Oral Sex Safe and Not Really Sex, Say U.S. Teens (oh my!!)

[rodeodance]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/04/04/oral_sex_safe_and_not_really_sex_say_us_teens/
Oral Sex Safe and Not Really Sex, Say U.S. Teens

April 4, 2005

CHICAGO (Reuters) - One in five U.S. teenagers say they have engaged in oral sex, an activity that some adolescents view as not sex at all and certainly less risky than intercourse, a report released Monday said.
The survey of 580 children with a mean age of 14-1/2 found 20 percent said they had engaged in oral sex, compared to 14 percent who said they had engaged in sexual intercourse.

In addition, one-third of the multi-ethnic 9th graders surveyed said they intended to have oral sex within the next six months and nearly one-fourth planned to have intercourse during the period. It was more common for boys to have performed oral sex on girls than vice versa, the report said.

Previous studies and numerous campaigns aimed at deterring teenaged sex have focused on intercourse, but as many as half of adolescents experience oral sex first, the report said.....

[trotsky]

1. Which reich winger has gone on record already...

saying this is Clinton's fault?

[rodeodance]

3. they see it as a way of preserving their virginity!!--guess which group

is advocating this notion!!

.....see oral sex as a way of preserving their virginity....

[The Doctor.]

16. I heard Rush blame Clinton for this a few weeks ago...

He had to twist some statistics to make the connection - but we know how critical his listeners are.

All in all, I can't say whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.

[maxrandb]

21. Just Stuck My Head into Freekerville, took a shower and

it took them 1 post to blame the Clenis. I mean that Clenis must be some all powerful stuff. It's responsible for everything from 9/11, to Iraq, to Terri Schiavo, to promiscuous teens.

Something this big and powerful must need it's own religion. The Holy Church of the Sacred Clenis. Please send your donations.

Anyway, funny how the freeker posts with the most hits and comments always are the ones dealing with teen sex.

Are they really closet pedophiles? And what about that friar that was speaking for the Schindlers last week? I'm straight, but my G.A.Y.D.A.R was jumping all over the place whenever I saw him.

[Stinky The Clown]

31. Actually, that was the first thing that came to mind for me

Clinton's fault .......

And ya know what .... from a guy who still thinks Clinton's the Biggest of the Big Dogs and the best president of my lifetime, I agree.

In fact, had the Big Dawg kept that thing zipped - or at **least** had the brains to hang out with a ..... uh .... more mature and more discreet woman, the last 4-1/2 years would have been totally different.

Flame away ......

[trotsky]

33. No flames from me.

What the Republicans did to him was wrong, stupid, a waste, yada yada yada. They had nothing on him for Whitewater, Travelgate, FBIgate, Vince Foster, ad nauseam. But he gave them that one little opening - and it was completely his own doing.

It taints my opinion of him, too.

[leftchick]

56. my reich-wing neighbor said that last fall....

apparently this article is about two years too late over this issue. My neighbor has a 13 yr old daughter and was informing me about this many months ago. She did indeed blame BC. :eyes:

[johnaries]

2. Abstinence only education. That's what you get.

"OK, I won't have sex. - but I don't consider that sex..."

[rodeodance]

4. The Right is putting the health of teenagers at risk

[renaissanceguy]

19. Exactly. That's what you get when you have abstinence-only

education. They don't learn about the dangers of other sexual activity, and more importantly, they don't learn how to protect themselves.


http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues/472476

[The Witch]

54. Abstinence education turning kids into miniClintons?!

It just occurred to me that this is just what the right hated Clinton doing.

Cue Darrell Hammond voice...

"It depends on how you define sexual relations..."

[Ms_Mary]

58. Yep. Blantant misinformation in the name of "morals." Not my morals.

[Avalux]

5. No mention in this article of anal sex -

teenagers are engaging in anal sex also - they see it as less risky because they can't get pregnant. And besides, if you only have oral and anal sex, you're still a virgin, right? :crazy:

[rodeodance]

8. "oral sex is less of a threat to their values and beliefs,"--well--that

because they do not see oral sex as sex.

[maxrandb]

23. But Don't the Fundies

Believe that any sex that does not result, or can not result in conception, is not really sex??

I mean isn't sex to them just for "procreation"? so, IMO, for them to argue that oral sex is really sex is ludicrous.

How can it be sex when it is not in the bible?? Only an act that can result in pregnancy, and then mostly only if the man is on top counts, right?

Where's Jerry Falwell when you need him?

[noonwitch]

18. I had this discussion with a coworker about what is a virgin

I told her it is a spiritual state, not a physical one. I said that if a woman was raped vaginally, but never willingly had sex with someone, she was still a virgin. I told her a woman who performed oral sex on someone was less of a virgin, even if her hymen was intact, because she willingly performed the act. She disagreed and believed it was only about the hymen.

Not that it matters, but it does tick me off that a woman would buy into all that ancient paternalistic crap about hymens. It does have to do with how women are valued-in the ancient world (ie the Old Testament), a woman was killed if she didn't have a hymen to be broken on her wedding night. It didn't matter to anyone how that happened-rape, incest, it was always the woman's fault and her stigma to bear, if the entire community found out about it.

[Moosepoop]

28. Wow...

Does that mean that I lost my virginity the first time I used a Tampax?

Wonder if drugstore clerks will be soon be able to refuse the sale of tampons to anyone who isn't married, on the grounds that the product in question might cause a "deflowering" and therefore violate the clerk's moral beliefs??

[LostinVA]

36. Do NOT give them any ideas! n/t

[Ian David]

Tampons: "Satan's Little Cotton Fingers!"

Landover Ladies Vow to "Stop Satan From Pulling The Strings!"

Ladies of Landover member Mrs. Taffy Davenport-Gaines Crockett, visiting the Landover Christian Pharmacy recently to refill the church tract display, happened upon a shocking sight. A young woman was visibly upset and arguing loudly with pharmacist Emma Mae Martin. What Mrs. Crockett discovered next sickened her unto the point of nausea.

"The young woman was trying to buy tampons," Mrs. Crockett said, barely able to hold back tears. "I snatched that girl by the hair and pulled her outside... there were children present! Can you imagine how they'd be damaged by hearing such evil ideas?"

“I explained to this young lady that we do not carry such phallic devices as tampons and when attending to her monthly curse," Mrs. Martin said, adding that "Satan himself controls the manufacturing of those things." The young woman then began to verbally abuse her, she said.

"A Godly woman is only to use a Maxi-Pad," Mrs. Crockett stated. "Why, they even have them with little angel wings now! I handed her a box and told her unless she wanted my handprint across her face she was never to utter that evil T word again!” The as yet unidentified woman then fled the store in humiliation. Landover Security sketch artists are preparing a likeness to aid in identifying the young woman. Her salvation status is unknown, but based on this event, it is likely she is Hellbound.

More:
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news0999/cotton.html


Behold: The antidote to childhood sexual behavior

[captain crunch]

77. It depends,

are you a man or a woman?

[MARALE]

32. I lost my virginity to a doctor

At the age of 13 due to an yeast infection. I didn't really know what sex was then. Boy, fundies won't believe in the physical nature of evolution, but they will only beleive in the physical nature of virginity. It makes me mad that there are so many ignorant people in the world as well.

[Merope215]

45. That's what St. Augustine said too

in De Civitate Dei. So you can break out that one next time there's an argument. :P

[Ms_Mary]

60. Heaven forbid you lose your hymen/virginity to horseback riding or

gymnastics or other non-sexual activity that can result it it's being gradually stretched out of existence.

[Moosepoop]

67. Or be born without a hymen in the first place

Some girls are born without hymens, others may normally have perforations in theirs, still others may have hymens that only partially cover the vaginal opening.

http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/?article=teensex&refid=003

The whole notion of an "intact" hymen signaling virginity is a myth, but one that's still believed by many people. :banghead:

[Ms_Mary]

71. Good point. Besides it's hardly as if a thin membrane contains

all virtue in the world.

[liberal N proud]

6. Well, Mirriam-Webster says

Look at deffinition #2

Main Entry: 1sex
Pronunciation: 'seks
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin sexus
1 : either of the two major forms of individuals that occur in many species and that are distinguished respectively as female or male
2 : the sum of the structural, functional, and behavioral characteristics of living things that are involved in reproduction by two interacting parents and that distinguish males and females
3 a : sexually motivated phenomena or behavior b : SEXUAL INTERCOURSE
4 : GENITALIA

Even #3 does not come out and say any act, so maybe Clinton was right after all.

[rodeodance]

10. yeah, i suspose these teens looks up the definition!!

[Wright Patman]

66. 'I did not have sexual relations

with that woman ... Miss Lewinsky.'

That's what Clinton said. He was very precise in his use of the language. He apparently agreed that oral sex would be considered sex by many, but it was not "sexual relations."

Remember he was a lawyer. You had to "parse" every word he said carefully. At least you could understand what he was saying, unlike the mumbling chimp.

[Kerrytravelers]

7. So glad to see that our young people are being properly educated

in regards to preventive health care.

Wait, in this country, we don't give a flip about health care. It just ain't part of moral values.


Edited to add:

You know, I really think the right believes that only liberal teenagers are having sex because they've been told by their liberal parents that it's ok, you can just abort the baby anyways. So, why should they care if liberals get AIDS or other deadly viruses/diseases and die. It's just a form of Darwinism.

Darwinism? Wait a second. That is not a part of God's law. Why does the right hate America?

[LostinVA]

9. You can get some gnarly STDs via oral sex

Someone needs to tell these kids that. Oh,a nd question: are the guys doing it for the GIRLS? Hmmm? Anyone? Bueller?

[rodeodance]

12. "(more) common for boys to have performed oral sex on girls than vice

versa"


In addition, one-third of the multi-ethnic 9th graders surveyed said they intended to have oral sex within the next six months and nearly one-fourth planned to have intercourse during the period. It was more common for boys to have performed oral sex on girls than vice versa, the report said.

[bigwillq]

14. DAMN, you beat me!

:hi: :hi:

[maxsolomon]

17. am i the only one who sees this as a positive development?

one for the ladies!

[WearyOne]

26. I think it's positive for all of them..teach them health and let 'em do

what they want. Who are we to preach ??

[maxrandb]

22. And All Over America Woman are Smiling n/t

[Ms_Mary]

62. Men across America, pay attention.

[bigwillq]

13. "It was more common for boys to have performed oral sex

on girls than vice versa"

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

39. Why is this sentence being repeated by numerous posters?

Is this significant or surprising or has a hidden meaning? What am I missing?

[megatherium]

40. Yes, oral sex can be risky.

The safer-sex guidelines say to use a condom or barrier for this activity. (Defeats the whole purpose, alas.)

I have heard in Europe oral sex is not considered as dangerous for HIV transmission. Research is ambiguous on this point: there are studies that appear to document oral transmission of HIV, studies that indicate about 6% of HIV positive gay men got it that way. This is disputed by some, who say the studies can't tell if men are lying about their behavior (being reluctant to admit that they had unprotected anal sex, which everyone knows is dangerous). And there are other studies that appear to show that the risk from oral sex is very small. I recall reading about a study in Spain involving sero-discordant heterosexual couples who practiced oral sex -- no transmissions of HIV were documented in approximately 39 thousand instances of oral sex.

[slackmaster]

61. I know a man who got a yeast infection on his tongue that way

Shortly after that episode he figured out that he is gay.

[fob]

11. "1/3 of 9th graders INTENDED to have oral sex w/in next 6 months"

Wow, has that dropped off since I was in 9th grade. What 9th grader is not "intending" to have sex in any 6 month period, oral or otherwise?

[rodeodance]

15. back then it was just regular sex (this question is different)--I think

[The Doctor.]

20. Lmao!

"A study shows that 99.9% of ninth graders intend to have sex of any kind - even if they have to go it alone."

[TOhioLiberal]

51. gives a whole new meaning to...

...giving yourself a hand! :evilgrin:

[The Doctor.]

74. Ughhh!

So how do you think they did with making HGTTG?

[Ms_Mary]

64. I have to hand it to you, you've hit the nail on the head. nt

[AllegroRondo]

24. But only 2% felt they had any real chance at it

[Toucano]

70. The dashed dreams of youth!

LOL :rofl:

[endarkenment]

73. 2/3 were *intending* to have sex within tne next 5 seconds

[WearyOne]

25. and how many thousands of years does this survey refer to ?

or do they think kids today just discovered it

[callous taoboy]

27. A friend of mine has a daughter in high school:

According to her, anal sex is very popular in high school because many teenagers don't see it as sex, won't have vaginal sex until marriage.

[megatherium]

34. anal sex is an efficient route for transmission of HIV

if it is unprotected. I hope these teenagers are careful.

[Kimber Scott]

29. Oral sex, not sex? I guess it depends on what "is" is. ;-) ROFLMAO! nt

[RedCloud]

30. I'm cutting off their meal money!

if they think this is some sort of exotic or perhaps erotic food choice then they are just blowing their meal money!

[libnnc]

35. Herpes anyone??

[LostinVA]

37. Forget herpes -- you can get lots of other STDs

in your throat. For real. My mom is a Pediatric nurse, and she has seen a rather large amount of girls coming in with "thrush" in their throats... which turns out not to be thrush! Ewww.

[libnnc]

38. the gift that keeps on giving...

[Moosepoop]

42. Yep

I remember an episode a few years back on one of the medical shows (ER, maybe?) where a young teenage girl had what turned out to be gonorrhea of the mouth and throat. Yowza!

[LostinVA]

55. I know, I never knew

This until my mom told me about it. I'm 40, consider myself well educated and informed,a nd was like... EWWWW!

[Kerrytravelers]

72. It was Er. I remember that episonde. Gomorrhea where? Yuck.

[BBradley]

41. I weep for my generation.

Of course far more than 1/3 of my friends were intending to have oral sex back when I was in 9th grade. =)

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

43. When I was an adolescent

in the early '70s oral sex and anal sex were considered more exotic and unlikely to be explored than conventional sex. Now it's the other way around.

[Blue Belle]

44. Did anyone see Bill Mahr's "New Rules" this weekend?

If not... here is the re-cap via Salon.com:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2005/04/01/abstinence/index.html

Abstinence pledges suck -- literally
As news spreads that teens who pledge chastity have lots more kinky sex, millions of aging boomers ask: Where was Bush when I was in high school?

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Bill Maher

April 1, 2005 | New Rule: Abstinence pledges make you horny. A new eight-year study just released reveals that American teenagers who take "virginity" pledges of the sort so favored by the Bush administration wind up with just as many STDs as the other kids.
But that's not all -- taking the pledges also makes a teenage girl six times more likely to perform oral sex, and a boy four times more likely to get anal. Which leads me to an important question: where were these pledges when I was in high school?

Seriously, when I was a teenager, the only kids having anal intercourse were the ones who missed. My idea of lubrication was oiling my bike chain. If I had known I could have been getting porn star sex the same year I took Algebra II, simply by joining up with the Christian right, I'd have been so down with Jesus they would have had to pry me out of the pew.

For a bunch of teens raised on creationism, these red state kids today are pretty evolved -- sexually, anyway, and for that they can thank all who joined forces to try and legislate away human nature, specifically the ineluctable urge of teenagers to hump.

Yes, the "What do we tell the children?" crowd apparently decided not to tell them anything. Because people who talk about pee-pees are potty-mouths. And so armed with limited knowledge, and believing regular, vaginal intercourse to be either immaculate or filthy dirty, these kids did with their pledge what everybody does with contracts: they found loopholes. Two of them to be exact.

Is there any greater irony than the fact that the Christian Right actually got their precious little adolescent daughters to say to their freshly scrubbed boyfriends: "Please, I want to remain pure for my wedding night, so only in the ass. Then I'll blow you." Well, at least these kids are really thinking outside the box.

There's a lot worse things than teenagers having sex, namely, teenagers NOT having sex. Here's something you'll never hear: "That suicide bomber blew himself up because he was having too much sex. Sex, sex, sex, non-stop. All that crazy Arab ever had was sex, and look what happened."

Well, that's our story -- of how faith and the party of smaller government combined to turn your kids into a generation of super-freaks. Which shouldn't be surprising: Prohibition didn't work, "Just say no" didn't work, and I understand there's a host of Americans who illegally obtain and smoke marijuana. They're the ones who've been giggling every time I say anal sex.

[MountainLaurel]

52. Haaahaaahahahaha!

Go Bill.

[rodeodance]

63. te he--good for Bill

[Ian David]

46. This does nothing to discourage childhood obesity

The picture above illustrates why you should always use "safe-search" on Google when innocently searching for images of "Bambi."

[Endangered Specie]

47. Have they blamed Clinton yet?

:eyes:

[wallwriter]

50. Layers and layers of hypocrisy

Of course they blame Clinton. It wasn't about the sex, it was about the lying, except that now it's about the sex, unless it's Gannon/Guckert, in which case it's not about the sex, even though it should be about the prostitution, but it's not about that, either.

Not to sound like some kind of Marxist Feminist, but the hymen has to be intact for one reason: so the husband knows that his property is really going to his children. Sorry. His first born male child.

All the rest is commentary.

[Blue Diadem]

48. Over 32 yrs ago, my history teacher told our class

that oral sex was cleaner than kissing and you couldn't get pregnant from it. Even as a teenager, it shocked the heck out of me. Back during that time, abortions were only legal in New York and several girls from our rural school had gone there for abortions. This same teacher had the audacity to ask one of the girls to describe her abortion experience to the class.

Luckily, he only remained teaching until the year after I graduated. I heard he became an insurance salesman.

Freepers can blame it all they want on Clinton, but it was harped on by the MSM, the Republicans and fundies. If they don't want to teach appropriate sex education and protection, they have no one to blame but themselves.

[The Witch]

53. You can get pregnant from oral sex?

News to me. If your history teacher was wrong about that, someone better tell me quick or I'm in big trouble. ;)

[Blue Diadem]

57. Huh?? Who said you can get pregnant from oral sex?

I sure didn't. His statement was not something I expected to be "taught" to us in the middle of a history class back in the early 70's. I can only assume he told us that due to so many pregnant girls those few years. It amazed me because he could have just said use birth control but chose to limit himself to his oral sex statement.

[rodeodance]

59. bet they get their info from this gov. website!!

I posted this elsewhere today--but sure fits here!!




http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=492381

4 Parents Is 4 Ignorance

The website 4parents.gov, one of the latest "public education campaigns" launched by the Bush administration, claims to "provide parents with the information, tools and skills they need to help their teens make the healthiest choices." Maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services, the website seeks to encourage "parents to talk frankly about sensitive topics like sex and relationships." However, the website fails miserably in these goals and nearly 150 public health and advocacy groups have signed a letter to HHS Secretary Leavitt to "express their deep concern." Accepting that parents ought to be "the primary sexuality educators of their children," the groups chide HHS because, rather than giving parents "the accurate information and resources they need," the website "relies on fear to motivate and contains many errors and biases that undermine its intent of encouraging parent-child communication around sex and sexuality."

PROMOTING ABSTINENCE AT ALL COSTS: The section entitled "What if Your Teen Has Already Had Sex?" includes value-laden, abstinence only advice: "Tell them it's not too late to stop having sex, that it's never too late to make healthy choices. They are worth it!" The section provides "no resources or suggestions" for parents with children who "are not 'worth it,'" i.e. those who make the decision to remain sexually active. For those parents, 4parents.gov instead "contains inaccurate information regarding the effectiveness of condoms, as well as the transmission and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases." By spreading misleading information, 4parents.gov succumbs to the mistaken belief that "giving young people negative information about contraception will encourage them not to have sexual intercourse, when all it will do is encourage them not to have contraception."

'ANTI-CHOICE OVERTONES': According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, pregnancy begins at implantation. This is the "medically accepted definition" of the term and has been used in prior instances by the Department of Health and Human Services. Yet, the 4parents.gov website asserts that pregnancy begins at the time of fertilization of the egg, a definition commonly used in, and preferred by, the anti-choice community. This "radical change in the definition of pregnancy … flies in the face of the medical community shows a blatant disregard for science." The two different definitions of pregnancy have been linked to the recent attack on patients' rights. Another example of 4parents.gov's "anti-choice overtones" is the website's statement that "'abortion complications' are one of the major reasons for infertility." In reality, "less than one percent of women who have an abortion experience a major complication, and there is no evidence of infertility among the vast majority of women who've had abortions.".......

[Blue Diadem]

69. It saddens me that they choose to not educate their teens with

truthful facts about birth control.

(the mistaken belief that "giving young people negative information about contraception will encourage them not to have sexual intercourse, when all it will do is encourage them not to have contraception.")


Exactly! IMO, they hold the responsibility for making their teens vulnerable to disease and pregnancy.

[Hand]

49. (Grumble grumble, kvetch) Born thirty years too soon... nt

[Ms_Mary]

65. And this is why sex education is one of my soapbox issues.

Kids need to know the risk involved so they know better than to do stupid things unprotected to save "virginity." It does society a huge disservice.

[RaulGroom]

68. Hate to, erm, Spit in the Punchbowl, but...

I have a daughter and I certainly don't want her going around blowing everybody. But if I detach from the fatherly ooginess of it, I have to admit to myself that if blowing a few guys is the most dangerous thing she ever does, she's doing pretty good.

In other words, I think abstinence-only education is stupid, but this isn't why.

Speaking for myself, when I was young I wasn't particularly concerned about contracting a disease. I was terrified of getting someone pregnant. Oral sex certainly seemed to me at the time to have a lot going for it in that regard.

So amidst all the shock and outrage I thought I'd throw in a lone dissenting voice, saying simply:




So?

[grumpy old fart]

75. Aside from the age factor being a little disturbing...overall, so what?

I'd much rather that they be engaging in oral sex than vaginal unprotected sex. Those babies cost society, big time.

[unhappycamper]

76. Damn. I was born 45 years too early.