I love Sarah Palin. The more I think of it, the more I love her as a candidate for national office. She's ambitious and has some really kooky views -- which is what makes her so much gosh-darn fun. She would have been even more fun if Mike Huckabee got the nomination and picked her.
The thing I can't get over is that she's a big advocate of two things I believe are purely rubbish -- teaching creationism and abstinence education in public schools. Both are foolish -- period, end of discussion. You want to learn about creationism, go to Sunday school and read the Bible. It's quick, gives you a simple worldview and tells you everything you need to know in just a few sentences. Abstinence -- parents should teach it at home, but as a matter of public health, all teens, especially young women, should get a solid semester of sexual education and hygiene...probably without young men in the same classroom.
Over the years, I've kind of modified my view on abstinence. As a horny teen, I'd have been happy to have been part of any hump-a-thon you can dream up. (Well, any straight hump-a-thon. I kind of had a conveyor belt fantasy...oh, another time.) But what we've learned (or I've learned) since those innocent days is that women really are sexual gatekeepers, and the more they give it away, the less prized sex becomes. Because sex is such an intimate connection and is fused in our cultural mythos with love, there's something wrong about advocating a form of sexual liberation that's merely sexually gratifying -- got my orgasm, thanks, goodbye (or, for guys, wham, bam, thank you, ma'am). Love is a component that can't be overlooked. To quote an English teacher at my high school (and, yes, this was said in the classroom): Sex without love is like masturbation with company. I love that!
So back to abstinence. You're young and horny, so what are you going to do? You're going to screw every chance you get...especially when you're the governor's daughter and you've snagged a popular, rugged hockey boy toy. Here's where abstinence comes in. Once you've been taught about abstinence, you can always just decide not to listen -- probably the biggest problem with abstinence education remains that ABSTINENCE IS OPTIONAL. (Abstinence education also tends to lead to more fairytales, like if you screw standing up, you can't get pregnant...which is something I remember a Marilu Henner character saying in some movie I saw years ago.) And what happens to that group that screws their brains out without a condom? In the right-wing fairytale, they get married, have a family and live happily ever after. In reality, they might have the baby and go it alone; have the baby and a rocky marriage (and by the time that finally ends, they're 26, have four kids and are stuck in a rut); put the baby up for adoption and move on with their life; have an abortion; do drugs and make believe life is just a bad dream.
So the Sarah Palin lesson is this: advocating abstinence education is a losing proposition. Sure, teach young women that they're the sexual gatekeepers, and that putting cocks in their mouths, vaginas or asses has consequences. Don't be a pushover. But, on the other hand, when they don't say no (by the way, those Virginity Pledges are hardly ever worth the paper they're written on), know that being clean, in love, wearing a condom and having your wits about you when having sex is going to make sex safe and a hell of a lot of fun.
The thing I can't get over is that she's a big advocate of two things I believe are purely rubbish -- teaching creationism and abstinence education in public schools. Both are foolish -- period, end of discussion. You want to learn about creationism, go to Sunday school and read the Bible. It's quick, gives you a simple worldview and tells you everything you need to know in just a few sentences. Abstinence -- parents should teach it at home, but as a matter of public health, all teens, especially young women, should get a solid semester of sexual education and hygiene...probably without young men in the same classroom.
Over the years, I've kind of modified my view on abstinence. As a horny teen, I'd have been happy to have been part of any hump-a-thon you can dream up. (Well, any straight hump-a-thon. I kind of had a conveyor belt fantasy...oh, another time.) But what we've learned (or I've learned) since those innocent days is that women really are sexual gatekeepers, and the more they give it away, the less prized sex becomes. Because sex is such an intimate connection and is fused in our cultural mythos with love, there's something wrong about advocating a form of sexual liberation that's merely sexually gratifying -- got my orgasm, thanks, goodbye (or, for guys, wham, bam, thank you, ma'am). Love is a component that can't be overlooked. To quote an English teacher at my high school (and, yes, this was said in the classroom): Sex without love is like masturbation with company. I love that!
So back to abstinence. You're young and horny, so what are you going to do? You're going to screw every chance you get...especially when you're the governor's daughter and you've snagged a popular, rugged hockey boy toy. Here's where abstinence comes in. Once you've been taught about abstinence, you can always just decide not to listen -- probably the biggest problem with abstinence education remains that ABSTINENCE IS OPTIONAL. (Abstinence education also tends to lead to more fairytales, like if you screw standing up, you can't get pregnant...which is something I remember a Marilu Henner character saying in some movie I saw years ago.) And what happens to that group that screws their brains out without a condom? In the right-wing fairytale, they get married, have a family and live happily ever after. In reality, they might have the baby and go it alone; have the baby and a rocky marriage (and by the time that finally ends, they're 26, have four kids and are stuck in a rut); put the baby up for adoption and move on with their life; have an abortion; do drugs and make believe life is just a bad dream.
So the Sarah Palin lesson is this: advocating abstinence education is a losing proposition. Sure, teach young women that they're the sexual gatekeepers, and that putting cocks in their mouths, vaginas or asses has consequences. Don't be a pushover. But, on the other hand, when they don't say no (by the way, those Virginity Pledges are hardly ever worth the paper they're written on), know that being clean, in love, wearing a condom and having your wits about you when having sex is going to make sex safe and a hell of a lot of fun.
**The Judge**
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