chief of the Multidisciplinary Unit for Adolescent Health at the University of Lausanne Hospital in Switzerland and a leading researcher in European teen sexuality, dismisses the idea--widely held in the United States--that sex constitutes risky behavior for teens. In an editorial in May's Journal of Adolescent Health, he wrote:
"In many European countries--Switzerland in particular--sexual intercourse, at least from the age of 15 or 16 years, is considered acceptable and even part of normative adolescent behavior. Switzerland, he noted, has one of the world's lowest rates of abortion and teen pregnancy. Teens there, like those in Sweden and the Netherlands, have easy access to contraceptives, confidential health care and comprehensive sex education.
A 2001 Guttmacher Institute report, drawing on data from 30 countries in Western and Eastern Europe, concluded: "Societal acceptance of sexual activity among young people, combined with comprehensive and balanced information about sexuality and clear expectations about commitment and prevention childbearing and STDs within teenage relationships, are hallmarks of countries with low levels of adolescent pregnancy, childbearing and STDs." The study cited Sweden as the "clearest of the case-study countries in viewing sexuality among young people as natural and good."
Cecilia Ekeus, a nurse midwife with a PhD in public international health who works with the Institute of Women and Child Health at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, says Swedish society teaches that sex should occus in a commited relationship "and also that teenagers should use contraceptives, be informed and take responsibility. But in general we are open and positive and think that it's ok."
In Sweden, compulsory sex education starts when children are 10 to 12. Without parental consent, teens can get free medical care, free condoms, prescriptions for inexpensive oral contraceptives and general advice at youth clinics. Emergency contraceptives are available without a prescription.
Religion tends to insert itself less in government policy on sex education, contraception and abortion in Western Europe than in the United States, says Michaud. The Catholic Church exerted minimal influence in Switzerland's AIDS prevention campaign, he said. "All in all, the church has been very tolerant and does not really get involved in sexual matters, " Michaud wrote in an e-mail.
Straightforward messages on how to prevent STDs and teen pregnancy help offset the impact on teens of sexually explicit ads, movies, and other mass media--as ubiquitous in Western Europe as in the United States, said Robert Blum, chair of the Department of Population and Family Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Western Europe also attaches more social stigma to teen pregnancy and teen motherhood than do some American sub-cultures, says Bill Albert, spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, a U.S. group: "The focus [in Western Europe] is much more on preenting pregnancy and less on sex itself," Albert said.
Although some experts argue that economic, education and racial diversity in the US distort national figures and invalidate comparisons with more homogeneous Western European countries, Michaud said he has studied Swiss teens who have dropped otu of high school, used drugs or lived in disadvantaged areas of the country. They tend to use contraceptives regardless of economic status, he said.
"My feeling is that it is impossible to have a double message toward young people," Michaud said, in a phone interview from his Lausanne office. "You can't say at the same time, 'Be abstinent, it's the only fair, good way, to escape from having HIV... and at the same time say, 'Look, if you ever happen to have sex, then please do that and that and that.' You probably have to choose the message."
Abstinence, he said, is not something the Swiss press on teens. "We think it's unfair. It's useless. It's inefficient. We have been advocating the use of the condom... and I think that we tend to be successful."
Joan-Carles Suris, head of the research group on adolescent medicine at the University of Lausanne, puts it another way:
"The main difference is that in the States sexual activity is considered a risk. Here we consider it a pleasure."
Interesting stuff. Now I'm going to go lie down and get over this fucking cold before tomorrow morning. :P
Peace, love, and shaggy hair--
Cat