Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Respect

I read a post lately at Feministing about the so-called IWF denouncing feminism for making girls and women "sluttier" and saying how feminism promotes a "hook-up" culture. And I've been watching mainstream news more often than I would've liked this past week. If they're not discussing Anna Nicole (and by "discussing", I mean showing pictures of her barely concealed bosom and of the contents of her fridge), they're discussing the effect that Britney, Paris, and Lindsay (so infamous we no longer need to use their last names) are having on young girls, based on the fact that they party a lot and don't wear panties. (No underwear? Alert the media!)


I've heard many times how feminists are the ones responsible for women becoming "sluts". (Unlike men, but hey, I wouldn't want to cramp a playa's style.) Here's a thought: if more money was spent on adequate sex education, if parents didn't get offended at the mention of the word "vagina", if teenagers (mostly girls, but I know boys also have insecurity issues) were talked to earlier about sex and respecting one's body, maybe they wouldn't feel the urge to let just anybody touch them. Maybe if girls were taught that "the first love is self love" (something a friend of mine once found in a fortune cookie), they would feel more comfortable touching their "dirty" parts.

Parents tend to take the "I'll Tell You When You're Older"or "Ask Me Any Questions You Want" approach when confronting their kids with the issue of sex. The problem with the first approach is that kids are naturally curious, and telling a child that you won't talk about something until they're a certain age makes it a taboo subject and lets your child know that there certain subjects that they can't get information from you about, even when they're the "right" age. The second approach appears to be more open, but honestly, what questions is a child going to have about sex? If you want your child to understand more than just the general mechanics, you have to be the one to volunteer the information. Otherwise, they will find out elsewhere, whether it's from their friends or someone who is having sex with them.

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