Comments (17) on “As more proof that the US is going mad….”

  3. They have got some seriously mixed messages going on. So, sex is BAD, the fearsome ruin of youth, wellspring of evil, downfall of civilization. Until one gets married, then suddenly it is GOOD, wholesome and pure.

    Right. I see a whole lot of work for sex therapists and relationship counselors in the future.

    (http://livejournal.com/users/ultimategirl)

  6. *irritated by all these posts*
    a lot of kids just DON'T have the information needed to make really wise choices or they're too bloody immature to make them… YES THAT IS ME..
    I was 15 fucking years old when I got pregnant.
    I have a grade 9 education! My dreams were destroyed, everything I wanted to accomplish has been put on hold while I do what I feel is right to raise my kids…mad? bullshit..simplified YES.

    *growls*

    (http://livejournal.com/users/blacksquiggles)

  10. Do you know the statistics on this? Are you postitive that kids really don't give a damn about their futures and perhaps not realizing how a teen pregnancy can ruin or at least halt their futures? I guess you're unaware that it's rather trendy right now to “wait” ? Why would you say that is?

    (http://livejournal.com/users/blacksquiggles)

  11. Who said anything about not giving a damn?!? I'm just saying that, as a teenager, if I could have had sex, I would have! I didn't because the opportunity didn't present itself, not because Big Brother was pushing abstinence on me.

    No, I don't have numbers. I have read from multiple independent sources though that in the US, abstinence ain't doing much for STD transmission and teenage pregnancy, whatever the administration wants to believe.

    As for being trendy, you can take your nice pledge ring and stick it where the sun don't shine, cause what a teenager says to his parents and what a teenager does when nobody is looking are two distinct things.

    I'm not knocking anybody here. Those people who truly believe in abstinence, more power to them. It's a lifestyle choice. I'm just saying that I believe the majority of teens are sexually active, and don't have access to contraception or are being told that it's not effective, so they don't bother. Why? Cause sex feels good, and that's more effective a driving force than moral ideals.

    (http://livejournal.com/users/talisker)

  12. It feels good…that's about as far as it goes.

    They're not thinking about the consequences. I DO believe that many of these kids are only have sex out of peer pressure…showing them that other kids are making a CHOICE not to have sex may ease their minds.

    Who cares what the reason if it can protect these kids? For some it's religion, for others their future…meh, I don't think it's a bad thing..
    okay I'm all over the place here, my kids just got in.. back to msn with this :)

    (http://livejournal.com/users/blacksquiggles)

  13. there's an interesting editorial on this topic here, with links to additional information.

    The bottom line is that many abstinence-only education programs are seriously flawed and ineffective. Some of them lie outright, which isn't going to help anyone. The goal of a GOOD sex education program (and lord knows there are a lot of bad ones out there) is to give kids good, accurate information about sex. This includes not just information about contraception and the bad potential consequences of having sex early, but also about self-respect, mutual respect, strategies for deciding when the time is right and even strategies for saying no.

    I personally believe that more (good, accurate) information is always better. Honest discussion about choices, risks and benefits is better than telling people “If you do this, your life will be over!” Your sexual behaviour should be a choice, not something you're scared into. Especially since, as [info]talisker points out, a lot of kids will probably have sex ANYWAY — shouldn't they be given all the information they need to protect themselves against STDs and prevent pregnancy?

    Out of curiosity — and please don't answer if you'd rather not — do you think more, or less, or different information could have helped you not get pregnant? If so, what?

    (http://livejournal.com/users/electricland)

  14. more information is better indeed…I'm not suggesting we hide the facts from children, I was referring to this one example which I see no problem with. I linked it to my husband and to my friends with children, all of them feel the same way I do on it.

    Would more information have changed anything? My mother was VERY open with me and held nothing back, her easy manner about sex made me feel like there was nothing wrong with it and there *was*. I was 14 when I became sexually active, that's ridiculous…if someone told me that having a child at such a young age was going to hold me back as much as it did I probably wouldn't have listened…if it was constantly thrown in my face, I might have believed it a little more.

    as it is, the only thing that would have STOPPED me from having a baby would have been detailed highquality photos of stretchmarks…perhaps
    :)

    (http://livejournal.com/users/blacksquiggles)

  15. That's fuckin' creepy. If there were anything guaranteed to make me try it, it would be a poster like that, honestly. I had the most ridiculous, terror-based sex education program in the entire universe thrust upon me at school, with every kind of contraceptive displayed and the percentage rates explained and all. I still have clear memories of the various symptom charts for STDs, which we were required to memorize.

    I guess the moral of the story is that it didn't stop any of us, even though the whole thing came down hard on abstinence. I wasn't active until later, but I was a shy kid, and damn slow by my classmate's standards.

    (http://livejournal.com/users/pretentiousgit)

  16. :D

    All good points! I certainly am not saying that kids SHOULD be having sex at 14. And it's true, I don't know what the rest of this billboard campaign entails — it may accompany a very good public education program. I just think this particular billboard is omitting and implying an important intervening step. It's not saying “I want to be an engineer — I don't want children yet”; it's saying, in effect “I want to be an engineer — if I have sex, my life will be over.” Which is NOT necessarily true.

    Thanks to birth control, after all, it's no longer inevitable that sex -> children.

    My problems with the abstinence-only model are that (a) teenagers think they're invulnerable and (b) we live in a highly sexualized society. I don't think it's realistic to surround kids with images of people having sex without consequences and then tell them “But if YOU have sex, you will get AIDS and die!” or “But if YOU have sex, you will get pregnant and your life will be over! So don't have sex!” Using scare tactics isn't going to work, because some kids will always say “Well, that won't happen to me.” And they will have sex anyway, and because they haven't been educated about birth control, some of them WILL get pregnant and some of them WILL get STDs.

    I'm not putting this awfully well, but that's my thought…

    (http://livejournal.com/users/electricland)

  17. it's not just about pregnancy and illness..the seriousness a relationship takes on when sex is involved can also hold a person back…

    I don't think it's fair to say all teenagers think and feel the same way, or that all will react the same…every person and situation is different, and *this* billboard doesn't use any specific scare tactics…you can take as little or as much as you want from it.

    (http://livejournal.com/users/blacksquiggles)

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