Scanner : sex education

Bristol Palin Has a Job and You Don't

Emily Farris — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:16:00 GMT

How is it that we have a ton of smart, talented, over-educated friends who can't find jobs while unwed teenage mother Bristol Palin just scored a great one?

B-Pal has just been appointed as one of the Candies Foundation's Teen Ambassadors, working on the Foundation's national campaign to prevent teen pregnancy.

“I feel that I could be a living example of the consequences of teen pregnancy. If I can prevent even one girl from getting pregnant, I will feel a sense of accomplishment.”

Well, that's something.

No word on if she'll be taking home a fat paycheck, or if she'll be taking home a paycheck at all, but if so we recommend she invest in some condoms and birth control pills. (And she could send some our way if she'd like. Our monthly pack of Yasmin was one of our recession sacrifices and now our face is totes broken out).

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[Source]

Sex Ed Class Enjoys Naked Man Parade

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:05:00 GMT

They'd never get away with this in America: one British high school is making headlines after a teacher showed her sex ed class a parade of naked men and asked them which body parts they wanted to focus on...

The dudes were parading around the school gymnasium for a live camera feed set up by Channel Four's The Sex Education Show, which aims to teach young people healthy attitudes about lovemaking-- you know, not that abstinence garbage. The cameras zoomed in on the body parts in question, examining their remarkable differences and proving no two people are alike, according to this local news story.

Even more incredibly, this was sanctioned by the school and the parents. (In America, they would bring back lynching specifically to deal with these people.) The students thought it helped show boys that not everyone is supermodel thin and there is nothing wrong with the un-Photoshopped body. Hear, hear.

Check out what Assistant head teacher Jo Postlethwaite has to say about the program:

"I think what this has given us is a starting point to revamp sex education. The students really benefited from people from outside the school coming in to talk to them about sex. It can be hard for both students and teachers to go from a teacher being your maths teacher to being your sex education teacher. Maybe it needs to be someone completely different."

We really have nothing more to say about this except "bravo." Meanwhile, Italy is in an uproar over a teacher who discussed genital piercings, bondage, and all that jazz during an off-topic rant about masturbation. This was during a sex ed class being taught to eleven-year-olds, which is apparently not acceptable over there.

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Why in the Christ Do You Have a Kid?

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:44:00 GMT

A new website called "Why the Fuck Do You Have A Kid?"-- is a sort of baffled liberal person's response to Bristol Palin, Jamie Lynn Spears, and the rest of these raised-by-Christian-conservatives teenage moms. Of course, it features disturbing photos that say all we'll ever need to know about their lives.

Some of it, of course, is silly and much of it is patently offensive. A few of the photos, however, need to be laughed at to cover the horror we feel deep down for the babies pictured therein:

This girl doesn't look old enough to conceive a child let alone raise one. The rest fare no better.

While the site is arguably awful, even borderline-worthless, perhaps it will be part of a growing movement of people who aren't afraid to say, "Hey, look, it's great that your teenager wants to bring life into the world, but they can wait five or ten years, since they aren't even allowed to drink when the baby won't stop crying."

A better way to put it might be that the growing acceptance of teen pregnancy by conservative culture (when it isn't an African American teenager whose family is on welfare, of course) has us worried that teenagers will find that there is no longer any taboo about getting pregnant, just about having sex.

Via WTFDYHAK.

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Our Neighbors to the North Get a Blue Ribbon for Sex Education While we FAIL

Emily Farris — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:49:00 GMT

Sure Canada might have a few questionable practices when it comes to young people and sex—the legal age for consent in the country is 16 while the legal age for consensual anal sex is 18—but the US could surely learn a few things about sex education from our neighbors to the north.

Here in the States, teen pregnancy rates are up for the second year in a row. According to recent statistics, American women have 2.09 children while Canadian women have about 1.6. Thirty percent of that difference is apparently due to teen births in the U.S., and a whopping 90 percent of those thirty percent are unwanted.

What is Canada doing so right that we're doing so wrong?

"...The main reason is that Canadian teens of all social classes get comprehensive information about contraception and about how to avoid unwanted pregnancies. They get more sex ed in school, and can access high-school-based family planning counselling though the nurse. They can also always access universally free medical services, including visiting family doctor and special health clinics. And at all levels, there's a more positive attitude towards the pill, and either cheap or free prescriptions for it.

As a result, young Canadian women use more effective pharmaceutical methods (i.e. birth control pills) rather than less effective ones (condoms, or the so-called withdrawal method)...

After a decade and $1.5 billion U.S. federal dollars spent on abstinence-only programs, a Congress-authorized, rigorous scientific study reported no real difference in the age at which program participants first had sex, whether they had sex before marriage, or in their number of sexual partners."

[The Tyee: Canada on Top in Sex Ed]

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Abstinence-Only Education Doesn't Work

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Even Christians Admit That Abstinence Pledges Don't Work

Emily Farris — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:07:00 GMT

We liberal athiests can talk all we want about the fact that virginity pledges and purity rings don't really work, but even with statistics, it's just us against them. But when Christian bloggers start writing about it, we have to ask: I can haz sex education?

Mark Gungor, a writer for the Christian Post writes:

A recent survey showed that teens who take abstinence pledges are just as likely to have sex and are less likely to take precautions against pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Many in the faith community are disheartened by such study results, but I can see how this happens. And it’s not a problem with the kids; it’s a problem of parenting. Parents assume because the church is doing something like having the kids make abstinence pledges and wearing promise rings, they don’t have to do anything. Parents are not taking their responsibility to parent and raise these kids; they get them to take the pledge and then take their hands off. They allow these young men and young women to spend inordinate amounts of time together alone and think that a purity ring on their finger is going to be the magic force field of protection. Listen, for teenagers to have sex, they have to have the opportunity to have sex and poor parenting is giving them the opportunities.

Unfortunately, he goes on to advocate for less privacy for teens. You know, don't let your kids hang out alone in the basement. But hey, at least he uses the word boobies:

I am stunned at how blatantly stupid some Christian parents seem to be when it comes to sexual things. They let their kids watch all kinds of blatantly sexual images in movies and on television with little thought of how those images and messages can affect them. I know of a pastor friend who allowed his young daughter to see the movie Titanic at least 11 times. This same pastor was all worried about anything she saw that he deemed to be satanic, like Harry Potter, but not at all concerned about his 14 year old daughter learning the lessons found in a movie like Titanic. And the lessons are very simple: If you really like a boy you can let him see your boobies and he can draw pictures of your boobies, and if you really like him, you can have sex with him two days later…

Look, the chances of your teenage daughter wanting to jump on a broom and fly around the room are pretty low. But, the chances that your daughter’s boyfriend will want to touch her boobies, well… I’d give that a pretty big chance, wouldn’t you? Talk about straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel! We need to get our priorities straight.

What he forgot to mention are the chances your daughter will want to dry hump the hell out of that broom. And parents: let her do that.

[Christian Post: Abstinence Pledges Fail]

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Happy Abstinence-Only Education Day!

Michigan Backs Teen Pregnancy and the Spread of STDs with $1.4M Grant

Abstinence-Only Education Doesn't Work

Sex Ed is Rotten in the State of Texas

Colleen Kane — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:03:00 GMT

A report came out today evaluating sex education in Texas, where teaching abstinence is the norm, and the findings are not promising.

After two years of studying instructional materials from 990 school districts, the watchdog group Texas Freedom Network determined that abstinence-only is taught in 94 percent of Texas schools, and that schools use shame, shame's bff religion, and scare tactics to discourage students from having sex, and some schools are reinforcing negative gender stereotypes.

Furthermore, 41 percent of materials used for teaching about condoms and prevention of STDs in Texas schools contain factual errors. One school district is teaching eighth graders that when used properly, condoms are only 80 percent effective in preventing pregancy. The actual effective rate is more like 97-98 percent.

"Most examples share a common purpose and likely effect -- discouraging young people from using condoms," says the report.

Some of their findings are outright baffling. One abstinence-only source, Wonderful Days, used in three districts contains this quotation: "If a woman is dry, the sperm will die, if a woman is wet, a baby she may get!"

Holy moly. The full report and executive summary are available on the Texas Freedom Network website.

Related:

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Michigan Backs Teen Pregnancy and the Spread of STDs with $1.4M Grant

Abstinence-Only Tip Of The Week: A cup of Bleach A Day Keeps The AIDS Away

While You Were Sleeping: The Naked Flash Mob Protest

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:08:00 GMT

Here's a program we can get behind: putting the sex back in sex ed.

Kids say the darndest things to Obama. The best one is the kid who says Obama gets to run around like "a maniac" in the Oval Office.

Damn, this Verne Troyer dude has a buttload of sex. Check out the latest story on his escapades:

Troyer, along with one of his randy mates, were at porn baron Hugh Hefner’s Hollywood Playboy mansion in 2005 when he took part in the all-night five-in-a-bed romp with the three gorgeous girls. [He] told News of the World: “I love the mansion and have had some of the best nights of my life behind its walls. I’ve been so many times and it never loses its appeal—but why would it? ...I didn’t just pleasure one Playboy Bunny, I pleasured three. And it doesn’t get much better than that. I watched while they touched each other, then me and my friend joined in. I know exactly how to make a woman feel like a woman. I know the spot, and I’ve got plenty of inches where it matters. I know what women want and it’s me.”

Maybe so, but his vindictive ex says those "inches" are a stretch.

Watch out, guys. In case you didn't know, demanding your wife get freaky with another woman can spell the beginning of the end for your relationship.

Devo is headlining the 2009 SXSW.

Will Bush pardon Scooter Libby and Ted Stevens today? By the way, don't forget that, amidst all this hoopla, today is George W. Bush's last day in the White House, woo hoo!

There was a flash mob protest over the weekend at London's Heathrow airport. If anyone has photographic evidence of the multiple nude incidents, please send them to scanner@nerve.com.

And Terry Gilliam is putting the finishing touches on the final Heath Ledger movie, a job he finds incredibly difficult to push through.

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Michigan Backs Teen Pregnancy and the Spread of STDs with $1.4M Grant

Emily Farris — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:41:00 GMT

Michigan, Michigan, Michigan. What the hell is up? You went blue in the election (of course Missouri went red while electing a Democratic governor, so what does that really tell us?). You're pretty cool with Detroit and all. But what the fuck is up with the Michigan Department of Community Health giving out $1.4 million dollars in grants to fund abstinence-only education? Don't you have, like, homeless people to feed? Or school music programs to keep alive? Do you know how many condoms you could buy with that money? Oh, right. Silly us. Who needs condoms when you will be totally successful in keeping kids from having sex before marriage?

"The grant programs are directed at youth ages 12-18 and parents of youth in that age group. Of the money, $875,000 will go to community groups and organizations, while an additional $542,000 will fund technical staffing and an abstinence-only public awareness campaign. Michigan spends $700,000 a year on other sexual health education programs.

“The Michigan Abstinence Program is geared to promote abstinence from sexual activity and other related risky behaviors,” said MDCH Director Janet Olszewski in a press release. “This funding will further help our communities and the abstinence program guide our youth away from risky activity.”

The problem, activists say, is abstinence-only education doesn’t work. According to numerous studies, abstinence only, which is an education model that teaches young people to abstain from sexual behavior, but not how to prevent sexual transmitted infections or unwanted pregnancies, does not work."

Where have we heard that before?

Oh, when we learned that abstinence-only education doesn't work. Or, if you didn't hear, abstinence-only education doesn't work. Hey, did you hear the one about abstinence-only education and how it doesn't work?

We'll see you at Planned Parenthood, young ladies of Michigan!

[Michigan Messenger: Michigan gives out $1.4 million in abstinence-only education grants]

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Video of the Day: Have You Taken Your Virginity Pledge Yet?

Scanner Matt — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 22:15:00 GMT

A new study suggests the “virginity pledges” actually leads to more unprotected sex and teen pregnancy.

We found it amusing that wikipedia offers a history of the, “virginity pledge” along with a definition: “Virginity pledges (or abstinence pledges) are commitments made by teenagers and young adults to refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage. They are most common in the United States, especially among Evangelical Christian denominations.”

Sex expert, Laura Berman, sets the record straight on the Today Show

NYU Class Teaches You How To Have Sex

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Porn Star Lunch Lady Scares Parents

Scanner Matt — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:44:00 GMT

Louisa C. Tuck, formerly known as Crystal Gunns, has incensed a number of sanctimonious parents who are demanding she be fired from her current job as their elementary school’s part-time cafeteria worker and playground monitor due to her porn star past.

The Daily Journal reports that parents insist Tuck/Gunns be ousted from their Vineland, New Jersey elementary school after learning of her former career, but lawyers on both sides of the issue say there are no legal grounds to give her the pink slip due to the fact that she hasn't done anything illegal.

Tuck says she’s only making $5,772 a year and claims she quit the industry five years ago when she was twenty-seven. We are sure some of these self-righteous parents would rather not talk about the things they did in their twenties, so why not leave the poor woman alone and end the witch hunt?

We assume this may inspire an onslaught of humor-intended pun-ridden porn flick titles (Sloppy Second Joes?) or give new meaning to Adam Sandler’s goofy adolescent 90's anthem, “Lunch Lady Land.”

::Sigh:: we miss Chris Farley.

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Photo: Wikimedia

NYU Class Teaches You How To Have Sex

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:08:00 GMT

The male student sat back down in his chair after performing a sex act with a female volunteer from his class. Evan told one reporter, “I told her I’d call her. It was undoubtedly the best sex I have ever had.”

Psychosexual Analysis of Human Behavior, a class at New York University led by Professor Ronald J. Moglia, has been instructing people on how to have sex. (In our experience, NYU students have some learnin' to do in that regard.) While we thought most people would have learned how to, as one friend put it, "manuever the banana," some people obviously had more conservative sex education classes in high school than we did.

Students in this class learn how to blow a banana (allegedly) and how to, in this case, lube it up:

[Evan] Wattles and a female student were asked to come up for a demonstration with condoms; the girl was given the role of the “penis,” which she created by putting up two fingers. Evan was then instructed to create a “vagina” by forming an “O” shape with his fingers, which he then ran up and down the “penises” to simulate sex. Two separate condoms, one regular condom and another containing KY Jelly, were then placed on each finger of the “penis”. The female student then had to say which finger felt more sensation (the condom with the KY Jelly).
Together, they became a match made in hand-sex heaven. It was a moment where “their hands made love,” Evan said, and “lubricant dripped down her hand, and tears [of laughter] dripped down [his] cheeks”.

Poor Evan doesn't know that a) this is indeed the best sex he's ever had and ever will have and b) the experience of lube driping and tears rolling is similar to most evenings that involve alcohol and strangers in our apartment.

Okay, we're exaggerating, kid... don't let this scare you!

Via NYU Local.

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Today in WTF: Belgian Sex Ed PSA

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:42:00 GMT

This bizarre sex ed PSA, apparently the work of Belgium's wonderful people, reminds us of that fake J.C. Penney's ad that condoned, nay encouraged, promiscuous teen sex.

Whether it's real or not, it's either hilarious or hilariously bad... you decide...

Video of the Day: JC Penney Wants Your Kids to Have Sex?

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NPR Talks Sex With Sue Johanson

Nicole Pasulka — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:57:00 GMT

We have proclaimed our love for Canadian sexpert Sue Johanson long and loud, and in the wake of pregnant Bristol Palin and more evidence that abstinence education doesn't work NPR talks with Sue about what your daughter is doing, where she's doing it, and the only thing that frightens the sex-ed legend.

Some highlights from the interview below:

On the success of her drop-in confidential clinic in Canada: "When kid's need birth control, they need it TONIGHT!"

Abstinence ed doesn't work (ahem-Sarah Palin) because, "Your daughter is out in the back '40 doing it." We aren't sure what "the back forty" is but if you're looking for your kid--she's probably there...TONIGHT!

It's not all men who pressure for sex, "Some of those ladies are coming on like blockbusters"

Though it's true, you can't faze Sue, she is scared of one thing, and that thing, of course, is...anal sex.

How Getting High Can Get You AIDS

Steve McKay — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:37:00 GMT

We know what you’re thinking…but no…this is not some redneck posting on a church message board. This is an actual "information" pamphlet from the 90’s by the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information, which gets its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Apparently it is still being distributed!

It informs us that when you do drugs you get really stupid and might "get romantic" with someone. Then you could get AIDS, because when you do drugs like alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine you "just don’t care." Information pamphlets that talk cool to try to freak teens out are usually pretty funny, but this thing kills two birds with one stone in a way that is just plain confusing.

It tries to use AIDS to scare kids off both sex and drugs all at once, and ends up totally diluting all of the issues it "tackles." It doesn’t even really talk about contaminated needles, which is really the only firm straight line you can draw from consensual drug use to HIV.

The best part of the page is the comic, in which a hip urban teen with a flat-top, Fresh Prince shirt and shell-toes says, or (as the caps might suggest) screams, to his girlfriend "I DON’T DO DRUGS!" Her confusing response to him is "I’m not interested."…What? That doesn’t make any sense at all. Who proof-reads these things?

Today in WTF?!: Educated Women Can't Enjoy Sex

Emily Farris — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:36:00 GMT

We're taking this story with a grain of salt because we can't find the actual study to back it up, but we figured we'd share it with you anyway.

Apparently, educated women have a harder time enjoying sex.

In the study 62 per cent of women who had completed their education said they often had problems achieving orgasm.

Only 38 per cent of women with a lower educational qualification said they had such problems.

The study conducted by a German lifestyle website surveyed over 2,000 women between the ages of 18 and 49.

Can anyone direct us to this study, or one like it? Until then, we call bullshit. We say, the more you know the further you go.

[JoyOnline: Educated women can't enjoy sex—study]

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May I See Some Identification, Please?

Emily Farris — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:13:00 GMT

This 18-year-old girl is being charged with rape. No, it was not a slumber party gone bad. Let's just say she should have checked the guy's identification first, considering he was 13 and all.

Okay, should she really have checked his identification? Probably not. Should she be able to tell when a 13-year-old is lying about his age? Probably.

"He said that he was 16, going to be 17 in January, and two months later, come to find out, his mother called Jessica's mother and told her that he was only 13 going to be 14," said Kim Nickels, the family friend...

We're kind-of of the belief that if your parents are making calls on your behalf, you probably shouldn't be having sex. But maybe we're old fogeys. (Old fogeys without rape records!)

The victim, who was said to be a sixth-grader, met Lee while they were attending Broadmoor Technical School in Overland Park, Kan., last year. The facility is a school for trades and an alternative school for elementary to high school students.

All very sad, especially considering that "alternative schools" in that neck of the woods are generally for kids with serious learning or behavioral disorders, or both.

Part of us hopes she doesn't get more than a slap on the wrist, some community service and mandatory sex exuction, but we know that when the tables are turned young men often face serious jail time and fines. Or maybe she did know and she should spend some time in jail.

What would you do if you were a parent or a prosecutor involved this situation?

[KCTV5: Woman Accused Of Raping 13-Year-Old Boy]

Abstinence-Only Tip Of The Week: A cup of Bleach A Day Keeps The AIDS Away

Katie Halper — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:10:00 GMT

Thanks to abstinence-only education, teens in Florida now know that all you need is one cupful of bleach to treat your AIDS. See how it works after the jump.

Nothing washes away your sins and gives you that fresh, white, clean , T cell abundant feeling, quite like Clorox. How does it work? I wasn't sure. I mean, I always assumed that the "cleaner with bleach" description meant that everything, including sex, was "cleaner with bleach." So I investigated and found the following scoop on the Clorox website:

Go ahead and let your kids be kids because you can trust Clorox® Regular-Bleach to help get rid of those tough kid stains like dirt, grass, and f~~ood messes~~ AIDS better than detergent alone or condoms.

You may remember when Scanner Emily broke the abstinence-only doesn't work story right here, on this very blog!

Church of England Sex Manual to Help the Pathetic and Hopeless Get Laid

Nicole Pasulka — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:52:00 GMT

According to The Sun, officials of the Church of England have written a "good sex guide" for their parishioners. The guide, titled Growing Together, explains that:

“Sex, far from being naughty, is something holy and wonderful and something to be celebrated. Like any other skill, it has to be learned. . . be each other’s teacher.”

And what specific skills do Church of England parishioners need learn exactly?

According to one of the guide's scenarios:

“Kevin and Mandy had been married 18 months and worried that they had not conceived a child. It turned out they had never had full intercourse.”

Right. Thanks to the Church for reminding people old enough to be married that pregnancy happens from penis-in-vagina. Although, we feel obligated to suggest that anyone who doesn't know that probably shouldn't be reproducing in the first place. Maybe the Church should stick to praying and trust the Internet with all that pesky sex education.

Grab the Camera: Sex Ed Video Contest Deadline Extended to January 7

Emily Farris — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:22:00 GMT

We're going to share a little secret: blogging does not make one rich. In fact, we could be considered poor in some circles. We owe lots of people lots of money and ignore a few calls from 1-800-numbers a few times a day. We're not complaining; we love our jobs here at Scanner. But sometimes we need a little extra cash, and this sex education video contest seems like the right road to a new MacBook. With all the knowledge and dildos we have, combined with our complete lack of shame, we feel we're more than qualified to tell these kids what's up in the Fresh Focus: Sex Ed Digital Video Contest. All we need is a camera person and a lovely assistant.