The 'everyone does it' hooey keeps the STD epidemic going

Minneapolis Star Tribune ^ | April 5, 2008 | KATHERINE KERSTEN

[rhema]

Minnesota's soaring rate of sexually transmitted disease [STD] is in the news again. At the national level, a recent study found that 25 percent of 14- to 19-year-old girls have at least one of four common STDs.

The solution? Enlightened folks tell us it's more sex education, counseling and treatment. They call for more tax-funded initiatives such as a $1.3 million bill for screening and public education recently considered by the Minnesota Legislature.

But few are talking about the real reason for the epidemic: too many kids are having sex at too young an age.

Try mentioning this at your next dinner party or parents meeting at school, and watch the eyes roll. What 1950s TV rerun are you living in? Sure, a little abstinence education never hurt anyone, the common wisdom goes, but we all know -- wink, wink -- that kids are going to "do it."

This idea is one of the biggest cons of our generation. At least one group understands this -- the 53 percent of high school students who reported that they had never had sexual intercourse in a 2005 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Empowering? Give me a break

The con about youth sex is rooted in the myth behind the sexual revolution: that sex without restraints -- doing what you feel -- is both liberating and fundamental to human happiness. But in our sex-saturated culture, the opposite is true for many young people. It's far from liberating to be at the mercy of frenzied adolescent impulses.

[frogjerk]

Modern Parents :"They are going to do it anyway so why not give them condoms, lubrication, alcohol, etc..."

[Vaduz]

Teens think later do what I want to do now it’s cool.

[rhema]

Shalom Ross of Hopkins, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Minnesota, is one young woman who has chosen to remain abstinent until marriage. . . . Ironically, Ross says, students at the U tend to be "much more broad-minded" about her decision than the people in authority. "Students respect the choice I've made, because they know the decision about sex is a 'big deal,'" she says. Ross says: "They see the harm that sex can do, and quite a few regret the choices they've made."

[frogjerk]

who sometimes can't wait to brag about "scoring" -- is supposed to be enticing or empowering to women? Give me a break

Don't you know that women should be watching Oxygen on cable so that they can catch the empowering "Bad Girls Club" or reading Oprah magazine which endorses women watching pornography.

How empowering towards women! - sarc *required by law

[oprahstheantichrist]

This was actually printed in the Red Star? Must have been some error....

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Check out the Katherine Kersten archives.......

[TexGuy]

... students at the U tend to be "much more broad-minded" about her decision than the people in authority ... They see the harm that sex can do, and quite a few regret the choices they've made.

That's because they are smarter than the people in authority and can still learn from their bad decisions. Those in authority believe they are infallible.

[Tanniker Smith]

Okay, let's do the math.
1 in 4 girls have an STD
53% of students have not had sex (approx 1/2)

So of those having sex, approx 1 in 2 have an STD. Wonder how well condoms even out those odds.

(Disclaimers: 1/4 is for 14-19, 53% is for high-school students, no age range given, but usually ending by 18, and that includes boys, the assumption here is that the 53% is equally split along gender lines, which I highly doubt.)

[avg_freeper]

You don't reduce theft by giving kids lock picking classes.

You tell them not to steal.

[avg_freeper]

It has come time to consider that the main push for sex education isn't simply due to incompetence or an ignorance of the facts.

It may very well be that there is a sizable contingent of adults in power that seek intimate access to your children.

[massgopguy]

That only works if you’re not working on creating yet another special class of civil rights.

[SMARTY]

In HS they told us asprin was the best treatment AND prevention.

Place an asprin inside your left knee and hold it there with your right knee. Works ALL the time!

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

It may very well be that there is a sizable contingent of adults in power that seek intimate access to your children.

Bingo!

[Sopater]

Maybe we should start a “Drunk Drivers Education” class in schools, too. We should teach children how to drive drunk safely since they’re going to drive drunk anyway. (/sarc)

[Marko413]

I have a solution, stop providing Health Care to people with STDs. That’ll freak some people out.

[MplsSteve]

WELCOME TO FREE REPUBLIC’S MINNESOTA PING LIST!

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[allmendream]

Yeah right, the 53% of high school students who have not had sex took a moral stand for virginity! Yeah, sure, whatever gets you to sleep at night.

[rhema]

Yeah right, the 53% of high school students who have not had sex took a moral stand for virginity! Yeah, sure, whatever gets you to sleep at night.

Love the plaintive bellowing of gored oxen.

Did Kersten insinuate that they had? Of course she didn't. The reasons for their abstinence are obviously mutifaceted and varied, including one that's obvious to everyone except liberal politicians, liberal educators, and a few FReepers, apparently: a whole lot of them aren't thrilled about the odds-on prospects of getting an STD if they buy the liberal libertines' warmed-over Hefnerism.

[allmendream]

“that kids are going to “do it.” /This idea is one of the biggest cons of our generation. At least one group understands this — the 53 percent of high school students who reported that they had never had sexual intercourse”

I am afraid that Kersten did indeed insinuate that they ‘understood that it was a con’ that ‘everybody does it’. How many of those 53% would LIKE to do it but haven't yet had the opportunity?