Jezebel: teen sex

Oprah: Moms Should Buy Vibrators For Teen Girls

Tracie — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:30:00 EDT

Yesterday's Oprah was wonderfully progressive, teaching parents how to talk to their daughters about sex, which included encouraging them to discuss the importance of pleasure, masturbation, and (gasp!) the purchase of vibrators.

O's sex expert, Dr. Laura Berman, suggested that parents have a discussion about the basic mechanics of the male and female anatomies when their kids are around 10 or 11 years old. Then, when children are 14 or 15, parents should have an in-depth conversation about self-stimulation, and mention that one option includes vibrators.

Gayle and some of the moms in the audience were totally freaked out by this. Gayle said it was "too much information," but the whole point of the show was that kids are learning about sex in other places anyway, so parents should take the wheel and edify their spawn themselves to ensure they are getting accurate information.

Dr. Berman's argument to scared moms is that it's important that girls not only know about their own bodies but understand what it means to reach an orgasm. Because if they know what an orgasm is, and that they can do it for themselves, then they can own it, and they will know that they never have to depend on another person to make them feel that way.

Do Sexual Song Lyrics Promote Sex Among American Teens?

Margaret — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:30:00 EST

A new study suggests that 14 and 15 year olds who listen to music with sexual lyrics are more likely to be sexually active. But is music to blame for kids having sex too young?

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh surveyed a group of 711 ninth grade students at three large urban high schools, reports EurekAlert. The teens were broken into groups by how often they listen to music. Those who listen more than 17.6 hours per week were classified as "regular"listeners, and those who listed less than 2.7 hours per week were classified as "not listening often". Students reported their favorite artists, then researchers calculated the percentage of each artist's popular songs containing lyrics describing "degrading sex." Researchers wouldn't name specific artists but gave the phrase "I'm gonna beat that pussy up" as an example of a lyric being studied. (Though researchers won't name the songs, we assume they are referring to the charming song "Wait" by the Ying Yang twins; lyrics here.)

Two thirds of the students were virgins when the study started, and, of those students, the group exposed to the highest number of sexual lyrics were more than twice as likely to have started having sex by the end of the study, compared to the group that listened the least. (The numbers were equal for girls and boys.) Lead researcher Dr. Brian A. Primack concludes that, "among this sample of young adolescents, high exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex in popular music was independently associated with higher levels of sexual behavior."

The BBC quotes Primack as saying:

"It is tempting to say music is just 'teenage stuff' ... I am not saying parents should try to ban such music, that is unlikely to help. But they should be talking to their children about sex and putting these sorts of lyrics in context."

Of course parents should be talking to their kids more, but some experts are calling the study's conclusions into question. A spokeswoman for Brook, a UK charity for teen sexual health, tells the BBC:

Obviously the cultural environment plays a part, but that is not to say there is a causal link. It is far too simplistic to say just because someone listens to this music they have sex. There are a variety of factors that influence decisions.

We have to agree. Every few years a study comes out blaming rap music or video games for everything that's wrong with kids today, but often the research gets boiled down to headlines like the Daily Mail's "Degrading Rap Songs Drive Teens To Sex." Even the EurekAlert article starts out by saying:

With sexual activity among adolescents in the United States resulting in over 750,000 teenage pregnancies each year and reports of up to 25 percent of all female adolescents in the US having sexually transmitted infections, researchers and public health officials are looking for those factors that might increase sexual activity in teens.

Songs with degrading lyrics about women are disgusting, but are they really one of the top factors leading to teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases? Degrading images of women and depictions of sex are present throughout the culture, not just in pop music. It's questionable whether preventing kids from listening to Britney's "If You Seek Amy" is going to change the behavior of children and teens but, of course, it's easier to get alarmed about children listening to explicit rap music than to sit down and talk to them seriously about safe sex.

Sexual Lyrics In Popular Songs Linked To Early Sexual Experiences [EurekAlert]
"Wait" By The Ying Yang Twins [Song Meanings]
Music Linked To Teen Sex Habits [BBC]

This Week Things Got Ugly Up In Here

Jessica — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:30:00 EDT

Less than a month until the election, folks, and it's getting really ugly.
John McCain sounding like a total loon during the debates, calling Obama "That One": ugly.
Illogical republican strategists yelling at Newsweek for putting a (gasp!) un-retouched photo of Sarah Palin on the cover: ugly!
Nikki Blonsky kicking Bianca Golden's mom in the vagina at an airport: ugly!
At least we have the unarguably awesome Sarah Vowell and Donna Brazile to guide us through the ugliness.
Though they can't really fix the ugly in this mess of the economy... or this Free People catalog.

Questions about pelvic exams? We're at your cervix.
Speaking of pelvic exploration, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist has an endearing and accurate depiction of teen sex.
Thank jebus it's the weekend. So kick back with a career romance like the young modern you are, and have a fantastic 48 hours with Hortense!

Sure, we all love Gossip Girl but most of...

Maria — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Sure, we all love Gossip Girl but most of us are (semi-)reasonable adults who can separate the show's risque antics from reality. But what about the children? Carol Platt Liebau, author of Prude, says that the show "glamorizes and normalizes" a sexy lifestyle which can result in emotional and psychological distress in young girls. She also thinks that "depicting high school girls as little more than gossipy sex objects is simply a tired cliche that does all females a disservice." But Carol, they aren't just gossipy sex objects! They are ASB presidents who out their ex-BFF as a recovering drug addict, they steal Valentino couture, they kill people. OMG, the drama! No wonder 14-year-olds love this show. [Reuters]

Researchers at the University of Utah have...

Maria — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Researchers at the University of Utah have found that gastroschisis, a serious birth defect in which infants are born with their intestines and organs outside of their abdomen, is linked to STDs and UTIs contracted just before or during pregnancy. Although the causes for gastroschisis are not known, women in the study who had contracted STDs and UTIs were four times more likely to give birth to infants with the defect. Gastroschisis is also linked to age, with women under 20 more likely to give birth to children with the defect than women over 25. STDs and UTIs are said to be contracted by 1 in 4 teens and 6 out of 6 Jezebels (kidding). [UPI]

Tyra Talks To Teens Who Have Sex At School

Tracie — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EDT

Today on Tyra, teenagers as young as 13 discussed how they have sex on school grounds, sometimes even giving BJs in the classroom while the substitute teacher is sleeping. As one can imagine, Tyra was appalled and gave some of the kids a stern talking-to, but perhaps more disturbingly, she also went into unnecessary detail with some of the parents on hand, pointing out repeatedly that their kids are sexual beings. It was definitely a big cringe-fest for everyone. Then Tyra asked a teenage lesbian to discuss the specifics of her trysts in the back of the classroom during movie days. The kid did such a good job, it sounded like she was reading a Penthouse Forum letter out loud. Clip above.

Tyra: "Chinese Face, No S-E-X Talk"

Tracie — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:40:00 EST

Yesterday's episode of Tyra was all about parents who have difficulty talking to their teenagers about sex. And while TyTy's sex discussion usually makes us want to throw the remote at the TV, this one was actually progressive, and really sweet. The best though was Lixia, an adorable Chinese-American woman who says that her culture makes it taboo to talk about sex with her 15-year-old daughter. Lixia is actually a health teacher, but she can't bring herself to say the "P" word or the "E" word in front of her daughter. The "E" word? Watch the clip above to find out.

Watching TV Leads To Teen Sex; Teen Sex Leads To Teen Chlamydia

Dodai — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:30:00 EST

A new study claims that there's a "recipe" that raises the odds of a teen becoming sexually active early — and the more ingredients (low self-esteem, not feeling close to parents, lots of TV), the more likely a teen is to have sexual relations by the age of 15. Janet Shibley Hyde, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author Myeshia Price conducted a two-year study of 273 children and used anonymous surveys."By 15," they write, "one out of five boys had participated in oral sex and about one in 10 said they'd had intercourse; the numbers were somewhat lower for girls. (Because the teens were mostly middle class and white, they had lower rates of sexual experience than the U.S. average.)"

Each risky factor raised the odds of sexual activity by 44%. Boys with more advanced puberty development started sex early. Teens with low self-esteem may start sex to boost their self-images or gain popularity, Price speculates. Defiant kids with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, those whose parents had little education or those who regularly watched certain types of TV also tried sex sooner.

What's the harm in disaffected, TV-addicted youth screwing each other? Well, kids who start having sex early have more partners than those who wait, and they're much more likely to get pregnant or catch a sexually transmitted disease, says Bill Albert of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Plus, chlamydia cases reported in the USA have just topped the 1 million mark for the first time, with the highest rates among adolescent girls, the CDC reported today. And John Douglas, director of STD prevention at the CDC in Atlanta, thinks that number is low. "We have reason to believe that chlamydia is dramatically underreported," he says.

So what shall we do? Fight at the source? How do we encourage parents to spend more time with teenagers? How do we limit the amount of TV teens watch? How do we manage teenage self-esteem? And how do we keep teenage boys from giving teenage girls chlamydia in record numbers?

Study Pinpoints Factors For Early Sex [USA Today]
Chlamydia Tops 1 Million Cases, With STDs Rising Slightly Overall [USA Today]