And another

[trinityvixen]

Here's some actual news: the next time you hear something that sounds like an urban legend with the names/places changed, assume it is one. I'm looking at you Time Magazine.

Most of the people who read my journal are smart. You are, so give yourselves a hand. And the majority of you are very young indeed. Meaning that most of you are not so far removed from high school that you have forgotten how tough it was. Meaning that if you heard someone say that girls at a high school got together and formed a clandestine pact to get themselves pregnant on purpose, you'd laugh harder than you did at the person who believed the sperm-on-the-cheek-swab story was true for a friend's classmate. I think I was that person, actually, and even I'm not dumb enough to buy the bullshit about teenaged girls forming a coven of sperm-seeking mommy wannabes.

Especially not when the principal who "reported" this "pact" to the "press" points to one person in any sort of authority to back him up and that person says that his pearl-clutching media moment was the first that she'd heard of it. His only other sources are anonymous, uncited folk talking in hallways. Because hallways have never been known to distort facts. Facts being factually reported have never lost accuracy as the message moved from one mouth to one ear and back in crowded, noisy places. Apparently, neither this principal nor the ace reporter has ever played a game of Telephone in their entire lives. I'd pity them, but they're smearing teenage girls' names in the mud, and if the resignations over the principal's refusal to allow the nurse's office to stock contraceptives is any indication, he's fixing to do worse.

It's the set-them-up, knock-them-down strategy in one fell swoop. He denies them contraceptives, the sex-ed is nonexistant, the girls get knocked up because HELLO THEY ARE ONLY HUMAN BEINGS AND THEY ARE PULSING WITH HORMONES, and he gets to pretend they did it on purpose because they should have known better (how if school won't teach them?) and they could have protected themselves (without knowing how? without access to means?) but they didn't, so obviously they chose pregnancy (they're not human? they're not fallible? they don't forget? they always use the contraceptives they don't have perfectly accurately?).

And his bullshit, not the corrected story (i.e. that he is full of shit) is what will be used as a weapon against girls and women having control over their bodies. Well done, you magnificent asshole.

Comments

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

Can all be covered in a 45 minute class.

Been a while since HS, I know. But remember that condoms are the most commonly shoplifted item in drugstores because kids are embarrassed to be buying them. The point of sex ed isn't to show somebody how to use a condom (I mean, the interface is pretty straightforward, although making sure you get all the air out is non-obvious); the point is to make people comfortable around them, so that they don't feel squeamish about using them or insisting that they be used. Get you so used to hearing about them that you don't giggle and look away when they're discussed, and might even be able to talk about them calmly.

Similarly, the point of giving out condoms isn't that they're expensive; it's that nobody's going to get out of the back seat to drive to a CVS. You want to give out condoms not because they're pricey, but to make sure that the kids have them well before they are needed, because under all the pressure and the confusion of teenage sex, the last thing most people will think about is "OMG let's go buy condoms."

they were having unprotected sex with random homeless guys just for fun
I'm sorry, that's simply not credible. If it appeared in the article with anything less than a direct attribution to the person claiming to have done it, I would never believe it for a second.

I don't know where any teenage girl would get the idea that teenage pregnancy is somehow glorified in our culture, but if googling the phrase "culture of meaninglessness" is any guide, apparently it's still the libruls' fault...

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

Speaking as a high school bio (and health) teacher,
I will add this :
we are NO LONGER PERMITTED to even open up a condom wrapper in front of the students to show them what the damn thing looks like. We are not permitted to simply leave a box of condoms for them to anonymously help themselves to. We are not permitted to pass condoms out during the reproduction lessons in class. We are not permitted to give explicit instructions on HOW to use them either, but we can pass out pamphlets.
What are we permitted to do? If a student were to ask for condoms, we'd have to check the parental opt-out list. If the student's name is there, no condoms for him or her. Of course, no student ever asks for condoms anyway. That would be too embarrassing.
And why are the sex ed classes so restricted? Because many parents didn't want their kids knowing how to protect themselves.
I do feel that the teens are being set up to fail when tangible reproductive information is outright forbidden. I can tell them how the assorted birth control options work, failure rates, and where to get them, and quiz them on it till I am blue in the face. But they could benefit more if they can see what the items look like in a situation when they are not about to use them. Making the items taboo in school equates them with being "wrong" somehow, which is a confusing message to send. It's like saying, we don't want you girls to get pregnant, but we are going to make these birth control items be mysterious, inaccessible, and shameful, so good luck finding them! Don't get knocked up, okay!
By the way, Norplant has been discontinued in the US due to complaints about the sides effects.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Your input is invaluable. I wish to god before people would go "BUT ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS TELL THEM 'USE A CONDOM'" they would fucking ask the professionals who are directly involved in imparting the information to kids how they're even allowed to do their job. Because the way we go about sex ed in this country is shameful. Even where you CAN tell kids to use condoms (as opposed to the abysmal, misinformed, useless abstinence programs), you're hindered. And in ways kids pick up on. Why do you think they're embarrassed to ask for/about condoms? Well, the fact that the teacher can only hint at the fact they even exist like it's something naughty might be one reason. Really, this is like not using swear words around babies--'cause you're afraid they'll pick them up. But in the case of condoms, the idea is that you want them to pick them up if they're going to have sex, for fuck's sake.

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

And another comment -

When I was in graduate school, some of my colleagues became pregnant. Intentional or accidental, they never said. Another colleague made the remark that the pregnancies MUST be intentional because nowadays with all of the options available, no woman should get pregnant by accident. This person felt that if a woman has unprotected sex, then it was because deep down, or perhaps subconsciously, she wants that baby.

I don't buy that. There are several reasons why a woman might choose to have unprotected sex, and none of them good. She may have been in the heat of the moment. She may have been pressured. The birth control is too annoying. She might be that religious. Or perhaps she DID use BC, and something went wrong. That can happen too from product defect or improper use. No BC is 100% effective.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

This is the problem with moral scolds: they do not allow for human error. They have managed to refrain from potentially dangerous behavior and they therefore assume that everyone should be able to (and want to!). Then, if they can't and human error comes into it, well, human error apparently ceases to exist once you get to it past the "you're engaged in naughty stuff anyway, that was the real mistake." No one uses contraception 100% effectively without experience. Experience is hard to come by when people are withholding information (or the contraceptives themselves, as some pharmacists are doing when they refuse to prescribe to unmarried women).