Sex education stumbles in Mississippi

[lovedforaday]

Even a law requiring schools to teach sex ed is falling short in a state with one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the U.S.TUNICA, Miss. - Marie Barnard was delighted when, after decades of silence on the topic, Mississippi passed a law requiring school districts to teach sex education. But the lesson involving the Peppermint Pattie wasn't

Comments

[nesmith]

That state is so fucked up. I mean, it's not the only one, but holy shit they take Fail to a whole new and mind-boggling efficiency.

[wuvvumsoc]

It kind of makes me think about my school which not only taught us about safe sex, but also shown us nearly all methods of birth control(I think some of the other methods didn't exist at the time), condoms use, and even oral condoms for safe oral sex. I've met people today who didn't even know that dental dams were a thing, but I really wish the rest of the nation had education like that.

[tabaqui]

It makes me sick to think that teen age girls see pregnancy as some kind of *popularity contest* or something, and that their parents/adults see nothing bad about it. Fucking revolting.

[nesmith]

That's pretty much how it is on my mom's side of the family in WV. They're petrified of and uptight about sex, but any pregnancy is something to be celebrated and cooed over and is just the most Wonderful Miracle Of God. Me getting my master's? "Oh, that's great, yeah." My dumbass 18 year-old cousin getting pregnant with some fucking asshole guy who took off, with no job, no money, not able to take care of herself? "OMG BAYBBEEEEEE!!!!" (I suggested the idea of maybe teaching all the cousins about birth control or condoms and they looked at me like I'd advocated sacrificing a baby to Satan.) Her mother ended up adopting her kid, so she's mom AND grandma and that kid is fucked, lemme tell you.

And they wonder why I never want to visit.

[tabaqui]

I will never, ever, ever understand that mentality.

My mom told us outright she didn't care about being a 'grandma', and if she never was, it was fine with her. Two of us have had one kid (and both late in life), and the other two none, and she's happy as a clam.

It's not like the human race is going to die out or anything.

[nesmith]

I don't either; on the one hand I am happy that when one of my ignorant female cousins gets pregnant there isn't any slut shaming and the family focuses on making sure the child is supported (my mom's elder sister raised her younger daughter's child while younger daughter continued to party) even if they're not pleased with Mom, but there's never any suggestion that getting pregnant as a teenager is bad or even the consideration of maybe teaching their kids about birth control/condoms (the word 'abortion' is NEVER, EVER uttered).

Oh, but there's plenty of bellyaching about having more mouths to feed. They're just so much in love with the idea of babies and so distanced from the reality, even the elders who have raised a couple generations. Every time I talk to them my tubes shrivel a little more.

[checkerdandy]

Out of all the fuckery, it made me really mad that Mississippi is trying to ignore Lawrence v. Texas. Just cause sodomy laws may still be on the books, they aren't valid.

I don't even remember what my sex-ed was. I think it was abstinence-plus? I just remember the coach (why is it always a coach?) acting like it was a big deal to suggest using condoms if we were to engage in sexual activity, so it could have even been abstinence-only. I just know I was well-informed because my mom would answer any questions I had, and I was a voracious reader.

TW: rape in the bible

[yndigot]

Just saying, the Bible also says that if you rape her and pay off her daddy, you get to keep her. The Bible says a lot of seriously fucked up things about sex because the Bible is, in part, a collection of laws codified some 2500 years ago pertaining to a specific Ancient Near Eastern culture that you are not a part of.

Kindly fuck off with your Bible.

I feel kind of lucky now because I distinctly remember our sex ed teacher telling us we could use multiple forms of birth control at once and saying things like 'if you're on the pill and using condoms, you're double protected!' I feel like we were given really clear information on which methods prevented disease, which ones prevented pregnancy, and encouraged to use multiple methods together. The only mention of abstinence was a sort of disclaimer up front about how nothing but abstinence would be 100% effective -- now let's talk about condoms and diaphragms!