Who's playing lead-blogger this week?

Hey, dolls. I noticed we've been going out of order from the original lead-blogger rotation and was curious as to who is in charge of this week's post. It may be me, but I'm not sure. Let me know so I can get to work if that's the case. Thanks!
-Maddie

Teens Discovering Sex

Bahhh!  I'm sorry this is last minute!  I had my birthday, exams and overtime at work this week.  It's been lovely...  Anyway, here's my post.
I really enjoyed the discussion we had in class last Friday - so much that I called my mom up that evening and talked to her about it.  The topic was: How do teens learn about sex?
Peer pressure, media images, education, and religious background all play an obvious role.  However, research suggests that parents may have the most impact of them all.  Recent studies by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy claim that 38% of teens ranked parents the highest as the greatest influence on their sexual behavior.  However, how many parents actually do talk to their teens about sex?
A national survey found that mothers of children aged 11 and older rated themselves "unsatisfactory" on talking about issues such as: how to tell when youth are ready to be sexually active (38%), preventing HIV (40%), sexual orientation (47%) and how to use a condom (73%).
If parents aren't talking to their kids about sex, teens will learn about it other ways.  However, when they go "other places", they risk being subjected to bad information.  And with bad information, bad things can happen...
There are the risks we've talked about over and over in class - contracting an STD or becoming pregnant.  But, I'm surprised that we haven't hit on teen dating violence and sexual abuse yet. Odds are if parents aren't talking about sex, they aren't talking about healthy dating either.  
When teens are confused about what's appropriate dating and sexual behavior, they run the risk of being subjected to dangerous dating situations without even realizing it - possibly resulting in hazardous sexual experiences as well.
Unfortunately, I fell victim of this exact situation when I was in high school - enduring four years of an on-again, off-again abusive relationship because I wasn't aware of what's acceptable in a relationship and what's not.  The constant abuse eventually led to rape - and I didn't even realize I had been raped until my sophomore year in college (thanks to my social work classes)!
Obviously, there are other factors that played into this situation, and I'm not solely blaming my parents for lack of communication about sex, however, I do wish they would have talked to me about it more...
With that being said, I thank everyone that participated in the discussion last class.  I have three younger sisters (19, 15 and 13 years old).  Our discussion urged me to call my mom right away and tell her to talk to my sisters about sex...NOW!  It gave me the courage to finally tell her of my past experiences as well... So in all seriousness, thank you.


- clare powell


http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51164
http://www.caps.ucsf.edu/pubs/FS/parent-child.php

Should birth control be free?

Hello Ladies! Sorry for the last minute posting, I've been consumed with my first week of exams, a cold, and I just got back from a wonderful run in this gorgeous weather! 

Since the beginning of class, a lot of topics have been brought up in regards to contraceptive use. Whether it be condoms or birth control, it is evident that many teenagers do not take advantage of these resources. Being in a recession, contraceptive use can be hard for some folks to have access to. What I think the United States should do is make birth control free. By doing this, the teenage pregnancy rate would lower and many teenagers would take advantage of using more birth control. For those of you that do use contraceptive use, you know that paying for it can be a serious dent in your wallet. According to cosmopolitan magazine, "Even if you have insurance, the copay for the Pill tends to be in the $5-$15 per month range. And without insurance, the cost can be so high that it may not even be an option. But that all may change soon."I think making birth control free would be so beneficial. By making birth control available at no cost makes it possible for women to use the method that works best for them and will reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in America. 

I think that birth control should be free for anyone no matter the age because I think it is much better to be on the pill rather than to have a child your not ready for. I think is much better for a pregnancy to be planned rather than for it to happen by mistake. By birth control being free, it just makes it easier on everyone. It can also become very expensive, our tax dollars should at least go towards something that is useful! More money in our health care system is spend on abortions and deliveries of unexpected babies than on preventative options such as birth control and condoms. If the women in our country where given birth control at a very minimum or no cost at all then we wouldn't have to spend so much money on dealing with the problems of unexpected or unwanted pregnancies.

The U.S. needs to learn to take a preventative approach on sex because no matter what, is it going to happen. If we want to look at it from a different view then we can say that if birth control was free, there would be less teen pregnancies in the U.S. This would allow those teens to reach a higher level of education, and therefore be able to receive a higher salary, which would give them more time to prepare for a child. I don't think providing people with free forms of contraception will increase people's sexual behaviors, it will just give those who do not have the funds to pay for birth control an equal chance at protecting themselves and their partners.

What do y’all think?

Olivia Arns

Condoms & Daycare

Sex is an ambiguous topic, yet it seems most people and systems who talk about it go at it as if there is a right answer and wrong answer.  It seems sex is a non-mentionable topic, being treated as something one only talks about if they are already have sex pre-maritally, so the logical thing to do is to not talk about sex, even if it is a big part of your life.  This non-mentioned sex between two people is how most teenage pregnancies started, as with one of the girls on !6 and Pregnant (forgot her name) mentioned her parents never had "the talk" with her.  Also, it seems like in the beginning of several episodes when the pregnant girl is talking to her family and friends, most of them seem shocked to here she was having sex more than she was pregnant.  But that is what we expect.  We expect two teenagers having unprotected sex will get pregnant, but no one seems to talk about this.  It is just intuitive knowledge, one doesn't need to teach these young girls and young guys how unprotected sex leads to pregnancy and how "a sexually active teen who does not use a contraceptive has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within a year."  Do you think teenagers would listen to this more than the traditional argument of "abstinence is always the answer" and other arguments of how one should not have sex, not what one needs and should do if they are having sex? Just because people talk about sex with teenagers, it doesn't mean they're going to run out and grab a boy because you made it sound so fun.  Teens need to have a sex education to actually educate them on sex and pregnancies and STIs instead of "educationally" persuade them that sex is wrong--which doesn't really happen.
High schools need to have a sex education program or at least handout condoms.  In 2006, only 5% of American high schools made condoms available to students.  I went to high school in Omaha, NE and I know sex education was nothing more than 8th grade health class, in which I remember STD education, but not really sex education.  Sex wasn't really mentioned by anyone, it was either you're having sex or your not, either way it's best not to share.  I find it ridiculous that 3 high schools in Omaha--everyone knew all the high schools and the "stereotypes" of the people who go there--don't give out condoms or have sex education programs, but yet they have a built in daycare for teenage student moms and it can be taken as a credit for other students to be nursery teachers.  Yes, having a daycare for these teenage moms to give them a chance to finish high school is a great thing, but if these three high schools have daycares it is because they were having too many teenage pregnancy dropouts.  You would think that a high school with a daycare would be more opened about pregnancies and sex education but they aren't.  It seems to be less of a shock of the teenagers to say they are pregnant--almost expected at some of these high schools--but even in a school where sex seems to be more of an issue, sex education is not a built in class, but teaching fellow teenage student mom's baby is.  But why can't they both be available?  To me, giving out condoms to help prevent pregnancy and having a built in daycare to prevent teenage mother dropouts should be seen as an equal need.
Kristen Toner
Go Tigers!!!

ALTERNATIVE ASSIGNMENT, NOT LEAD POST--NO NEED FOR GROUP TO RESPOND

please ignore this post fellow blog friends.
this is what i get for being stuck in snow on friday.

Is teen pregnancy a social problem or not?
Yes, absolutely.
A social problem is defined as "a matter which directly or indirectly affects a person or many members of a society and are considered to be problems, controversies related to moral values, or both" (retrieved from wikipedia).  I believe teen pregnancy encompasses both aspects of the definition provided.
Obviously, teen pregnancy affects both the teen mother and teen father.  However, this is also an issue that affects their family, friends, schooling, and the life of their unborn child.
Teen pregnancy is also largely perceived as a moral issue.  According to the Guttmacher Institute, on average, young people have sex for the first time at about age 17, but they do not marry until their mid-20s.  Although this is partially due to the feminist movement (women are more focused on careers than family), and the sexual revolution (sex is everywhere and more permissible), some still believe that sex should be saved for marriage.  These opposing views have escalated into a controversy for many.
And because young adults are waiting longer to marry, they are at increased risk of unwanted pregnancy and STIs as well (which creates more social/moral problems).
There is also the moral issue of what to do with the baby - abortion, adoption, raising it as a teen parent...
I feel like I could go on and on about how and why teen pregnancy is a social problem.  It affects so many people in so many ways - physically, fiscally, emotionally, etc.  I hope my response is sufficient.

- clare powell

First Lead Blog, Ladies!

             Hello, darlings.  Pardon any hiccups or insensitivity on my part in this first blog post, but I’m dealing with some serious snowpocalypse delirium.  I desperately need a shower, and I’ve basically been holed up in a commune of theatre students, grilled cheeses, and tequila in the Dumas apartments for the past few days.  This snow is heinous.  I want to sleep in a legitimate bed, but the dog bed I’ve fashioned out of pillows and couch cushions on the floor will have to make due until I can escape.

            ANYWAY, this week’s readings and course content (alongside this weather) have left me feeling generally cynical.  If there’s anything I’ve taken from this week’s material, it’s a reaffirmation that, unfortunately, people tend to be seemingly inherently manipulative, with selfish tendencies driven by their own agendas (at least in my observations).  As I mentioned before, this is me in my most cynical of mindsets.  I tend to be unrealistically optimistic, but just noticing subtle acts of manipulation such as those present in the material reminds me that people will do whatever they feel necessary to get what they want, even if their intentions are relatively harmless.

            Regarding our reading materials, I would consider Pozner’s article on feminist media literacy to be helpful to most WGST newbies, but it was somewhat redundant to me personally, as I was taught to filter information in this manner last semester in one of my WGST classes.  In my opinion, ignorance truly is bliss.  Once you train yourself to read into even the subtlest, seemingly harmless of messages through a skeptical, overly perceptive perspective or lense such as those which Pozner described, the world becomes a much uglier place, and suddenly everything has the ability to piss you off enormously, at least in my experience.  Thanks, feminism!

            I felt this way early on in chapter two of Dubious Conceptions.  Luker points out that all of our notions and presumptions attached to adolescent childbearing are mistaken…so why, then, would hers be an exception?  The information and research she’s compiled for us may be factual, but it’s also been manipulated (word-of-the-day) in a way that works in her and her personal agenda’s favor (but, in a way, we all practice this.  Human nature?)  Though I realize she’s challenging us not to take information for what it is, whether it regards teen pregnancy or otherwise, I’d like to suggest that we use these same media literacy tools to decipher her work as well.

            Most of my other notes primarily regard this same chapter in Dubious Conceptions. I had a really difficult time finding anything terribly fascinating and non-repetitive in any of our other articles or even in Kailyn’s episode of 16 & Pregnant (though I did find an article to share with you regarding the show’s spin-off/MTV’s suspected “hidden agenda”, and the general disconcern for any consistency in the messages they send as a network for the sake of making a dime).

            I found the issue of age versus bastardy interesting.  The Puritan preference towards the age/number attached to the parent, rather than the quality of parenting and whether or not the child was born out of wedlock left a funny taste in my mouth; I realized that this is one of many sets of ideals that make up a relatively corrupt, intolerant foundation for our country.  Also, the term “filius nullis” (literally and legally “child of no one”, which essentially regarded innocent children as orphans and marginalized them before they could even speak) held implications that have evolved into issues still salient today, that a child born out of wedlock would become a public, economic burden to society; an attitude that I would argue has perpetuated much of society’s feelings towards teen pregnancy today.

Finally, I found the concept/original aim of the common law marriage pretty hilarious, and again, still very relevant even in today’s context.  The idea that marriage (in any form) is both necessary for a successful upbringing and that it’s in the best interest for all (even if it’s forced or of miserable quality) is funny, yet we still see it happening today (quick marriage = quick fix?)  All in all, this chapter really made me think critically about how I feel about the government’s involvement in the family, and made me consider whether marriage is something that I really want to be associated with my future partnerships.

            Thanks for wading through my irritated rambling. Here’s the link to the Teen Mom article.  Comment, stay warm, and enjoy!

-Maddie Byrne

http://jezebel.com/5745885/teen-mom-advertiser-has-secret-pro+life-agenda