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8/12/2004
My Child Did What?
Stop the madness. I recently came across yet another Reuters article that attempts to slap around the subject of teenage sex (and very badly if I might add). Just when will people learn how analyze this issue the right way? So it seems researchers (read: people getting paid way too much money to make up stuff and write about things that could be easily identified by plain old common-sense and discernment) have found that 84% of parents surveyed did not think their teenager was sexually active. Well there's a deep revelation! Strangely, this reality works both ways. I'd bet a good 95% of teenagers don't think their parents are sexually active either. My goodness, the mental picture of that alone is just disturbing. As far as I'm convinced, my parents did the deed four times to produce my lovely siblings and I and that's it. I prefer to keep it that way for the sake of sound and peaceful sleep.
The article reports that although 84% of parents surveyed were certain their children were chaste nuns and celibate archbishops, a recent government study (warning) showed that "nearly half of ninth through 12th graders aged 14 to 18 have had sex". I'm sorry, but I'm just not convinced. To properly ascertain how I feel about most studies (government or not), picture the excrement that flows through a sewage pipe. Now, multiply that by ten. The reality is, none of these studies are even close to sitting on the truth of the matter. Most of the theory around teenage sex is liberal, convoluted, self-seeking, and just that; theory. Why? Because there's an agenda on the line. The evil forces at Planned Parenthood would like us all to think that teenagers are hormonally crazed sex nuts that saunter around the city copulating like rabbits. So by all means, if they're gonna do it, they may as well wear protection, so let's pass out condoms and let them go at it in the freight elevator on campus (which by the way, happens disturbingly too often). The reality is, these statistics are bunk.
The article then goes on to discuss the varying degrees of copulation taking place amongst teenagers of different racial backgrounds,"Another study published on Thursday found that teaching African-American girls how to boost their self-esteem can help them better control their sex lives.
Black teenage girls are more likely have sex and are more at risk of sexually transmitted diseases than white girls the same age, said Laura Salazar of Atlanta's Emory University. This is true on all counts. Pre-mature sex is generally an indication of something deeper than just the "physical feeling". The average teenage girl describes her first sexual experience as negative yet she continues deeper into the abyss of longing for acceptance, validation, and love. Studies around race and sexual activity usually start to turn bad when they begin declaring things like, "Young, inner-city black teenage girls are more likely to get pregnant than their white suburban counterpart." Wrong. Young, inner-city black teenager girls are just more likely to keep the child. Reasons for this can be found in a recent article I came across in the Montgomery Advisor about black teens actually intentionally wanting kids (which is an entirely different sad epidemic). My experience in private, white education has shown me that abortion clinics serve the upper-class rather well. That's a conversation for another day.
The trouble with studies like the one mentioned in the Reuters article, is the fact that there are counter studies like "The Mood of American Youth" study which found that many teenagers (remind me one of these days to break down the etymological origin of that word and its self-fulfilling prophetic impact on today's youth) these days are striving to forego the "relationship with benefits" model for something more concrete and traditional like a family. Columnist James Glassman reports,"The changes in politics are rooted in changes in values. Last year, the rate of teen pregnancy dropped to a record low. Better birth control is not the sole explanation; the proportion of teens who had intercourse fell from 56 percent in 1991 to 46 percent in 2001.
Kids don't want casual sex; they want families. Harris Interactive reports that 91 percent plan to marry and, on average, they'd like three children.
Already, Generation X (born between 1965 and 1979) is more traditional than its parents. "The number of married-couple families, after declining in the '70s and '80s," writes Hymowitz, "rose 5.7 percent in the '90s." More brides are taking their husbands' names, and in 2000, the number of women in the workforce with infants dropped for the first time in decades. A study by Yankelovich found that 89 percent of Gen Xers think modern parents let kids get away with too much. So let's get down to brass tacks. Let me tell you what all these fluffy "studies" do. They let us off the hook from being in tune with what's going on in my generation. Far too many parents depend on the news for statistics on their own children instead of actually getting involved in the lives of their off-spring (a novel concept really). So it comes down to family. I wrote some months ago a piece called "Oh Parent Where Art Thou?"on my increasing distaste for lack of parental responsibility and accountability in this country. My notion still stands. Parents aren't doing their job. Society will continue to pay. Down with statistics and studies, up with getting a clue.
One of these days (soon) I'll get around to opining my millenial view on sex education in schools.
posted by ambra at 8/12/2004 10:24:27 AM | link to this entry |
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