Friday 15 June 2007

Sexed up and clueless

British teenagers are having sex younger and boy do they like it....As a result pregnacy (and abortion) rates are booming and STI's are rife. An adolescent girl has a 50/50 of getting gonorrhoea when having unprotected sex and her chances of contracting syphilis have risen over 2,000 per cent over the past decade. Eep.

And the culprit, according to an independent advisory group? The giddy, glittering, gauche cult of celebrity. Teenagers are swamped with sexual material in magazines and adverts, alongside pictures of pissed popstars and Pete Doherty smoking crack. The result is a growing number of children who define their lives around sex and drugs.

To what extent does the media and it's coverage of the messed-up star antics influence the youth of today? Don't forget that celebrities have been living it up for generations (how many OD's in the '60s and '70s?) but in the digital age there is no escaping the rich and infamous - they're on every desktop and evening telly lineup.

But hey, don't forget to blame the parents, our drinking/eating/dumbed down culture, the Government (any excuse..), the schools and the creeping fug of today's feckless, Godless society. To be fair I don't think this is something that can be pinned on social inequalities - we've all overdone it on the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, or know friends who have, regardless of background or parenting strategies (both liberal and authoritarian attitudes lead to offspring overdoing it).

And never was there a more contentious issue than sex education. By teaching our young people what goes where do we inform and temper them or simply encourage them? I'm very much in the pro-education camp. We live in a world where ideals of morality, marriage and manners seem to be under constant review - I'd rather children knew what the hell they're getting themselves in for. Ha, maybe a Pythan syle syllabus should be adopted (joke...) - all together now: "every sperm is sacred, every sperm is great"...

It doesn't help that we can't even advertise contraceptives properly. We all have a good giggle at wacky Jonny ads from Oz on Tarrant on TV, or whatever but I bet they act as a great reminder.

There is no silly punchline or easy solution to this one, chaps. Mind you castrating a few celebs might make good reality tv, any takers?

7 comments:

Jenny! said...

Thank you so much for your comments on my last post, you have no idea how much I appreciate that. I feel misunderstood at times, and it is probaly the way I write my posts. If people were to read more than one paragraph they would have figured out that I am a sarcastic crude humored girl. Thanks again!

Jenny! said...

I am also very pro-education, I think that teenagers are going to have sex and do drugs weather we have sex-ed or not...might as well teach them so that they at least are aware of what lies ahead and then when they do wind up with crabs...they have no one to blame but themselves. It's all about responsibility...teenagers today have no sense of responsibility and everything that happens is never their fault. They are experts at the blame game. If as a society we required for celebrities, teenagers and adults to take responsiblitiy for their actions, we could have be happier, healthier humanbeings!

Jenny! said...

Sorry, forgot...We shouldn't teach only abstinance b/c that is irrational to think that if you teach it they will follow that...we need to teach about birth control and make it more affrodable. Condoms are expensive...and teenagers don't have that much money to afford that. There are places you can get them for free, but certainly not in high schools and grammar schools, maybe the nurse should have them available to younger generations...I don't feel that it would advocate sex, but would advocate safe sex.

Em said...

Ditto....heh, tell me about condoms being expensive - however if you go to your gp all contraception is free over here (but that'll be the last thing randy teens'll be thinking about) - its also free in some inner city schools (and causes outrage - seen to be condoning underage sex). Mm...definately something we need to concentrate on here though, the STI stats are not pleasant.

Ignore those knobs' comments - they obviously have nothing constructive to do with their time (not to mention too much aggression - rich coming from me I know). Ban'em.

S said...

Yep its very very scary indeed. I stumbled across this blog post earlier this week:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/31951/debating-life.thtml

Over 1 in 4 pregnancies end in abortion, I nearly fell off my chair when I read that!

Jenny! said...

James:
Are those stats from UK? I would be curious what the US stats are.

S said...

Yep Jenny that is in the UK, its 33% in London though.

Unbelievable!