Funds For Abstinence “Education” Gone
Despite what anyone says “No” is not an education program. That said… Elections matter.
Via Think Progress:
Tags: abstinence, Obama Administration
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A win for the good guys! I can’t believe how difficult it is to get rid of funding for a program that doesn’t work and is actually counterproductive but it makes social conservatives happy.
I also read that Bristol Palin is now backing off her quite honest statement that abstinence isn’t always possible and now Levi is pushing for comprehensive sex ed. Those Palins are entertaining!
But abstinence works – you just need a higher order of reasoning.
Pardon me but my ass is still chafed after Ms. J Christian told me that not everyone looks at porn because some people make the choice to control their impulse through “higher” reasoning. It was on a post a few days ago. I don’t recall anyone defending me! 🙂
By that logic shouldn’t we defend this program?
This is the same fucking concept. Abstinence doesn’t work for the same reason everyone, at one time or another, looks at porn. Consentual sex in all its forms is fun and it feels good. But I guess sometimes it’s low class.
I’ve always been amazed at the lack of intelligence required to promote sexual responsibility by saying, “Just don’t do it.” We have a written history of a few thousand years showing that people are simply going to have sex come hell or high water. We have achieved Darwinian success because, in addition to other skills, we fuck a lot. So in the face of literally millions of years of us and our progenitors fucking a lot, a small group decided at one point to simply say, “Why don’t we tell people to stop fucking?”
This approach worked as well as any person of normal intelligence would expect.
Because they don’t believe in evolution either. Sky dad wrong that sex is bad.
I think the problem is worse than that Reis. Not only do they say simplistic things like “don’t do it.” They give misleading information about contraception and sexually transmitted diseases and a lot of them teach that a woman that has had sex is polluted. I’ve seen comparisons to already-chewed gum, spitting in a cup and then drinking it, etc.
UI is right — abstinence only was not just about just saying NO, but trying to pass on very bad information and trying to scare kids, ala The Abstinence Clown. It is completely fair to make the case to kids on why saying no is a good idea — you are the parent so your preferences ought to be expressed. But sending that kid off into the world with no info on how to protect herself or himself is borderline abusive.
As the mother of a 15 year old boy this situation has really hit home. I’ve taken Dominique’s (DWA) advice and placed a bunch of condoms in my son’s desk drawer.
I have told him that while I think he has the sexual maturity of a pea and I’d rather he didn’t have sex if he decides to ignore my wisdom then he’d better not be an idiot.
We discuss sex quite openly in the Pandora household, my kids have come to take it in stride. A couple of years ago my brother and I took our son’s aside and started talking. Immediately, my son and nephew cut us off, saying they’d learned all this in health class. My brother quickly asked… did your teacher tell you that it feels really, really good and that you stop thinking clearly?
Needless to say, we suddenly had their undivided attention.
Hey, abstinence is great, and, if I were all powerful, I’d prefer my kids didn’t have sex until they were older, but that’s not realistic – just ask Bristol.
Be sure to tell him that they don’t last long in a wallet.
Whether or not a person has sexual maturity is a collateral and subordinate issue. For example, I once told my wife, “I’m still not real clear about what’s going on down there.” To which she replied, “I know, honey, I know, but I still love you.”
The fact of the matter is screwing is hard-wired into us. Otherwise our species would have faded like a GOP evangelical conservative candidacy.
And “scare” tactics, as mentioned by UI, don’t work. In fact, a guy named Shakespeare wrote a play about it, where a young couple was threatened with death if they had sex. They had sex anyway. The play, “Romeo and Juliet”, was written a few hundred years ago. And the plot of the play was ‘borrowed’ by Shakespeare from an Italian Renaissance play a couple hundred years before that. And the plot of that play was borrowed from another written a thousand years before that. The point is that humans have shown throughout recorded history that they’re going to have sex even if threatened with death.
Abstenence:
It
Doesn’t
Work.
When the hormones start running, we all have sex. As proof, look at pictures of some of our elected officials; they have children. Proof that its hard-wired into us.
Are you saying sex as a means to procreate is hard-wired into us?
I’m with you Reis. You can’t legislate away strong basic human drives. I’ve always thought that social conservatives overestimated the effect of shame on influencing people’s behavior. That’s why I’ve always thought personal behavior is private, and that as long as people are consenting (informed consent), we should leave it alone.
h.
No, I’m saying we procreate by other means. But not really.
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I view procreation as a side effect of sex – one most sensible people avoid until, or if, they decide to have children. 😉
Has the A-only $$ dried up for Africa too?
I always thought that was extremely cruel of the Bushies to impose their ‘morals’ on an entire continent that has major HIV/AIDS problems.
Susan,
Good question. I think the answer is yes, but I’m not sure.