by Chris Bodenner
A reader writes:
I have to call b.s. on at least one point made by your reader on the subject of teenage sex. Your reader writes that we should shield teens from sex because of the practical and emotional consequences that their brains are not yet capable of processing, such as "unwanted pregnancies, STDs, emotional issues." First of all, anyone who can memorize the periodic table or who can learn to do advanced trigonometry can appreciate the consequences of sex on a clinical level. I remember being taught "sex ed" in middle school. It made perfect sense to me on an intellectual level. Did the 14-year-old version of me still want to bang my algebra teacher with the short skirt? Of course. But thanks to being educated about sex, I now knew to wear a condom should such banging ever occur (it didn't, of course).
If anything, being shielded from sex leaves post-pubescent homo sapiens, who ARE wired to want it, unprepared for the practical consequences of sexual activity.
I know that your reader is the father of teen girls, and I can appreciate the fact that girls are wired differently than boys. I suspect that a teenage girl, after a tryst with her own hot algebra teacher, has a greater propensity to be left psychologically scarred once she learns that the fellow was almost certainly just using her for sex. But aside from keeping adults away from children as far as sex is concerned, I'm not sure that shielding them from information does anything other than leave them unprepared to make rational decisions.
I should also note that all of the consequences of teen sex that your reader cites, including disease, pregnancy, and emotional drama, are things that are equally prevalent in adult sex as teen sex. Should we ban sex for adults too? It's easy to look at your own children and see a perpetual 8 year old, instead of the young, fully sexually-charged adults that they are after puberty.
While we're on the topic of teen sex, Mercede Johnston finally responds to Bristol's dubious tale of "stolen" virginity that night in the tent.
The Dish 