Abstinence Education: Your Tax Dollars at Work.

[featherynscale]

Sunday, during the Gaia class on HIV/AIDS, 8elements handed out some 'swag' from a de-funded county health program of abstinence education. Some of the things purchased for this program were beach balls, calculators, and other cheap plastic crap imprinted with the phrase "Self-Respect: the ultimate contraceptive".

I'm getting a good look at why abstinence education fails.

First off, kids, it doesn't happen to be true that when you screw, you'll only get pregnant if you hate yourself. That would be a lie. Lots of people I know who like themselves very much have children.

Second, what the fuck does that even mean? I mean, I don't know about you lot, but for me, I can't even work it up to get laid if I'm lacking in the self-respect department. For me, there's a minimum threshold of competence that I have to feel like I have, or else, hey, I'm not feeling very sexy. In fact, in those situations, I'm feeling like if I even bothered to have sex, I'd probably do it badly, and it wouldn't be any fun.

Third, I don't know how the kids today do things, but my range of sexual behavior very rarely involves calculators, and has never yet called for beach balls. I'm going to take this moment to wonder bemusedly about the sex lives of the people who designed this program.

On the bright side, the hardworking citizens of 8elements' county don't seem to be paying for this steaming pile of monkey crap anymore. But you have to figure, at some point, basic health services were not being provided because the budget included Abstinence Beach Balls instead of vaccine doses, nursing hours, and suchlike. That bothers me.

Comments

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Lots of girls have sex willy-nilly because they have low self-esteem. Guys, too, probably. In fact, I could name several girls who intentionally had babies because the pull to have someone love them unconditionally was so great.

I'm not so concerned with whether they're having sex, but if a message like that keeps them from having sex for the wrong reasons, that's maybe a good thing.

[capriciouslass.livejournal.com]

Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy your ability to cut to the heart of an issue with such humor added in? If not, consider it done. Your commentary was so spot on, yet it made me chuckle wickedly.

[kaymyth.livejournal.com]

This is quite true, though it seems to me that this is heavily linked to the very same 'morality' ideals that support abstinence-only sex ed in the first place. There's a very strong societal vibe of, "Sex is dirty and degrading and if you do it before you're married, you're a baaaaaad person." Naturally this is going to feed into low self-esteem issues of anyone who believes it.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

I was in no way agreeing with the idea of abstinence education.

[kaymyth.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, I figured that. :)

You certainly made a valid point, though. I was just adding in the Ouroboros effect that feeds the whole mess.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

It's confronting the notion that teens, particularly girls, are more prone to engage in promiscuous or unsafe sexual behaviour due to a lack of self-respect. And if you think that's a ludicrous notion then I envy the people you went to high school with. To that end, what they're saying is true: self-respect is a damned effective contraceptive.

I don't advocate abstainance-only education, but I believe it should be supported as a valid and healthy option for those who choose it as their contraceptive method.

[lilia-blackbear.livejournal.com]

I <3 reading journals in which someone uses the word "Ouroboros" in comments.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

That does seem a really absurd thing to me. I mean, granted, I may not have had the most normal high-school experience in the world, but I don't know that anybody I knew in high school was having sex because they felt like they had to, or because nobody would love them if they didn't. Everybody I knew who was having sex then seemed to be doing it because it was fun.

Personally, I was much too ugly in high school to have sex with anyone, so it may just be that I totally missed out on that whole aspect of the culture.

Also, lest anybody get the wrong idea, I have every ounce of support in the world for people who choose not to have sex in order to avoid the risks of having sex, or even because they simply don't want to have sex. I just don't think that should be the only option teens get to be aware of.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I have smart friends. :)

[liquidfun.livejournal.com]

my range of sexual behavior very rarely involves calculators

Um, I think the closest I've ever gotten was setting the alarm on my calculator so I'd remember to STOP and GO to class/work ...

Now my curiousity is piqued.

As far as the whole abstinence-only sex education used in some areas ... I doubt you'll find many people who support it, as bits of knowledge are going to find their way through TV, books, magazines, porn, etc. I'd really like to hear from an abstinence-only supporter just because I can't fathom what their possible motivation is. The best rationale I can come up with is "we don't want to to be perceived as advocating sex".

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I think that *is* the rationale: "Sex is not something people ought to be doing, we don't want to send the message that sex is okay". I have also heard supporters of abstinence-only sex ed say things like "the only way to be completely safe is to just not have sex at all", which is true as far as it goes, and as long as you aren't raped, but the number of people, particularly in the teenage years who can manage to deliberately and consistently not have sex given the opportunity to do so, I think, is very small.

Also, re: calculators and your curiosity, I'm thinking I ought to retain a little bit of mystery here. *grin*

[kaymyth.livejournal.com]

Anyone can use the world "Ouroboros". It takes true brilliance to use it correctly.

It's only been in very recent years that my ego took this tremendous upturn. I swear it's true.

[lilia-blackbear.livejournal.com]

Yes, the comment was generated by the impressiveness of seeing the word used correctly. :-)

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

As I recall, a lot of the girls in high school, particularly the ones just budding and wanting to move from barbies to beers and skip everything inbetween, were horribly 'fast' for their age. They needed a boyfriend with a car, even if he just used them the mentality was that they were using HIM too. I suppose that is a healthier thought process than being victimy about it, but it still meant 13 year olds trying to hook up with 17 year olds. Made all the worse by the fact that the only 17 year olds willing to hook up with the 13 year olds were the ones that couldn't find anyone 14-18 that would even give them the time of day. Witnessing those train wrecks is probably why I never liked younger women.

I'm not sure if this is their target audience, but I remember a lot of girls being reckless because "There is nothing else better to do". I think the 'swag' money was a bit misspent, these girls knew what they wanted, and were getting it, they didn't feel vicitmized at all. But programs to give teen girls something better to do are still a bit lacking, Girl Scouts peters out a lot after Juniors, and kids only want to do 4H for so long. There are plenty of sports now... but I am pumped about the new Venture crew coming to Gardner, high-adveture activities, co-ed, and recruiting more heavily from the girl scout ranks. I hope it builds out like I think it will.

[rio-luna.livejournal.com]

my ex-coven-sister's daughter was a PhD candidate in Public Health and her and her advisor's very well-documented presentation on "why abstinence education leadas to more stds and preganancies" was scratched from a CDC conference because the Bushies said they wantd to amke sure the CDC presented "all sides of the debate, no9t just the politically motivated propaganda." that was backed up by science. ugh.

[celticwhistlin.livejournal.com]

An increase in incidents of STDs and pregnancies is why the Abstinence program at JCHD was canned. It was a Federal grant program with State pass through.

Yeah.

The yo-yo's say: 1+1=3 talk with your kids about love, sex values

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

That does seem a really absurd thing to me. I mean, granted, I may not have had the most normal high-school experience in the world, but I don't know that anybody I knew in high school was having sex because they felt like they had to, or because nobody would love them if they didn't. Everybody I knew who was having sex then seemed to be doing it because it was fun.

Personally, I was much too ugly in high school to have sex with anyone, so it may just be that I totally missed out on that whole aspect of the culture.

Be that as it may, I assure you it does happen. And it happens often enough to be a problem worthy of addressing.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

but it still meant 13 year olds trying to hook up with 17 year olds. Made all the worse by the fact that the only 17 year olds willing to hook up with the 13 year olds were the ones that couldn't find anyone 14-18 that would even give them the time of day. Witnessing those train wrecks is probably why I never liked younger women.

In my high school every girl wanted to date a boy from the local college "because they're so much more mature!" Never occurd to them to ask themselves why someone "mature" would want to date a 14 year-old.

[liquidfun.livejournal.com]

I've had some time to think about this, and it is really, really beginning to tick me off.

The idea seems to be that if you respect yourself, you won't have sex.

The implied converse (inverse? whatever) is that if you do or have had sex you aren't worthy of respect?

Great, why don't we just hand a bunch of messed up teens some razor blades and tell 'em their grades suck, they aren't getting into a good school, their friends are talking about them behind their backs, and nobody is ever going to love them?

[chayam.livejournal.com]

I'm going to take this moment to wonder bemusedly about the sex lives of the people who designed this program.

Teehee! You made me giggle. Thanks for the amusing thought!