Let's talk about sex
Gina Barone
Issue date: 11/9/09 Section: Opinion
I think Andre 3000 said it best by saying, "clean up your acts, pull up your pants, ladies and gents, please, act like you got some sense." So when did it become acceptable to act like complete prostitutes? And, yes, I am referring to the male population as well.
It's as though one day our society woke up and decided Girls Gone Wild was something to aspire to. Females like Paris Hilton light up the screen with sex tapes, Tucker Max writes books/movies about his latest conquests, Viagra anniversary commercials pop up every five minutes and artists like Lady Gaga make Madonna look like Mother Theresa.
It's not that I don't appreciate sex appeal or think the subject should be off limits; in fact I feel quite the opposite. While sex is thrown in our faces 24/7 by the media, it is still regarded as a taboo subject, which is part of the problem. By making something off limits, it immediately becomes an obsession.
Sex is obviously an American obsession. According to The Guttmacher Institute, nearly 75 percent of teenagers have had intercourse by 20; only 15 percent report remaining virgins until 21. The Institute also reports that teens in the US are more likely to have sex before 15 and to have more than one partner in a year, than teenagers in Sweden, France, Canada and the United Kingdom.
There are plenty of reasons not to drop one's pants with ease, health being a subject of much notability. According to the American Social Health Association, more than half of all people will have an STD at some point in their life. The estimated total number of people living in the US with a STD is over 65 million.
Pregnancy is also a cause for concern. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy states that half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, which is 3 million each year.
These statistics are all good reasons to think before "dropping trou," however the threat of an STD or an unplanned pregnancy should not be the main reason to act responsibly.
It's as though one day our society woke up and decided Girls Gone Wild was something to aspire to. Females like Paris Hilton light up the screen with sex tapes, Tucker Max writes books/movies about his latest conquests, Viagra anniversary commercials pop up every five minutes and artists like Lady Gaga make Madonna look like Mother Theresa.
It's not that I don't appreciate sex appeal or think the subject should be off limits; in fact I feel quite the opposite. While sex is thrown in our faces 24/7 by the media, it is still regarded as a taboo subject, which is part of the problem. By making something off limits, it immediately becomes an obsession.
Sex is obviously an American obsession. According to The Guttmacher Institute, nearly 75 percent of teenagers have had intercourse by 20; only 15 percent report remaining virgins until 21. The Institute also reports that teens in the US are more likely to have sex before 15 and to have more than one partner in a year, than teenagers in Sweden, France, Canada and the United Kingdom.
There are plenty of reasons not to drop one's pants with ease, health being a subject of much notability. According to the American Social Health Association, more than half of all people will have an STD at some point in their life. The estimated total number of people living in the US with a STD is over 65 million.
Pregnancy is also a cause for concern. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy states that half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, which is 3 million each year.
These statistics are all good reasons to think before "dropping trou," however the threat of an STD or an unplanned pregnancy should not be the main reason to act responsibly.
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