http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/12/...ence/index.html
Full Version: The False Consequences Of Sex
OLD American Century / White Rose Society message boards > Political Discussion forums > Politics In General
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| The Bush administration is funding sexual health projects that teach children that HIV can be contracted through sweat and tears, that touching genitals can result in pregnancy and that a 43-day-old fetus is a thinking person. A congressional analysis of more than a dozen federally funded "abstinence-only programs" unveiled a litany of "false, misleading and distorted information" in teaching materials after reviewing curriculums designed to prevent teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. There are more than 100 abstinence programs, involving several million children ages 9 to 18, and running in 25 states since 1999. They are funded by the federal government to the tune of $170 million, twice the amount being spent when George W. Bush first came to power. The money goes to religious, civic and medical organizations as grants. To qualify, the programs may talk about types of contraception only in terms of their failure rates, not in terms of how to use them or the possible benefits. The survey was conducted by the staff of Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., a long-standing Democratic critic of the Republican administration's approach to sex education. His team concentrated on the 13 programs that are most widely used, and found that only two of them were accurate. "It is absolutely vital that the health education provided to America's youth be scientifically and medically accurate," Waxman said. "The abstinence-only programs reviewed in this report fail to meet this standard." Other "facts" include that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the U.S. have tested positive for HIV and that condoms fail to prevent transmission of HIV in 31 percent of incidents of heterosexual intercourse. The U.S. government's own figures contradict all of these assertions. A.C. Green's Game Plan -- a program named after a basketball player who said he would not have sex before marriage -- teaches: "The popular claim that condoms help prevent the spread of STDs is not supported by the data." Waxman told the Washington Post: "I don't think we ought to lie to our children about science. Something is seriously wrong when federal tax dollars are being used to mislead kids about basic health facts." But government officials said Waxman's report rehashed old anti-abstinence prejudices for political purposes. Alma Golden, the deputy assistant health and human services secretary for population affairs, said it took statements out of context to present programs in the worst possible light. "These issues have been raised before and discredited," Golden said. "One thing is very clear for our children: Abstaining from sex is the most effective means of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV, STDs, and preventing pregnancy." Waxman also criticized some programs for reinforcing sexist stereotypes to children. One -- Why Know -- says: "Women gauge their happiness and judge their success by their relationships. Men's happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments." Another program, Wait Training, says: "Just as a woman needs to feel a man's devotion to her, a man has a primary need to feel a woman's admiration. To admire a man is to regard him with wonder, delight, and approval. A man feels admired when his unique characteristics and talents happily amaze her." |
Oh, BROTHER. Is this what it's all about? Keeping women captive through ignorance, unintended pregnancy, and awe of a (probably mediocre) performance for which they have no yardstick of comparison? How fucking absurd can you get???'Bina.
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| But government officials said Waxman's report rehashed old anti-abstinence prejudices for political purposes. Alma Golden, the deputy assistant health and human services secretary for population affairs, said it took statements out of context to present programs in the worst possible light. "These issues have been raised before and discredited," Golden said. "One thing is very clear for our children: Abstaining from sex is the most effective means of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV, STDs, and preventing pregnancy." |
Alma Goldman talks about prejudices and statements being taken out of context. In what "context" would these lies be considered the truth? She says these so-called "issues" have been discredited before? How do you discredit someone for showing the inaccuracies in these programs?
Abstaining from sex will indeed prevent any and all pregnancy and STD transmission, but abstinence requires one to overcome ones sexual desires. Will they start forcing people to be chemically castrated in order to get this abstinence plan to work?
I think this is more about controlling people and suppressing free thought than any form of birth control or STD prevention. The Church is back to doing what it has always done when it has gotten a taste of political power and that is control the people in every way possible.
Sadly, this is true.
And the only way abstinence can ever REALLY work is if you have no partner. Otherwise, trying to abstain is only the most titillating form of foreplay there is!
'Bina.
And the only way abstinence can ever REALLY work is if you have no partner. Otherwise, trying to abstain is only the most titillating form of foreplay there is!
'Bina.
Un-fucking-believable.
Are they really this fucking dumb....or have social policy really gone to the Dark Ages so fast???
But maybe we all will have to go through this kind of crazy shit before we finally rise up and put these fundamentalists down once and for all. Theocratic states didn't work for Europe, and they will ultimately fail here..unless we let them win.
Time to take the gloves off and sharpen the knives....people like these need to get their asses kicked....figuratively speaking.
Anthony
(Yes, I'm THAT pissed off)
Are they really this fucking dumb....or have social policy really gone to the Dark Ages so fast???
But maybe we all will have to go through this kind of crazy shit before we finally rise up and put these fundamentalists down once and for all. Theocratic states didn't work for Europe, and they will ultimately fail here..unless we let them win.
Time to take the gloves off and sharpen the knives....people like these need to get their asses kicked....figuratively speaking.
Anthony
(Yes, I'm THAT pissed off)
| QUOTE |
| The Bush administration is funding sexual health projects that teach children that HIV can be contracted through sweat and tears, that touching genitals can result in pregnancy and that a 43-day-old fetus is a thinking person. |
well, if anything is contracted through sweat and tears, bush wouldn't know anything about it.
nor would any of his cronies.
they've never broken a sweat in their life, and the tears were all during a drunk.
-t-
I believe this is basically what they are stressing at my daughters high school. I told her abstinance is the best first choice at her age (14), that if anything should happen, there better be a condom and someone who knows how to use it, and then i gave her my copy of "our bodies,ourselves" which she poured over with two of her friends.
Parents should never leave something like this up to the schools entirely (history and social studies too for that matter).
Parents should never leave something like this up to the schools entirely (history and social studies too for that matter).
Well, like I said: Abstinence is ideal if you have no partner. And since I had no partners in high school, it was easy as pie to abstain. But if anyone serious HAD come along when I was that age, there might well have been trouble. I knew about birth control--as much as there was to know at that time--but I was too shy to ask my doctor for the Pill. I didn't go on it till I was 19, and then it was to control my irregular periods, not so I could have sex while at university! (And it was a few years more before I finally met someone with whom I actually wanted to do it, enough to overcome all the normal fears and anxieties...and even then, I made him use condoms so I wouldn't end up being one of the two women in a hundred who still manage to get pregnant while on the Pill!)
'Bina.
'Bina.
damn. if i'd only known- and i thought i HAD to have sex....
-t-
(mother with yard full of kids)
-t-
(mother with yard full of kids)
Having sex isn't the issue here, t....being forced to suffer the supposed consequenses for having sex is.
While I wouldn't go so far as to have a vasectomy (I'm still single and unnattached, and the possibility of carrying on offspring in the future still intrigues me), the notion that people can protect themselves against unwanted pregnancy through their own methods is still the best way to deal with the problem. That's why I'm so bent out of shape at these righttard yahoos stinking their Bibles into our sex-ed classes and imposing their lies and scare tactics on our kids.
And no one said that even voluntary abstenence has to be sexless...there's always masturbation and consensual voyeurism to ease the pressures..so to speak.
Anthony
While I wouldn't go so far as to have a vasectomy (I'm still single and unnattached, and the possibility of carrying on offspring in the future still intrigues me), the notion that people can protect themselves against unwanted pregnancy through their own methods is still the best way to deal with the problem. That's why I'm so bent out of shape at these righttard yahoos stinking their Bibles into our sex-ed classes and imposing their lies and scare tactics on our kids.
And no one said that even voluntary abstenence has to be sexless...there's always masturbation and consensual voyeurism to ease the pressures..so to speak.
Anthony
Yep...
And I'll add, very modestly, that if it hadn't been for masturbation, I would have ended up either pregnant, or infected with an STD, or crazy.
But the rightards get bent out of shape over THAT one, too...just look how they wigged out over Joycelyn Elders when she said pretty much the same thing!
'Bina.
And I'll add, very modestly, that if it hadn't been for masturbation, I would have ended up either pregnant, or infected with an STD, or crazy.
But the rightards get bent out of shape over THAT one, too...just look how they wigged out over Joycelyn Elders when she said pretty much the same thing!
'Bina.
| QUOTE (BinaBecker @ Tuesday, 7 December 2004, 5:40 pm) |
| Yep... And I'll add, very modestly, that if it hadn't been for masturbation, I would have ended up either pregnant, or infected with an STD, or crazy. But the rightards get bent out of shape over THAT one, too...just look how they wigged out over Joycelyn Elders when she said pretty much the same thing! 'Bina. |
I heard about this on Randi Rhodes, unbielvable. She had Dennis Haster's Sunday interview on, and how he had to dodge the question that you can contract AIDS from sweat and tears, first he said he didn't know and when pushed he said he didn't thinks so. This guy is a Doctor, pull his damn license....
'Doc
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