April 1, 2003

IT'S A NICE DAY FOR A WHITE WEDDING:

'V-club' getting more members: To join, follow just one rule (Jacinthia Jones, March 29, 2003, Memphis Commercial Appeal)
Magazines, movies, television and music videos bombard teenagers with messages about sex.

But many youths are responding to a different message - abstinence until marriage - from parents, churches, educators, health-care providers and even President Bush.

What started as a movement among cultural conservatives and evangelical Christians has now swelled into a mainstream push to get kids to remain chaste until marriage.

The message appears to be getting across.

Over the last decade, the percentage of high school students who say they are virgins has risen significantly, according to a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report, based on self-reported data from more than 10,000 high school students, found that in 2001, high school virgins outnumbered those who had engaged in sexual intercourse, 54 percent to 46 percent. A decade earlier, the percentages were reversed. [...]

Natural Family Planning Center director Mary Pat Van Epps favors the word "chastity" over "abstinence."

"Chastity is a positive word that says my sexuality is so good and so important that I need to cherish it and appreciate it and I will always take care of it. Abstinence just means I can't do it," Epps said.


Considering this is self-reporting, how much kids lie about this stuff, and how "uncool" being a virgin is, you have to assume the numbers in the "V-club" are even higher. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 1, 2003 10:24 PM
Comments

I'd say the reverse. In my teen years, more guys claimed to have surmoutned virginity than actually had.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at April 2, 2003 2:37 PM

I take all student surveys with heapings of salt. I remember a drug survey we took in elementary school around 1965. I thought it was extremely funny to be asked about such drugs, including ones I'd never even heard of, so I checked some of them "yes" for a laugh. I'm sure I caused someone worry about the apparent opium den at Green Acres Elementary!

Posted by: PapayaSF at April 2, 2003 3:41 PM

Harry:



That's the point.

Posted by: oj at April 2, 2003 7:36 PM

Well, no it isn't. We were taught to be virgins, but nobody accepted the teaching.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at April 2, 2003 7:56 PM

Harry:



I can't keep up to your gyrations. You just went from acknowledging that you were all lying about losing your virginity to claiming you all had.

Posted by: oj at April 2, 2003 11:28 PM

I also remember a comprehensive survey we did at school and we ended up with insane statistics concerning sex, drugs, suicide, violence, crime...etc. All high, and we were a Catholic school. Those things went on, I'm just saying...



People are always saying "We're still quite a puritanical society, compared to Europe..." and I'm always thinking "this is a bad thing?"

Posted by: RC at April 3, 2003 1:47 AM

Of course, it would be much easier to wait until marriage if contemporary childhood didn't last such a ridiculously long time.



The previous generations that waited until marriage tended to have a much shorter wait than current teenagers would.

Posted by: Ken at April 3, 2003 10:10 AM
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