The articles we read for today made me feel really disappointed in Americans (once again). What struck me the most was our overall tendency to brush over the topic of sex in almost every realm except the media. While the media uses sex as a plot device, as a means to sell products, and as a way to sell magazines, there is an eery silence about the topic throughout almost every other institution. Most American parents don't want to educate children about the issue themselves. Instead, they lean on the public school system to do the dirty work for them. While this may seem like an acceptable way to teach our children, the reality is that parents and schools don't properly address children's questions and concerns surrounding sex education, children will look to media to fill in the blanks.
A quote from Children, Adolescents, and the Media, Chapter Six states that, "Television may offer teenagers 'scripts' for sexual behavior that they might not be able to observe anywhere else." This becomes a problem for many teens, who are led to have unrealistic ideas about what it means to be a sexual being due to misleading portrayals of sex in the media. The same chapter says, "Teenagers often see themselves egocentrically as being actors in their own 'personal fable' in which the normal rules (e.g. having unprotected sexual intercourse may lead to pregnancy) are suspended-- exactly as on the television." This notion of being an exception to the rule is clearly based on the script that media portrays again and again: couples are just "swept away" on a sexual escapade without any consideration for planning to protect against STD's and pregnancy. And as the story progresses after sexual intercourse has occurred, we find that the characters tend to move past the sexual experience without consequences or even concerns surrounding their lack of protection or birth control. In fact, for as much as sex is portrayed in the media it is alarming how little birth control is mentioned. As a result, Americans tend to view birth control as unromantic and a big nuisance. Our lack of birth control use in the United States parallels what our media portrays: if the actors in this film aren't concerned about using protection, I shouldn't be either.
Unfortunately, this media influence is at least partially responsible for the alarmingly high teen pregnancy and abortion rates here in the United States. When children look to media to give them answers about sex, they see that most everybody wants it, most everybody does it, and they all do it without protection. The Guttmacher Report (1985) found that the United States had the highest rate of teen pregnancy in 37 developed countries. Make no mistake, this is not because American teens are any more sexually active than French, Belgian, or Canadian teens. Teens are sexually active regardless of what country they come from and what media they consume; the difference is the sex education these teens receive and whether or not they are taught to use and value protection and birth control.
Abstinence-only sexual education programs have been found to be largely ineffective, yet the United States government has continued to funnel more than $1.5 billion into these programs, many of which spread misinformation about sex, pregnancy, and STD's. In an article published by AdvocatesForYouth.org states that, "A 2004 investigation by the minority staff of the House Government Reform Committee reviewed 13 commonly used abstinence-only curricula taught to millions of school-age youth. The study concluded that two of the curricula were accurate but that 11 others, used by 69 organizations in 25 states, blurred religion and science, and contained unproven claims and subjective conclusions or outright falsehoods regarding the effectiveness of contraceptives, gender traits, and when life begins." Examples of the misinformation within these curricula includes:
-- A 43 day old fetus is a "thinking person"
-- HIV can be spread by sweat and tears
-- Half of gay male teenagers in the United States are HIV positive
-- Pregnancy can result from touching another person's genitals
When misinformation like this continues to be spread as well as financially supported by the government, it is hard to conceive of a United States with fewer instances of teen pregnancy, unwanted pregnancies, and abortions. Children deserve to be given the facts and do with that information what they will. But promoting a view that is warped by religious and conservative opinions and beliefs is doing a disservice to our children. They are looking to adults for answers, but if adults cannot provide a comprehensive, factual sex education for children, then future generations will continue to grapple with issues surrounding sex, STD's, and pregnancy.
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