I keep thinking about Elizabeth Smart who at 14 was kidnapped from her home and repeatedly raped by an unhinged religious extremist. She could have been rescued much earlier than she was if only she had identified herself to someone and asked for help. She didn’t because of the abstinence only sex education she had received. She believed that once she had been raped she was dirty and worthless and that no one - not even her own family - would want her. The people who taught her that are guilty of every single rape and violation that occurred after her first lost opportunity for escape. Abstinence only sex “education” isn’t just worthless, it’s actually dangerous.
Abstinence was the default “education” or lack there of. And you how that turned out for thousands and thousands of teens. Too many unwanted babies or babies born into weak teen marriages which increased poverty and child neglect and abuse
The radical AIDS movement played a big part in opening up the topic of health safety and condoms.
Your scenario is the more common one. I wound up terrified of ever getting pregnant and never had children, but I'm unusual.
I know someone who attends college in a red state. Girls there repeatedly have intercourse even though they know nothing about their bodies or how pregnancy happens. Failing to teach people what sex is doesn't stop most of them from having it.
Sex education plus birth control = fewer abortions. Check out the success Colorado has had as it increased education and made contraceptives free and available. But current conservative thinking and Project 2025 allow none of those - so we have more unplanned forced pregnancies by uneducated and poor women. The handmaid’s tale comes to real life.
"To Christian Nationalists, teaching sex education promotes promiscuity, even prostitution."
These people are so fucking ridiculously jacked up, they are literally scared of everything. Small town Iowa, 1987, we received exceptional sex ed class and I can attest: I have never once been a prostitute..... never even thought about becoming one. But of course the prostitute out on the street probably never thought about it either until through various problems or domestic abuse/ violence, she was forced into it. Or outright trafficked into it. But since the Christian Taliban lives in a tiny little box with a lock, they don't bother to learn anything about trafficking. As if the victims somehow voluntarily made that decision.
Yes, I was taught that prostitutes were wonton women who loved to be slutty. I had no idea that many were forced into that life or had no other choice until I was an adult. And I’m not equating that with sex work. Plenty of people work in sex as valid employment. They do it because they want to and/or because they enjoy it.
Ah, abstinence education. I was in 8th grade in 1988 and our school was part of some sort of demonstration project. I remember this book that came with this instruction. It was mostly illustrations with speech bubbles that used slang from 1954. It was incredibly condescending and cynical about our learning capabilities. It featured slut-shaming before there was a name for and the concept of "secondary virginity." This was in a public school, too. We had to complete a questionnaire afterwards asking how likely we were to save ourselves for marriage and other questions. They were collecting data to show outcomes so it could be disseminated in all public schools. Good times. /s
It is insulting to treat teenagers with raging hormones and changing bodies like they cannot understand themselves and shouldn’t try. They should simply pretend all these new feelings and urges and wrong and dirty until marriage, and then presto! It will all be godly good fun. I feel so abominably for red state kids right now. I know what life is like in many of their homes and schools. It doesn’t set them up for success.
Teaching abstinence only sex "education" is of course not even education. Tennessee already has roughly six laws around how teachers can teach sex "education" - in it primarily focuses only on abstinence. And this is not new in Tennessee.
I agree that abstinence should be a part of the teaching, but it must be well expanded & encompassing well beyond that.
The young people in Republican states are kept completely dumbed down, these young women don't even know what ovulation is. Also in tennessee, parents can opt out their teenagers from this class, I don't know why they would since the class doesn't really teach them anything anyway.
So instead they all learn about sex from the worst place possible, the internet!!!! I feel this is a major contributor to the lack of respect certain men have towards women - and to sexual assault.
Given my own experience, I think it is important to teach kids how their bodies work. They need to know why and how their bodies are changing and what it means, not from an unscientific “Eve ate the fruit and that’s why you bleed” perspective, but from a practical “this is part of the reproductive cycle, and here’s how that works.”
It is ludicrous to refuse to teach kids anything about their bodies and then send them to school where they will do what comes naturally, even if they don’t know what they’re doing or why.
I keep thinking about Elizabeth Smart who at 14 was kidnapped from her home and repeatedly raped by an unhinged religious extremist. She could have been rescued much earlier than she was if only she had identified herself to someone and asked for help. She didn’t because of the abstinence only sex education she had received. She believed that once she had been raped she was dirty and worthless and that no one - not even her own family - would want her. The people who taught her that are guilty of every single rape and violation that occurred after her first lost opportunity for escape. Abstinence only sex “education” isn’t just worthless, it’s actually dangerous.
She is a worthy example of what abstinence-only sex education does to people. It turns them against themselves instead of empowering them.
Well said!!
Abstinence was the default “education” or lack there of. And you how that turned out for thousands and thousands of teens. Too many unwanted babies or babies born into weak teen marriages which increased poverty and child neglect and abuse
The radical AIDS movement played a big part in opening up the topic of health safety and condoms.
Your scenario is the more common one. I wound up terrified of ever getting pregnant and never had children, but I'm unusual.
I know someone who attends college in a red state. Girls there repeatedly have intercourse even though they know nothing about their bodies or how pregnancy happens. Failing to teach people what sex is doesn't stop most of them from having it.
Sex education plus birth control = fewer abortions. Check out the success Colorado has had as it increased education and made contraceptives free and available. But current conservative thinking and Project 2025 allow none of those - so we have more unplanned forced pregnancies by uneducated and poor women. The handmaid’s tale comes to real life.
Here's a link to a results-based article about Colorado's sex education and free contraception initiative. It's several years old.
https://psmag.com/news/good-on-you-colorado
That is true and it’s a win-win. I think the pro-birthers forget that abortion is a serious choice and not something done without thought.
"To Christian Nationalists, teaching sex education promotes promiscuity, even prostitution."
These people are so fucking ridiculously jacked up, they are literally scared of everything. Small town Iowa, 1987, we received exceptional sex ed class and I can attest: I have never once been a prostitute..... never even thought about becoming one. But of course the prostitute out on the street probably never thought about it either until through various problems or domestic abuse/ violence, she was forced into it. Or outright trafficked into it. But since the Christian Taliban lives in a tiny little box with a lock, they don't bother to learn anything about trafficking. As if the victims somehow voluntarily made that decision.
Yes, I was taught that prostitutes were wonton women who loved to be slutty. I had no idea that many were forced into that life or had no other choice until I was an adult. And I’m not equating that with sex work. Plenty of people work in sex as valid employment. They do it because they want to and/or because they enjoy it.
Ah, abstinence education. I was in 8th grade in 1988 and our school was part of some sort of demonstration project. I remember this book that came with this instruction. It was mostly illustrations with speech bubbles that used slang from 1954. It was incredibly condescending and cynical about our learning capabilities. It featured slut-shaming before there was a name for and the concept of "secondary virginity." This was in a public school, too. We had to complete a questionnaire afterwards asking how likely we were to save ourselves for marriage and other questions. They were collecting data to show outcomes so it could be disseminated in all public schools. Good times. /s
It is insulting to treat teenagers with raging hormones and changing bodies like they cannot understand themselves and shouldn’t try. They should simply pretend all these new feelings and urges and wrong and dirty until marriage, and then presto! It will all be godly good fun. I feel so abominably for red state kids right now. I know what life is like in many of their homes and schools. It doesn’t set them up for success.
Teaching abstinence only sex "education" is of course not even education. Tennessee already has roughly six laws around how teachers can teach sex "education" - in it primarily focuses only on abstinence. And this is not new in Tennessee.
I agree that abstinence should be a part of the teaching, but it must be well expanded & encompassing well beyond that.
The young people in Republican states are kept completely dumbed down, these young women don't even know what ovulation is. Also in tennessee, parents can opt out their teenagers from this class, I don't know why they would since the class doesn't really teach them anything anyway.
So instead they all learn about sex from the worst place possible, the internet!!!! I feel this is a major contributor to the lack of respect certain men have towards women - and to sexual assault.
Given my own experience, I think it is important to teach kids how their bodies work. They need to know why and how their bodies are changing and what it means, not from an unscientific “Eve ate the fruit and that’s why you bleed” perspective, but from a practical “this is part of the reproductive cycle, and here’s how that works.”
It is ludicrous to refuse to teach kids anything about their bodies and then send them to school where they will do what comes naturally, even if they don’t know what they’re doing or why.
I read your Newsweek article several months ago- it is eye-opening.