I tend to agree with this op-ed in the Post today about normalizing teen pregnancy through shows like 16 and Pregnant. We shouldn’t make teen pregnancy look easy because it’s not. Neither are teen abortions.
As a result, we shouldn’t also make teen sex look so easy. But the author won’t touch that issue:
Positive reviewers have called the show “educational ” and “sweet and touching.” But those words say more about the people using them — for they suggest an increasingly casual attitude toward the underlying subject matter. Maybe when contraceptive use drops among young females, and 16-year-old girls begin dropping out of school to start families, the wisdom of such attitudes will be revisited.
If we are going to say teens will be teens–they are going to have sex anyway, then I’d advocate for teaching them about marriage, making their already very serious sexual committments permanent, and worrying less as a society about whether our kids have advanced degrees.
I know the abortion clinics are filled with girls who never envisioned getting pregnant with the guy she was having sex with, and now she feels she must have an abortion to escape his memory. If that is the case–why on earth are we treating sex so lightly? A girl who doesn’t actually like a guy should not be having sex with him.
And if these are little Romeos and Juliets–well then, get married and have kids. Enough already with engaging in adult behaviours while studiously avoiding–or glorifying–the sometimes difficult adult outcomes.
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If we are going to say teens are going to be teens then we should at least refer to an accurate portrayal of teens. Not all teens ‘are going to have sex anyway’. Not all teens who ‘have sex’ want to have sex. These two groups are generally ignored and consequently teens are misrepresented and they and all of society is mislead.
I’m 23, and still have had no sex.
It’s not that I’m unwilling, exactly. Just that I never considered a relationship worthwhile. I’ve seen too much drama by people who broke up, and too many bitter exs.
I look at a lot of pornographic artwork. Fantasy is safe.
That said, back to general social policy: You’re right, not all teens are going to have sex. Some, however, are. Nothing can possibly stop that being the case – no amount of religion or education will get the teen sex rate down to zero, or even close to it. Preparing for the sometimes inevitable is the best policy can do.