February 16, 2006
RANDY HO' DERE? (via The Mother Judd):
Sex education for parents too (Randye Hoder, February 13, 2006, LA Times)
The truth is, when Emma arrived home the previous Saturday night clutching a goody bag from Glove Affair, my liberal credentials were instantly tested. One by one I pulled the following from her white plastic sack: a condom; pamphlets on masturbation, oral sex and intercourse; the "Rubber Bible," featuring alternative names for prophylactics, such as "gent tent" and "peenie beanie"; and an information wheel labeled "Condom Comebacks," which included a list of excuses boys might make for not wearing a condom and possible rejoinders a girl could offer.Him: "It doesn't feel good."
Her: "I've got moves rubbers can't stop."
I tried to play it cool. As it turned out, I was a little too cool. While standing in the kitchen with my daughter and her friend, getting all the post-party gossip, I absentmindedly reached into the bag and handed my 8-year-old son a squishy red toy that resembled one of those ubiquitous M&M candy guys.
The girls burst out laughing. "What's so funny?" I asked. They snatched the trinket from my son and turned it upside down. Printed there was the web address stopthesores.org. This was no candy icon; it was a toy syphilis lesion, bright red, with feet.
That's when I insisted my son go to bed, bid the girls goodnight and went upstairs, where I tossed the information wheel at my husband. "Boy," I said casually, "Jerry Falwell would sure bust an artery over this."
My husband spun the wheel to the "They don't fit" excuse and read the answer aloud: "If it's too big for a condom, it's too big for me."
"Forget Jerry Falwell," he said, looking up. "I'm going to bust an artery." I was relieved that I wasn't the only one feeling prudish.
Fear not! After a titanic struggle with conscience she gets past those silly moral qualms and liberal disorder is restored. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 16, 2006 12:08 PM
"But as schools wrestle with the question of how much information is too much, many health experts insist that the answer is clear: At a time when HIV and teen pregnancy are so prevalent, educators can't do enough to demystify condoms, even for eighth-graders who may be just beginning to explore their sexuality."
So these parents have completely given up any responsibility for sex education?
Back in the day, the only demystification we needed to know about condoms was not to fall for the old pharmacist trick of asking if you needed a pack of small, medium or large sized. We also ended up with an excess of gum, combs, etc. because we didn't have the courage to purchase only what we came in for.
That's right, Rick, parents must be taken out of the loop. Nothing must be permitted to impede sexual access to young girls and boys--not lack of condoms, nor unplanned pregnancy, nor statutory age of consent, nor "obsolete" and inconvenient morality.
Posted by: Mike Morley at February 16, 2006 2:30 PMremember the type of parent described in this article, when yet another post about cultural decline (YAPACD) appears.
Posted by: toe at February 16, 2006 2:39 PMI await a future colum in the L.A. Times from a parent feeling slightly prudish while watching his 13-year-old daughter go out on a date with a 25-year-old.
Of either gender.
Posted by: John at February 16, 2006 3:27 PMMy girlfriends 10 year old daughter just got the whole sex-ed rundown at school 2 days ago. 5th grade? Only in Seattle.
Posted by: Patrick H at February 16, 2006 4:27 PMPat, I believe it was 5th for me (maybe 6th). I went to Catholic school. In the midwest.
Posted by: RC at February 16, 2006 4:44 PM5th for me and that was in the 70s.
Posted by: Sandy P at February 16, 2006 6:30 PMThat's it! My girls are going off to a convent B4 they reach third grade!
Posted by: Dave W at February 16, 2006 10:07 PMFifth grade for me, too, although I had to go trolling around in an encyclopedia because my class at Catholic school decided to start educating us about sex without actually telling us what it was, and I was too embarrassed to ask anybody.
However, there were no references to condom parties, goody bags, Rubber Bibles, condom comebacks, and definitely not toy syphilis lesions. Which raises the question -- How the hell can this woman observe all that stuff and still say this?:
The aim is for kids to understand that having sex is serious business
Posted by: Matt Murphy at February 16, 2006 11:30 PM