Sex is a natural thing and if I don't want babies coming out my hoo haa that's my business.
If there is one thing that pisses me off more than anything it's feminist issues. I don't care who you are, but if you're a woman who takes advantage of the wonderful life you have in the U.S., you're a feminist. Well, unless you're protesting education to girls and all those rights that women's sufferage gave us, then I guess you aren't, but that's not the point. If you really want to see me mad beyond words(which I was until I calmed down enough to type) let's bring sex education and health into the mix. Jenna, a friend of mine, posted this article on facebook today:
VA teen Suspended for two weeks because of birth control pill
To put it short for those of you who aren't going to read it, it's about a girl who got 2 weeks suspension for being caught taking her birth control. Now, in the school's defense it is good for the consistency of upholding their zero tolerance drug policy, but it's birth control. I think once they found out what it was, and that there was a prescription for it, they should have let the whole thing go.
In my opinion, this school is being fairly ridiculous about this policy. They talk about how a normal student/person can't tell the difference between birth control, ritalin, and ib profin. I think that's bull shit. As a previous taker or birth control, it looks totally different from most other prescriptions right down to the packaging. Also, I really don't know how you can confuse advil for anything other than another nonprescription pain killer, so that confuses me too. I understand that there is a drug problem in our schools, but I really don't think coming down hard on the people who are trying to practice safe sex is going to fix the real problem. Actually, I think it typically makes it worse.
Now, I'm going to travel down a slippery slope, which is not the route I typically like to take in these arguments. This school was in Fairfax County, VA and it is a more conservative area, that I just learned is now slowly shifting toward a more democratic leaning. The reason I bring this up is because this country has a very anti-sex education mindset, especially in the bible-thumping areas. I don't know why we feel this way about sex, you know that we can't talk about it to anyone who isn't married or considered an adult (and in this case an adult isn't at 18 year old or even a 23 year old but someone who is living independently and is older). But for some reason sex is just a taboo subject, and I'm not innocent in this complaint. I can't talk about sex to my parents, but I can talk about it to almost anyone else. I think it's weird.
I just really hate the way this country has this knee jerk reaction when trying to discuss ways to actually improve upon the teen pregnancy problem we have. We are so fricken tied to that Anglo-Christian background that anything that suggests going against our Christian or religious morals needs to have a "war" against it. Back during the Clinton Administration, and yes I remember this even though I was around 10, we had a Surgeon General named Joycelyn Elders who was a strong advocate for introducing and enforcing sex education in schools(citation http://www.thebody.com/content/art14034.html). She pushed it. She wanted to see that everyone who had a public school education would also understand that sex happened and that there were safe ways to do it and not safe ways to do it. Like a rational person, Elders believed that education was the best defense to any epidemic, and with AIDS, STDs, and teen pregnancy becoming more notorious in our world, as in people were actually addressing these problems and becoming concerned, this was probably one of the best ideas to come to Washington since the New Deal.
What do we as a public do to her? We bully her and make fun of her. She got called the "Condom Queen" around Washington. And these are the people who are making the big decisions for us. I don't know about you guys, but that makes me feel good about my government. So what does Clinton, ever the people pleaser, do? He fires her because she brought too much controversy to the Admin. Oh, and he didn't do a good job of it himself, huh?
Elders aside, my problem is that in a country where we are supposed to have such a large amount of freedoms, we get so many taken away because too many people are hung up on issues of "morals." In my opinion, those morals are debatable. In a country where we're supposed to have a separation of church and state, we place too much weight on Christian morals. We cater too much to those who radically support them because we don't want to step on toes. I have seen or heard of too many people who were almost denied things that are not illegal because someone was too busy preaching about morality and indecency. I'm sick of dirty looks when I buy birth control or condoms. You know what's another big problem in the world? Overpopulation. And your frowny face is not going to help that problem, but these condoms sure will.
VA teen Suspended for two weeks because of birth control pill
To put it short for those of you who aren't going to read it, it's about a girl who got 2 weeks suspension for being caught taking her birth control. Now, in the school's defense it is good for the consistency of upholding their zero tolerance drug policy, but it's birth control. I think once they found out what it was, and that there was a prescription for it, they should have let the whole thing go.
In my opinion, this school is being fairly ridiculous about this policy. They talk about how a normal student/person can't tell the difference between birth control, ritalin, and ib profin. I think that's bull shit. As a previous taker or birth control, it looks totally different from most other prescriptions right down to the packaging. Also, I really don't know how you can confuse advil for anything other than another nonprescription pain killer, so that confuses me too. I understand that there is a drug problem in our schools, but I really don't think coming down hard on the people who are trying to practice safe sex is going to fix the real problem. Actually, I think it typically makes it worse.
Now, I'm going to travel down a slippery slope, which is not the route I typically like to take in these arguments. This school was in Fairfax County, VA and it is a more conservative area, that I just learned is now slowly shifting toward a more democratic leaning. The reason I bring this up is because this country has a very anti-sex education mindset, especially in the bible-thumping areas. I don't know why we feel this way about sex, you know that we can't talk about it to anyone who isn't married or considered an adult (and in this case an adult isn't at 18 year old or even a 23 year old but someone who is living independently and is older). But for some reason sex is just a taboo subject, and I'm not innocent in this complaint. I can't talk about sex to my parents, but I can talk about it to almost anyone else. I think it's weird.
I just really hate the way this country has this knee jerk reaction when trying to discuss ways to actually improve upon the teen pregnancy problem we have. We are so fricken tied to that Anglo-Christian background that anything that suggests going against our Christian or religious morals needs to have a "war" against it. Back during the Clinton Administration, and yes I remember this even though I was around 10, we had a Surgeon General named Joycelyn Elders who was a strong advocate for introducing and enforcing sex education in schools(citation http://www.thebody.com/content/art14034.html). She pushed it. She wanted to see that everyone who had a public school education would also understand that sex happened and that there were safe ways to do it and not safe ways to do it. Like a rational person, Elders believed that education was the best defense to any epidemic, and with AIDS, STDs, and teen pregnancy becoming more notorious in our world, as in people were actually addressing these problems and becoming concerned, this was probably one of the best ideas to come to Washington since the New Deal.
What do we as a public do to her? We bully her and make fun of her. She got called the "Condom Queen" around Washington. And these are the people who are making the big decisions for us. I don't know about you guys, but that makes me feel good about my government. So what does Clinton, ever the people pleaser, do? He fires her because she brought too much controversy to the Admin. Oh, and he didn't do a good job of it himself, huh?
Elders aside, my problem is that in a country where we are supposed to have such a large amount of freedoms, we get so many taken away because too many people are hung up on issues of "morals." In my opinion, those morals are debatable. In a country where we're supposed to have a separation of church and state, we place too much weight on Christian morals. We cater too much to those who radically support them because we don't want to step on toes. I have seen or heard of too many people who were almost denied things that are not illegal because someone was too busy preaching about morality and indecency. I'm sick of dirty looks when I buy birth control or condoms. You know what's another big problem in the world? Overpopulation. And your frowny face is not going to help that problem, but these condoms sure will.