Grace


Girl has two fathers giving her away.

How awfully tragic; the saddest thing I think I've likely ever heard of is the notion of the abstinence-only programs that have been enforced in the US, ultimately promoting political policies while depriving adolescents of fundamental knowledge and information about sexual and reproductive health and instead leaving them with the little moral cookie that abstinence until marriage is the only right way to go...marriage here should ring a bell, buzz buzz, as this clearly is discriminating against gay people who heck, can't even get married to begin with last time I checked. Where there's rigid takes on sexuality, there just must be ideological stereotyped gender roles to promote. Take for instance this following little passage from a program curriculum: "The father gives the bride to the groom because he is the one man who has had the responsibility for protecting her throughout her life. He is now giving his daughter away to the only other man who will take over this protective role." Oh, but yes of course! Man as the protector, haven't we heard that one before...? Sadder than the fact that these programs have existed is the load of money that have been spent on them; Im sure the figures are humongous. I don't even think I want to know actually. Having just read this piece on abstinence at the library (10.41 pm) I was reminded of the sight of a little group of American kids in a small-town where the number of churches seemed to be larger than the number of houses and were these girls were wearing abstinence rings and telling the guys to suck their cross. Hillarious, very, but oh the irony of it.

In the end of the day kids who vow to abstinence (and I hear it sometimess happens in the form of virgins exchanging rings with their  dear fathers who vow to help them remain chaste until the day of marriage) are just like Margaret Talbot writes for The New Yorker; living in the very same world of "Internet porn, celebrity sex scandals, raunchy reality TV, and have the same hormonal urges" like the rest of us. It's just a matter of recognizing reality, really.

Photo: Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin (for H&M)


Kommentarer
Postat av: Mark Kvande

These abstinence-only programs are sadder than you think. As you said, these kids are living in the same world as the rest of us, with all the internet porn, etc. Several excellent studies in the U.S. have shown that "graduates" of abstinence only programs have the same rates of venereal disease as those who never promised to be chaste until marriage. Why? After examination, it turned out that not all who promise to remain virgins actually do so (no surprise there) but, without any education on sexual behaviour or on avoiding STIs, they end up with infections.



See: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/21606.php

2009-10-25 @ 06:52:54

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