Gaps found in young people's sex knowledge

[mingo]

I find it hard to believe this is a matter of "lack" of knowledge. Rather I think maybe an extention of the Invincible adolescent thinking he or she is bullet-proof to pregnancy as well. In spite of fundies best efforts, all but the developmentally disabled know where babies come from.

[wolveraptor]

I find it hard to believe this is a matter of "lack" of knowledge. Rather I think maybe an extention of the Invincible adolescent thinking he or she is bullet-proof to pregnancy as well. In spite of fundies best efforts, all but the developmentally disabled know where babies come from.

Well the surveys indicate that serious misconceptions about contraceptives are still floating around under the guise of common knowledge. Of course people know where babies come from, but they don't necessarily know that double-bagging it is counterproductive, or that different sexual positions don't really affect pregnancy rates.

[Simon_Jester]

Thirty-two percent said they agreed that "the government is trying to limit blacks and other minority populations by encouraging the use of birth control."

I'm still disturbed every time I'm reminded how shitty race relations are in this country. People are being made to believe that it's a fucking war out there.

I suspect that a lot of these are the same ones as believe the other nonsense (and, on occasion, deliberately distributed lies). Of course, I can't prove that.

[wolveraptor]

^You mean like those people who think the US government introduced crack-cocaine to the inner cities and that they manufactured the AIDS virus? Yeah those are surprisingly common beliefs as well. This sort of paranoia is pretty well ingrained in black and latino communities, and with good reason.

[LaCroix]

...or that different sexual positions don't really affect pregnancy rates.

Well they do, but once you insert peg A into hole B (instead of hole C or D) it doesn't affect pregnancy how you enter it, you're right.

[Serafina]

...or that different sexual positions don't really affect pregnancy rates.

Well they do, but once you insert peg A into hole B (instead of hole C or D) it doesn't affect pregnancy how you enter it, you're right.

Perhaps they should start to teach "anal and oral only until marriage".
Those are, after all, safe methods to prevent pregnancy.

[Mayabird]

^You mean like those people who think the US government introduced crack-cocaine to the inner cities and that they manufactured the AIDS virus? Yeah those are surprisingly common beliefs as well. This sort of paranoia is pretty well ingrained in black and latino communities, and with good reason.

With good reason? I'm waiting.

...or that different sexual positions don't really affect pregnancy rates.

Well they do, but once you insert peg A into hole B (instead of hole C or D) it doesn't affect pregnancy how you enter it, you're right.

Perhaps they should start to teach "anal and oral only until marriage".
Those are, after all, safe methods to prevent pregnancy.

There are still STDs. It's not all about pregnancy. Though I'm guessing you're probably being tongue-in-cheek here.

[PainRack]

^You mean like those people who think the US government introduced crack-cocaine to the inner cities and that they manufactured the AIDS virus? Yeah those are surprisingly common beliefs as well. This sort of paranoia is pretty well ingrained in black and latino communities, and with good reason.

With good reason? I'm waiting.

Well, the black community HAS been shafted a couple of times by the US government. From the Tunguskee experiments to public healthcare, bigotry and racism...

[wolveraptor]

^Exactly. I'm saying that they're somewhat justified in their paranoia, even if the conspiracy theories themselves are inaccurate.

[ArmorPierce]

Yeah it makes me so mad when these people are all up in arms against institutions like planned motherhood. They really believe that it is encouraging it, birth control and abortions to control the black population. In my experience, these are also the same people that are anti-vaccines.

[Terralthra]

Well, the black community HAS been shafted a couple of times by the US government. From the Tunguskee experiments to public healthcare, bigotry and racism...

Tunguska was an explosion. The Tuskegee Experiment was a highly unethical study performed on blacks. Tunguskee is gibberish. =]

[ZOmegaZ]

Let me say first, I'm a conservative Christian. I waited until I was married to have sex. I will teach my children to do the same. And even from that perspective, I've never understood abstinence-only sex education. There are two kinds of mistakes in the world: the ones you make because you don't know the consequences, and the ones you make because you do and don't care. You can't eliminate the second in people, but there's no excuse for raising children who honestly don't know how their own bodies work and can make life-altering and life-ending decisions based on that lack of information. May as well not tell them they can't eat raw meat. If the objective of raising children is to make them into responsible adults, the only way that's ever going to work is if you give them all the information they need to make an informed decision.

That means finding out what myths are out there and purposefully contradicting them. It also means giving them statistics on all common methods of birth control, including abstinence. Further, even if the kids in question did wait to have sex until they got married due to an abstinence-only education series, they'd still suffer from the same misconceptions afterward. I don't see anyone suggesting a fully detailed sex course for newlyweds including all this information. Given that, either the entire plan is poorly conceived, or its goals are less about pre-marital abstinence and more about encouraging general ignorance. I lean towards the former. Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by people being complete dumbasses.

[mingo]

Let me say first, I'm a jeremy switzer. I waited until I was married to have sex. I will teach my children to do the same. And even from that perspective, I've never understood abstinence-only sex education. There are two kinds of mistakes in the world: the ones you make because you don't know the consequences, and the ones you make because you do and don't care. You can't eliminate the second in people, but there's no excuse for raising children who honestly don't know how their own bodies work and can make life-altering and life-ending decisions based on that lack of information. May as well not tell them they can't eat raw meat. If the objective of raising children is to make them into responsible adults, the only way that's ever going to work is if you give them all the information they need to make an informed decision.

That means finding out what myths are out there and purposefully contradicting them. It also means giving them statistics on all common methods of birth control, including abstinence. Further, even if the kids in question did wait to have sex until they got married due to an abstinence-only education series, they'd still suffer from the same misconceptions afterward. I don't see anyone suggesting a fully detailed sex course for newlyweds including all this information. Given that, either the entire plan is poorly conceived, or its goals are less about pre-marital abstinence and more about encouraging general ignorance. I lean towards the former. Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by people being complete dumbasses.

Congrats on one of the more intelligent things I've heard said by a self described coservative Christian in the last decade. It's always confused me how many fundies seem to feel that if they can prevent any sexual speech or images form reaching their children, they won't get the idea of what those parts are for.