Irony
As you know, I am a huge proponent of providing honest, legitimate information to teens about sex and sexuality - so much so that I spent months working on my own site to do just that. Now that I am heading towards being caught up with that, I’ve spent some time investigating other sites that offer sex advice and discussions, especially those that are oriented towards teens specifically. Some are more liberal than others, of course. Sadly, there are very few that are geared specifically towards teenagers – the one demographic that is most in need of such information (in my opinion).
One site operator who purports to want to educate kids about sex, and believes in “open communication” about the subject lauds a recent article about the fact that more education leads to safer sex (in Africa, in this case, but the fact extends to any locale), and extols the virtues of the free flow of information about sex, lest it be detrimental to the self.
What’s ironic is that she insists that her own site remain “PG-13” with respect to sex information doled out to teens – supposedly because of the “the legalities we have to live under, whether we like'em or not, and be accountable to.” Any information about how to do anything is summarily deleted or edited out of posts. Interestingly, for example, one of the more common question lines there involves requests for information about masturbation. The permitted answers include such things as, “It is perfectly normal to masturbate,” etc. However, if you attempt to explain to someone how to go about masturbating, poof, it is deleted. Now, for guys, it really isn’t that hard to figure out. For females, however, many of whom have never masturbated and are not familiar with how their body operates, this is perhaps the single greatest impediment to learning how to make masturbation productive and enjoyable. I’m not sure when it became illegal to explain to a teenager how to masturbate, but this site owner apparently believes that it is.
She decries the abstinence-only programs and the fact that they don’t provide honest, legitimate information to those subjected to them. Yet, on the site, you’re forced to constrain the amount/type of information you dole out. Ironic, much.
Oh, well, that’s specifically why I built Caitlain’s Corner!
Technorati Tags: sex sex+education sexuality
posted by StripGoddess at 2:24 AM
5 Comments:
To the anonymous" fellow college student" who left a comment last night, I don't allow anonymous comments by someone who doesn't have the balls to let me know who s/he is on posts like this.
Feel free to make the comment again, and this time include your real name or a link to somewhere where we can see who you are, and I'll allow it to be published and will even respond to some of the ridiculousness in it.
The only personal information I know about you is that your first name is Caitlain, and you're 20. I'm Sofie, and I'm 23. I don't feel the need to have a personal page ("blog") to drivel into, so I can't provide you with any such link ... I knew that you wouldn't post my response in its entirety, if at all, despite the fact that I could easily lie about my identity even IF I linked you to a "personally identifiable" site. As could you. That's a given on the Internet.
The only place on Google I've seen mention of your site is the site itself, the MySpace page, and your blog. All the rest have been infiltrations of other sex ed forums (sex101 and scarleteen, most notably) with plug-ins and promotions of your site thrown in. I visit both on occassion, and think I stumbled upon the clash with the webmaster you spoke of. I'll be so kind as to provide you with the response, since it really seems to be something you need to hear:
http://www.scarleteen.com/cgi-bin/forum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=19;t=000306;p=1#000008
It's amazing that even those who claim to support open communication, freedom of expression, and sex as natural with associated education necessary are still close-minded and conservative themselves, still feel obviously view sex as dirty in some way, still keep their mouths shut in many areas.
I hate that those behind the site you mention hide behind the issue of legality. If the site's in the US, you and I both know what is still perfectly legal and words of any type actually are. It's images that are being restricted these days.
Hmmm, maybe the voice behind the site hasn't actually freed herself to experience masturbation yet so she has no way to educate teens about it?? ;)
I think what you've done is wonderful and I'm very proud of you for taking on the responsibility of providing good, honest, real information for teens who are emerging into their sexuality.
xoxo,
nina
It seems that our society is not yet ready to admit that masturbation is a normal, everyday activity. I recently made a post about this at http://masterjerker.blogspot.com/2006/09/why-society-doesnt-want-you.html . I have to admit that I am only half-serious about what I said there. It is a complex issue that we are far from understanding fully at this point in our history. Perhaps one day we’ll figure the whole thing out and it will no longer be the issue that it is.
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