Abstinence in the US.

http://www.abstinence.net/abstinencestore/images/items/dogt.jpg

Does that mean all Geordies are S/M freaks?

i like this poster because:
first four lines don't really tell me why i should abstain
last line has incorrect spelling of "than," so it's like "be safe. then cry later."

ice cube

this is so warped! your parents had sex you morans!

Looks like it says "Chew on this - Stick with abstinence".

OTMFM.

I think teaching kids "abstinence or DEATH! we don't deal with that heathen birth control shit here" is a bad idea, but that's a different matter.

p.s. is kevin spacey cool?

Thanks for affirming the belief I've had that I'm patently NOT cool, Andrew. ;)

Signed,

That Uncool Chick Over There

Anyway, Maria upthread is SO totally OTM that I'll just "ditto" that post.

This post brought to you by a girl who is blushing crimson red.

So interesting to hear things from your perspective! Although... according to this, weren't you pretty much abstinent throughout most all of your adolescence? I mean, yeah, there was that "one, weird, early, isolated thing" throughout that period, but then the rest of your juvenility was spent without, so you did indeed abstain for the remainder of that time. (And I've heard that about college, sure. Um, I was a commuter student, FYI.)

Sure, in high school, where no one will appreciate their coolness until much later. Cold comfort for them.

"Can't get laid to save my life" != "abstinent"

-- g--ff (gffcnn...), November 26th, 2004.

haha "abstinence is a bad idea" probably wouldn't get me very far

it is a bad idea though

i need a smoke

And this:

We shouldn't be discouraging anything that encourages fundamentalists to not breed.

Is deeply OffTM. It's encouraging them to be disinterested in sex, uneducated about its workings, and... bad at it. And to later squeeze out a litter with someone who's an awful lover, but hey! they don't know any better. Abstinence RUINS SEX, PEOPLE!

You think? Or is it the case that it is impossible, theoretically, for someone to be able to claim that they "can't get laid to save [their] life", because there are venues out there that make it possible for ANYONE, at ANY time, to "get laid", but that someone can choose not to be that desperate but rather take what life can give them in all avenues including this one?

What I don't buy about the abstinence argument is that saving it will make it more special. It won't. Your first time will be as awkward and fumbling as mine, I guarantee you. All abstinence does is postpone your first-hand education in what is surely a central and essential human activity. Waiting won't help you avoid the emotional pitfalls of sex, it will only put them off. The ugly truth is, teenage sex isn't all that different from adult sex, not emotionally. Sexually, we don't grow up that much. Sex by its very nature exposes our essence, makes us vulnerable, makes us children. It makes adults act as weird as it makes teenagers act. There are reasons that teenagers should avoid sex, but they mainly have to do with their not knowing all the facts, not understanding what they're getting into, opening themselves up to exploitation, etc. It has nothing to do with not being mature enough to handle it. "Mature" is highly relative, and sex generally negates it anyway, no matter your age.

The only thing that keep teenagers from getting pregnant is education. abstinence education hasnothing to do with morality or maturity or any of they things they tell you it's about. It's just a religious political agenda. It's meaningless.

All the advice in the world can't replace the experience of having your heart broken. And until you've had sex, believe me, you've never had your heart broken.

In late 2001, however, the Bush Administration dropped these measures and replaced them with a set of standards that does not include any real outcomes. Rather than tracking pregnancy or sexual activity, these measures assess attendance and the attitudes of teens at the end of the education program, including the “proportion of participants who indicate understanding of the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from premarital sexual activity.”

In other words, in order to push these measures successfully, you have to avoid talking about how they are proven not to work. You have to ignore actual results in favor of... how big the kids are smiling and how white their teeth are? Something like that. Like I said, it's just a religious political agenda.

Did any ILXors go to Catholic school? I'm sure they have some stories about this.

On the other hand, you should (and probably have to) cut yourself off from some parts of life. The experience of not doing something for an extended period of time can be just as important as the experience of doing that thing.

And I wouldn't be all that much unhappier without chocolate.

A good friend of mine didn't have sex until age 27, and not for lack of offers. She just figured she'd wait until she was good and ready.

Abstinence as church-sanctioned badge of honour = DUD.

An ex-girlfriend of mine was vocal (to the point of obnoxious) about her virginity. Her born-again Christianity and my religious skepticism made for very interesting times. We didn't last too long, her and I.

Caitlin wins.

Anybody?

Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals "can result in pregnancy," a congressional staff analysis has found.

Those and other assertions are examples of the "false, misleading, or distorted information" in the programs' teaching materials, said the analysis, released yesterday, which reviewed the curricula of more than a dozen projects aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease...

and here's the fun part:

"We didn't see any strong indications that these programs were having an impact in the direction desired," said Dr. Buzz Pruitt, who directed the study.

The study was delivered to the Texas Department of State Health Services, which commissioned it.

The federal government is expected to spend about $130 million to fund programs advocating abstinence in 2005, despite a lack of evidence that they work, Pruitt said.

"The jury is still out, but most of what we've discovered shows there's no evidence the large amount of money spent is having an effect," he said.

Yes! Dump more money into it! Why not just pay the kids not to hump?!

-- amateur!!st (-...), November 27th, 2004.

fundamentalists!

Some full-on Stephen Colbert-style idiotic authoritarianism:

Experts say sex abstinence program doesn't work

By Will Dunham
Wed Apr 23, 4:33 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Programs teaching U.S. schoolchildren to abstain from sex have not cut teen pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases or delayed the age at which sex begins, health groups told Congress on Wednesday.

The Bush administration, however, voiced continuing support for such programs during a hearing before a House of Representatives panel even as many Democrats called for cutting off federal money for so-called abstinence-only instruction.

[...]

Republicans said even if some abstinence-only programs do not work, others do, and it would be wrong to end the funding.

Rep. John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican, said that it seems "rather elitist" that people with academic degrees in health think they know better than parents what type of sex education is appropriate. "I don't think it's something we should abandon," he said of abstinence-only funding...

Again, doesn't matter that any parent can elect to keep their kid just as dumb-ass ignorant as they are by pulling them out of the health classes, we gotta enforce it to everybody. Also, this is full-on rightwing authoritarianism going on here; the deliberate equating of fact & opinion, and attacking anybody other than authority figures as knowing their shit. Reality and empiric evidence don't mean shit, only what we say does.

Hahahah "elitist" hahahahaha. Oh god.

I'm writing a research paper on the abstinence only sex ed policies of the U.S. and their implications both here and abroad. It's ridiculously infuriating and has be all fired up at the moment. Fucking idiots.

Because people who spent years studying science, history and the results of past practices are being offensively presumptuous to suggest they might see more clearly than people with no education on the topic. Thanks, Repubs. I hate you.

I have to do an internship in the fall and really want to work for these people but they're (of course) in New York http://www.siecus.org/.

You know what is also infuriating? 50% of my salary is paid from President's Emergency Fund for Aids Relief funds. While PEPFAR $ has greatly increased resources (ie. meds) for combating HIV/AIDS in many developing countries it does hardly anything in terms of prevention and makes all PEPFAR-funded programs promote abstinence-until-marriage sex ed in places where HIV infection rates might be as high as 1 in 3. Grrrr. Thank god I'm leaving in a couple months.

Kingfish have you seen "The Education of Shelby Knox"? It's a documentary about one girl's crusade against abstinence only sex ed in her HS in Texas. My prof recommended it and Netflix should be sending it to me today.

I have long believed that AIDS would be a distant memory if only we instituted abstinence education much sooner. Especially in the gay male community! Those misguided young men would have benefited so greatly from someone explaining to them that instead of having hot hot sex all the time, they could eat potato chips. It breaks my heart.

ENBB, I have that on my netflix but it seems so depressing I've been putting it off....

Perhaps if Kettle Crisps had been more widely available in the early 80's...

Sadly, that's not a long way off from what abstinence-only education actually literally involves. A friend who grew up in Kansas remembers the girls' health class being served a big chocolate cake which they pointedly called "Better Than Sex Cake."

I am all for federal funding of cake, but let's call it what it is and also makes condoms available.

A friend who grew up in Kansas remembers the girls' health class being served a big chocolate cake which they pointedly called "Better Than Sex Cake."

I can't believe there was a junior high school anywhere in America where a class faced with this cake-name did not retort:

A) "How would you know?"
B) "So what's sex-cake like, then?"
C) "Clearly you've never had Better Than Cake Sex. Poor you."

L - I know, it does. I'm hoping that SK's awesomeness balances out the depressing stuff a little. The woman teaching the class is the CEO of Our Bodies OS and she's been telling me all semester to watch it so I figure sh knows what she's talking about.

lol suzy, esp at sex-cake.

I think sex-cake is kinda like this...

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002KE0.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Does anyone else see a really bad cover version of "Anarchy in the UK" in this thread title?

Not to mention D) LOL science nerd: "Miss, explain theobromide, then?"

What's the matter with Kansas, indeed.

This Wade Horn wanted abstinence only programs for single 19-29 year olds.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/opinion/17gailcollins.html?src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB

i know this isn't some grand resurgence of depressing abstinence news - is more that i just haven't been paying attention - but it's still super depressing to read about

“Abstinence works,” said Governor Perry during a televised interview with Evan Smith of The Texas Tribune.

“But we have the third highest teen pregnancy rate among all states in the country,” Smith responded.

“It works,” insisted Perry.

“Can you give me a statistic suggesting it works?” asked Smith.

“I’m just going to tell you from my own personal life. Abstinence works,” said Perry, doggedly.

Infuriating.

sexual partners with whom i would rather abstain from sex with than use contraceptives:
#1: governor perry

On a related note:

"Congress is considering a budget proposal — called a "continuing resolution" — that eliminates all funding for Title X family planning programs AND cuts all funding for President Obama's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative. The bill also targets international family planning, eliminating funds for the United Nations Population Fund, cutting family planning programs around the globe, and reinstating the "Global Gag Rule."

Go here for more information esp for info on how to contact your Rep. This is pretty important and would have devastating repercussions for teen preg prevention programming throughout the country.

http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/Amplify_Staff/2011/2/17/Thursday-February-17-is-National-Youth-CallIn-Day-Help-Us-Stop-Congress-War-on-Women

Good resource for more info on Title X and its impact at a state-specific level:

http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/title-X/

actually thought that vote had happened, based on some PP mailouts. the most wtf aspect seemed to be it squishing all funding, even for general only-tenuously-sexual-health related services offered by providers.

Yeah, I know. I don't think it's happened yet - maybe today or tomorrow?

But don't you know that if you give PP any money at all, it frees up their other funds for more abortions?!?

I have heard otherwise level-headed, if anti-abortion-leaning people making that argument and die a little.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BK1zt8JCMAAYGsi.jpg:large

< Onion thread thataway

Oh and apparently there's an even stricter version of sexual purity called "chastity" where you not only don't have sex, you don't even masturbate or allow yourself to have sexual thoughts. One friend keeps telling me about a couple she knows who have been together for TWO YEARS and are "chaste" for religious (Christian, obvs) reasons and I'm like, you say you're sure that SHE is but I feel confident in offering a money-back guarantee that HE isn't.

lol dag (xp)

lol abstinence

sd is that rly real?

http://www.larknews.com/archives/217

Jon eats a whole raw potato to take himself out of the mood. Jon eats a whole raw potato to take himself out of the mood. Jon eats a whole raw potato to take himself out of the mood. Jon eats a whole raw potato to take himself out of the mood.

Jon Crocker looks like a motherfucker with some dark secrets

Worship leader seeks church that appreciates ‘good synthesizer’

They're not too funny, but their heart is in the right place.

i liked "man starts church for jerks"

water sprayin on her face like yeah
he's eatin raw potatoes like yeah

In a simpler time the concept of abstinence was associated with alcohol, not sex.

back in my day it were associated wi' manners, ya greet chuff

yes but not by choice so much at this point