Is Sex All That Matter?

For centuries, society has placed a remarkably large emphasis on protecting the young from the many perceived errors of growing up. Effective sex education is resisted in many locations across the country in favor of somewhat comical biblical suggestions for abstinence until marriage even while the majority of those targeted teens are viewing the world as a more and more sexual place. So many views are weaving in and out of teenagers' newly formed adolescent minds that any effective argument for responsible attitudes or analysis of sexual behavior in teens should be expressed with a certain minimal degree of clarity. Unfortunately, this essential lucidity of advice is missing in the short story “Where are You Going, Where Have You Been,”

They see the overwhelming importance given to sexual attractiveness in the media-one study estimated that the average teenager ahs witnessed nearly 14,000 sexual encounters on television- yet they also hear their parents and religious advisers telling them that sex is wrong. As a result, many young people begin having sex without really intending to and without taking precautions against pregnancy.

So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents can do to Protect Their Kids by Diane E. Levin, Ph.D., and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D. is written for the parents of children and teenagers to help them understand and more effectively combat the harmful messages about sexuality that has become all too prevalent in popular media. I would recommend this book to parents and teenagers. It gives parents tools and strategies to help raise children that understand what healthy sexuality is and how to intelligently navigate a society that pushes harmful gender roles and adult behavior onto children. Older teenagers would also benefit from reading this book to gain accurate information about how toxic sexuality is marketed to them in order

Drilling into teens’ heads that sex is inherently bad will do no justice in the long run. Notwithstanding, abstinence-only programs do nothing but this, for they hold the opinion that making teenagers fear the consequences of precarious sex will prevent them from engaging in it. Advocates of both abstinence-only and comprehensive programs are worried that premature sex, even when wholly safe, will psychologically damage teenagers, but “there are no scientific data suggesting that consensual sex between adolescents is harmful”, yet abstinence-only education by itself continues to mandate the teaching that sex out of wedlock will do harm (Santelli et al. “Abstinence and abstinence-only education” 74). Unlike abstinence-only education, comprehensive sex-education attempts to focus on developing healthy mentalities for the benefit of their students. Promotion of healthy relationships between oneself and others will help make teenagers find trust between themselves and their sexual partners before participating in the act, furthermore causing them to make sure their partner does not have any STIs and is using contraception. Conversely, abstinence-only programs’ persistence with enthusiastically promoting abstinence leaves teenagers with little clue about their mental health. “Even those few individuals who remain abstinent until marriage are left

More teens are learning sex from the media or from their friends instead of from their parents or a sexual education class taught in schools. “Nearly three fourths of television shows contains talk about sex or show sexual behavior,” (King and Regan 2). When we drive down the road we see several stores promoting sex such as Condoms to Go, Condom Sense, Sarahs Secret, and New Fine Arts. Children who have no clue to what these stores are, automatically want to know everything about it and why it

Through these two structures, the article does more than just present a problem and a solution, but she also presents the causes and effects of that problem, making a more evolved and informative article. She identifies the problem as the media portraying teen sex or sex in general as being consequence free, one solution she mentions is to have the media and the society combine forces to campaign against teen sex. Teen-age pregnancies are somewhat indirectly caused by the media’s lack of reality when promoting sex. Goodman’s article is successfully written using both of these structures however, to make her point resolute, her rhetorical appeals need to be more prevalent and more defined.

Attention Getter: “Don’t have sex, because you will get pregnant, and Die” Motivation for Listening: While this line from the movie Mean Girls, was exaggerative, it is not far off from the sexual and reproductive health method of an abstinence-only form of education. Not only, is this method ineffective, it is also stigmatizing, making those who pledge abstinence, less likely to purchase or use contraception. In fact pledging abstinence until marriage does not reduce the risk of STDs or teenage pregnancy (Bearman 2005). Thesis Statement: With our growing digital age, youth are exposed to sex on a daily basis. Should we not properly equip this new generation of teenagers with the proper medical and science based information they need to make healthier choices and properly protect themselves.

In the article “Abstinence Is the Best Policy in Preventing Teen Pregnancy” posted on the Opposing Viewpoints database, it is argued that teenagers are incapable of assessing and considering the risk of premarital sex and comprehension of the challenges in facing an unwanted pregnancy. The article goes on to say that while they are maturing, teens are drawn more to risky behavior including sexual behavior, and “as those choices get more risky […] guidance and limits from parents that are reinforced by peers, teachers, and other authority figures are critically important”. This article also challenges the results of sex education by stating that it is merely educational and shown to inform rather than change teens

Sex education, most commonly known as family life, is any information about sex and sexual relationships taught to maturing young people as a part of a school’s curriculum. Currently, there is a constant political and ideological debate in the United States over the merits of abstinence-only and comprehensive sex education programs in the teaching of our youth. Abstinence only sex education has been the primary sex education taught in the United States. Although different in their approach, the overall goal is to help them build a foundation to be able to make healthy informed decisions as they mature into adults. The objectives of sex education programs are to help adolescents develop a positive view of sexuality, body image and make responsible decisions in relationships (Knowles, 2012). Ultimately, any sex education should be a partnership between parents, guardians and school personnel. However, in recent years, a large amount of information about sexuality is acquired through friends, music, books and the media instead of from their parents. For some individuals,

It is in the interest of everyone to be concerned about how sexualization is changing our current society, most of the change occurring with young girls. Young girls are like sponges soaking up the sexual messages and images given to them by the media, advertisers, and their mothers. The impact of this early sexualization can be found in studies, it is not good. Although girls become sexual as they age without influence, the influence from the media, advertising, and self-objectifying mothers persuades girls to become more sexual. It is a problem that can be altered with proper teaching, a healthy body image, and a confident attitude.

Sexuality and sex in America is a complicated subject in that there is little consensus on the topic of sex in, and the American media sends many mixed messages regarding sex and sexuality to everyone, not just to adolescents. Americans are aware of sex primarily through advertising (print media, commercials, etc.) as sex is used to sell anything and everything. The media also bombards Americans with sexuality and sex on television and in films. The sexuality of teenagers is not a straightforward issue in America either. Many parents do not discuss sex or sexuality with their children. There have been ongoing debates as to whether sexuality should be taught as part of school curricula because there are such a great deal of adolescents participating in reckless and/or dangerous sexual behaviors, largely because they are grossly uneducated about sex. The paper will reference the film Juno and other texts as a meditation on the relationship between adolescent sexuality and the media.

Imagine living in a society where there are no regulations on the sexual health education curriculum. What if there are no guidelines that require educators to provide medically accurate, culturally appropriate, and unbiased sexual health information? What if health educators are expected to stress abstinence and discourage sex outside marriage? This supposedly mythical society actually exists and may even represent the typical approach to sexual health education! The sexual health education that adolescents receive today, whether through formal or informal education, does not incorporate the concept of female sexual pleasure due to an overemphasis on reproduction; potential dangers of such an incomprehensive approach are that sexual double

(Walsh-Childers 19)”. Also, it seems that adolescents are incredibly susceptible to the modern and not-so-modern influences of all media and the reasons for why this is the case goes as follows: they don’t exactly have the proper cognitive skills yet in order to let themselves analyze all media and the messages that come from said media they happen to consume on a daily basis, whatever they may be, and making any decision based on any and all outcomes that should come from it is also not that developed. Adolescent sexuality is another factor in this topic as well. There is a major and practically strange disconnect between what the mainstream media may portray, be it casual sex and sexuality with no consequences, and what both children and ESPECIALLY teenagers need which is of course straightforward information about human sexuality and the dire need for contraception when having sex. Obviously, this is what sexuality in the media feels like today as opposed to an era such as the 1950’s where everything was focused on the

Teenage sexual activity has sparked an outcry within the nation. With such activity comes a high price. Studies have shown that there has been a significant rise in the number of children with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), emotional and psychological problems, and out-of-wedlock childbearing. Sex has always been discussed publically by the media, television shows, music and occasionally by parents and teachers in educational context. Teens hear them, and as the saying goes, “monkey see, monkey do”, they are tempted to experiment with it. Therefore, it is important for every teenager to be aware of the outcome associated with premature-sex. If students are educated about the impact of

There is a great debate on whether or not mass media has an influence on teenage pregnancy. A study done by the RAND Corporation shows that teens are twice as likely to have sex or engage in sexual acts if they see similar sexual behavior in the media. Many objects in the media that involve sex target teens. Reality TV shows and teen dramas often portray the "cool kids" as the ones who are having sex (Chandra).Today’s teens are highly influenced by what they see in the media and this can change their behavior and choices. Some will argue that the media doesn’t influence teenagers, but how can we be sure of that? Today, the media portray teen pregnancy in movies, television shows, magazines, music, news reports, and books. The problems