Sex Ed for Dummies

I can't help myself. I said I wouldn't talk about all this election season shit again, but here I am, and like everyone else in the blogosphere, I've got to put my two cents in and state my opinion as if those of you reading (all two of you) really do care what the fuck I think.

The only good thing to come out of this McCain-Palin love affair is that FINALLY the media is starting to focus on the severely ignored and oft-shortchanged topic of sex education. Admittedly, it's a hotbed issue, challenging middle America's puritanical sensibilities, testing our liberal smugness, and forcing us to realize that the way we deal with sex in America is something short of ignorant, immature, and idiotic. Don't agree? Watch this video about how they deal with sex education in Holland, and you'll quickly concur: The Dutch do it openly, at school, and often...and it seems like that's the way it should be done. (I'm printing that on a bumper sticker, by the way. Only, it will read, "...and they make good cheese.")

Last week, the op-ed piece in the New York Times, entitled "Let's Talk About Sex," points out that,

"We need to take some bold steps beyond the borders of our moralizing and discomfort and create a sex education infrastructure that actually acknowledges reality and protects our children from unwanted pregnancies, or worse."

Amen, brother! Finally, some sense in the world.

What enrages me, more than anything else, is the fact that the McCain-Palin camp is painting the idea of "sex education" as something horrible and degenerate, almost as horrific as the L-word itself. (L as in Liberal) Here's their latest attack ad:



In it, they state that Obama endorsed "comprehensive sex education" to kindergartners. The Huffington Post outlines what the ad says and sets the record straight, outlining Obama's true stance and reporting Obama's response to the attack. Let me point out that the ad, like so many right-wing, backward-thinking policies, appeals to people's ignorance and fear. They ask, "Learning about sex before they learn to read?" (gasp! oh the horror!), as if liberal priorities are askew and amoral. Someone needs to tell the McCain camp that kindergartners often learn to masturbate before they learn to read, too. But that's beside the point.

What is clear, and what we need to have a forthright discussion about, is the fact that the U.S. has the second highest teen birth rate among 46 developed countries, and U.S. teens are less likely to use contraception than their international counterparts, despite the fact that their sexual habits are pretty much the same. More alarming is the fact that cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis in the U.S. have all been on the increase in the past few years, putting teens more at risk than ever before.

But, those aren't the things you hear. What you do hear are the same, tired mantras that people who are ignorant of the facts and who choose to live in denial find comfort in hearing: Teens shouldn't have sex, teens should be taught to abstain rather than be safe, sex education is bad. It's the same message my mom gave me when I was young and innocent, when she was trying so hard to keep me young and innocent and was too ashamed and ignorant to tell me otherwise.

It's our ignorance that the conservative politicians in this election are counting on and hoping for. They want to keep us ignorant of the facts and dazzle us with tales of heroism, woo us with images of a wholesome, outdoorsy, small-town girl, and make us long for the days when women wore chastity belts, men were manly men, and life was like a box of chocolates.

Here's hoping that America isn't as dumb as they think.