Surprisingly, Young People Want To Do ItA recent study concerning the ineffectiveness of "virginity pledges" is a slap in the face to the religious folks who say that being abstinent is the only way to go and masturbating will cause hair on your palms. Apparently, even though pledgers have that awkwardly short "first time" later on in life, they are just as likely to get knocked up out of wedlock and get STDs as their culturally conservative counterparts. This study conveniently coincides with the Granny Palin story. From CNN:
In the analysis, Rosenbaum compared 289 young adults who took virginity pledges in their teens with 645 young people who did not take such a pledge. The researcher was careful to only compare teens who had similar views on religion, birth control and sex in general, regardless of whether or not they took a pledge.I can't knock anyone for wanting to stay "pure". With all the weird diseases out there it's respectable and even the subject of some damn fine movies. But just saying that you're taking a "pledge" because your parents or your minister told you so might not be the best method. Young people who desire to rock the V credentials should go with time-tested birth control techniques like being ugly, a nerd, and/or a blogger.
Five years after the initial survey the study subjects were aged 20 to 23. Eighty-two percent of pledge takers denied (or forgot) they had ever taken such a vow. Overall pledge takers were no different from non-pledge takers in terms of their premarital sex, anal and oral sexual practices, and their probability of having a sexually transmitted disease.
Both groups lost their virginity at an average age of 21, had about three lifetime partners, and had similar rates of STDs. "And the majority were having premarital sex, over 50 percent," says Rosenbaum. Overall, roughly 75 percent of pledgers and non-pledgers were sexually active, and about one in five was married.
See what the others have said:
13 comments:
Everybody knows "virgins" just take it up the butt.
"Might not?" Is not. Proven. And the real shame of it is, not that we didn't know this already, but that religious conservatives used Congress and the White House as platforms to promote these falacies.
But I forgot. Conservatives really believe that it's not in the interests of Big Govt to interfere in personal matters (*cough-bullshit!-*cough cough).
Most kids start out saying "I'll never do drugs, I'll never smoke, I'll never drink, I'll never have sex without marriage, etc" but slowly society beats them down. It is difficult to go against the flow especially if you are in public schools. If your reasoning for taking a pledge is to avoid pregnancy and STD, well, it is the best way, but good intentions...There are better reasons for staying pure, and there are those who do keep their promises. Why is it that the weaker always want to drag others down with them?
uh bag...? you wanna blame this on public schools?? i'm a product of a k-8 catholic education, and i can tell you from personal experience that most of the good catholic kids that graduated from st. winifred's, lost it well before the "publics" did.
and guess why? because we were fed a bunch of horseshit about our bodies and sexuality, while the kids in the public schools were taught about std's, contraception and hiv/aids.
yeah, blame it on the public schools. please.
I was one of those pledge kids and fit exactly into the stats they published. My mom took me to volunteer at the crisis pregnancy center in town to teach me the real life consequences of sex. I think the pledge is good for kids in conjunction with education; what harm does it do to them to wait to have sex. The pledge in conjunction with my fear of getting pregnant made me keep my V card until I was ready to be responsible with it.
So what you're saying is... you're a virgin!
It all boils down to mammals/animal channel dude.
Nice clip of monkeys doing it, Anonymous, much obliged!
I say contraception is great and prevents diseases, but the best method is abstinence, you can't argue with that. But as far as schools go, they should teach it all. I grew up in liberal land so I got educated about everything in middle school. And, Rayanne, it depends on the private school...
Young Christians do alot of things, becasue, well, they're young. When I first believed, I stopped drinking period. Then, when I was 21, I limited myself to 3 drinks. Never anymore. Eventually, I matured and now have no set limit. Sex is the same thing. I've only had sex with my wife, but she wasn't my wife our first time. I now know why people get STDs. It's hard to stop having sex once you have had it. The best reason to wait, aside from religous ones, is just that. Teenagers are not mature enough to deal with it. Hell, from what I've seen around campus, most college kids aren't either. It's not the schools job to teach sex. It's the PARENTS' job. Too bad there are so many shitty parents out there. Hard core conservatives and hard core liberals both want to teach sex the wrong way.
It does very much depend on the private school. I received better sex ed (and at an earlier age) through my Catholic schools than the neighbor girl at the local public school.
Sorry folks, I didn't mean to blame public schools, but more like peer pressure from a large varitey of beliefs, which you usually find in public schools. Plus sex ed classes are not usually teaching abstinence so much. They tend to mention it, but they teach, "You shouldn't have sex until you are mature, but when you do, and you will, here is what you should know..." If everyone is expecting you to have sex, chances are you will. If you are raised around other young people and families that believe in abstinence, maybe you will have a better chance at keeping your virginity.
I wish I had read this post a couple days earlier... then I could have saved myself the trouble of posting it at The Sniper. Well, considering the amount of effort I gave it compared to your post mine wasn't really much trouble at all.
Oh, and you forgot to list "being a red headed male" under your tried and true birth control methods.
This is one of the best advice I have read. This is just the opposite of what I have been doing but it makes total sense. Sense I am always look for ways to make things better I will be giving this a go.
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