Jezebel 
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New York, 3:41 AM
Wed Nov 25
57 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/16/09
We all said we'd teach the younger generation to play safe and this terrible disease would be stomped out, but we really just taught each other. Now these fucking kids think we're just uptight old people who won't let them have any latex-free "fun." Every single one of you shits should have to play your video games with a avatar covered in pustulating herpes boils!!! #chlamydia
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having genital herpes. #chlamydia
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I also agree that actually using condoms is less about sex-ed, and more about feeling comfortable enough to stand up for yourself and having access to condoms and other forms of birth control when needed. #chlamydia
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#whymygrannyrules #chlamydia
11/16/09
If we could just think of STDs the same way we think of strep throat or the flu, rather than stigmatizing those who have an STD as slutty or dirty, I think we'd be a lot better off. #chlamydia
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And so, because people don't see symptoms, they think they're disease-free, they have unprotected sex, and then don't get tested. I'd also point the blame towards the Religious Right preventing high schools from, not just handing out condoms, but from offering testing as well. And, naturally, lack of health insurance prevents the poor from going to the doctor at all, where any PCP would probably suggest testing at an annual physical.
A sad situation all around. #chlamydia
11/16/09
I think abstinence-only is a fucking crime and it makes me want to set things on fire, but I have to wonder if that's really the main thing to blame. The simple absence of a real, comprehensive, medically accurate sex ed class is neglect, the presence of abstinence-only is a crime, but at this point I'd wonder what the educational, religious, socioeconomic, citizenship-related and geographical breakdown of this is, and whether ever tract of new cases is correlated with classrooms that include abstinence-only.
Speaking of things I'd like to see in sex ed...a discussion of rape for both boys and girls, and a discussion of the costliness/demands of having a child (so use a condom, and do anything else you need to do to postpone pregnancy).
Has anyone ever gotten a sex ed class that brought up sexual assault to BOTH genders? It was something discussed on my first day of college orientation....it addressed both a girl who got drunk and regretted her decision and the guy who didn't know that someone can't technically consent if they're drunk (I GUESS that's sort of a demand for men not to rape.) But it was in college. College, not middle school, not high school, college. In a private university.
Has anyone ever been in a high school class where they and another student had to take care of an egg or a doll or something? (Damn...that's a home ec class, not a sex-ed class.) Did it accomplish anything? #chlamydia
11/16/09
I'm not sure if it taught us too much about actually having children, with regard to sex, but the results were actually very interesting. In my class, the boys were better parents than the girls. (Meaning, fewer cup babies were lost, cracked, or left unattended.) I think the point of the project was to demonstrate that it's incredibly difficult to be responsible for the welfare of another being, and also that the people you would stereotypically associate with being good parents (aka girls), are not necessarily the ones who will succeed in this endeavor. It was an eye-opening project in terms of gender stereotypes.
As far as sex ed and sexual assault: I was lucky in that I was a student at a public school, but one with very progressive ideas about sexual education. We were encouraged to ask any (and I mean *any*) question we had about sex and any information we received about date rape and sexual assault was presented in a non-gender-specific manner. Though, it should be noted that my sex ed teacher through all of high school was in her early thirties, her husband was an SVU detective, and she was incredible about creating a comfortable, open classroom environment.
With respect to your doubts about abstinence-only education's culpability in this study's findings: I suspect that it is a large factor, but I think you're right that there is something else at play that hasn't been discovered. I have a few friends who have contracted STDs and it was not for lack of knowledge about contraception and STD prevention. #chlamydia
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God....it makes me beyond sad that if you mention Planned Parenthood to anyone but the relative handful of women who hear the word "feminism" and do not cringe, as if they've just been tainted by association with the fat baby-hating/man-hating lesbians who want to ruin it for women everywhere....most people hear "Planned Parenthood" or "family planning" and reflexively think "abortion, abortion, abortion."
Not sexual health or women's health. Not birth control. Abortion.
I did a study on college students from ages 18-22 before I graduated myself. It was disturbing how manyI talked to who knew about both contraception AND abortion, and despite having sought abortions in the past and feeling uncomfortable with the thought of getting another one, they had not changed their sexual behavior and weren't using condoms or any other form of birth control.
I will throw a party when religion-as-an-excuse-for-ignorance is erased from law, medicine and the classrooms, but at the same time....I almost feel as if these studies are an excuse for swaths of people to be unaccountable for their sexual activity. There is something else at work here. I want ignorant, hateful byproducts like abstinence-only or collective shrugging in the face of people like Scott Roeder of the half-assed separation between church and state to be condemned, and part of me thinks, "Let these studies be emblazoned on billboards. Don't dilute the foundation of outrage."
The other part of me thinks it's ignoring something else at work....something disappointing. Something that happens despite the absence of barriers like medical misinformation or religious fearmongering. A real sex-ed class probably wouldn't be a cure-all. I guess, realistically, we'll can't know how much better we COULD be doing, because we're still heading backwards into government-funded stupidity.
Ignorance exists alongside a culture of complacency, inability to plan ahead, and discomfort with actual discussion of what members of a couple should do to avoid the unwanted consequences--having kids before you're ready, condoms, birth control, getting tested, etc. That seems to affect people of all ages.
I could imagine working for Planned Parenthood or another pro-choice, pro-contraception organization, but a large (cowardly) part of me wonders what that would look like later on when I applied for jobs...having NARAL or another potential red "feminazi/baby-eater" flag on my resume, even if I stayed within the field of non-religious affiliated social services.
How can this country be at least SOMEWHAT accepting of contraception and so ignorant about it's foes and the people who are ultimately working to keep their teenagers from getting knocked up or finding out they've left a case of syphilis untreated for six months? #chlamydia
11/16/09
The thing that got me about sex-ed in high school, though, was that it wasn't mandatory. It was part of a larger course called Career and Personal Planning (CAPP). We covered a bunch of other topics, like financial planning and preparing for post-secondary training and our future careers. We were asked, if I recall correctly, at the beginning of the year by our teacher what we wanted to cover that year in the course and we could choose certain topics. The class I was in chose the sex education topic mostly because the guys in the class acted all immature like "Hehe, let's do the sex class!" (little did they know it would be less sexytime and more...clinical discussions of STI's and prophylactics and unplanned pregnancies). I really feel like this topic should absolutely be a mandatory part of a high school education. Young people have the right to a comprehensive education and this information will hold them in as good stead as learning how to invest wisely and pick a university. #chlamydia
11/16/09
I cannot imagine a time when we'll have a class that discusses rape, sexual assault or harassment in depth, something that counsels what it looks like, NOT to do it, and that there's nothing to be ashamed of if you're victimized (guy, girl, whatever). I won't forget the post on Jezebel about guys being educated not to rape, and interviewees who balked--"No shit. We know what rape is, and not to do it."
It should SHOCK people, but given the ongoing prevalence of rape, under all different circumstances and relationships...apparently, it doesn't shock a substantial portion very much at all. #chlamydia
11/16/09
As for the discussion of sexual assault, I think the thing is, a lot of people don't know what rape is, even women who have been raped themselves or men who have raped. Because we still conceptualize it as a scary man jumping out from the shadows. I would really like to see open, honest discussions of sexual boundaries and how not to violate them. I am willing to bet there are a lot of young men out there who do not understand the subtleties of consent and should be educated to understand that, for example, consent is not meaningful when the person is deeply intoxicated. Sure, those men are not going to wait in an alley with a knife to take a woman down. But they might very well force themselves on someone after a night of partying because they have not been taught how to respect that other person's boundaries and that they are not entitled to sex and women's bodies. I think adding something like that to sex ed can only help in deconstructing rape culture. Sadly, I think we are damn long way away from seeing it implemented in schools. #chlamydia
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