Ruth Hubbard discusses her opinion on modern sexuality. She feels that "a more open and accepting approach to sexuality would make life easier for children and adolescents." She feels we should encourage our children to express themselves sexually. She thinks that this will allow people to explore their sexual possibilities and understand how they feel about their sexuality. While I agree that this could make everything seem less stressful for adolescents I feel there are problems with this method. As Leah has stated, I agree that this could be similar to the use of alcohol as in other countries. They do not make as big a deal out of alcohol and therefore adolescents become used to alcohol and do not make it such a big deal.
I feel that more information should definitely be given to adolescents about sexuality. Although, I feel that encouraging exploration early is not the correct way to go about this. Hubbard herself states that "teen pregnancies and abortions are on the rise and teenage fathers do not acknowledge and support their partners and babies." I think encouraging more exploration would only add to this problem. And she also states that teenagers do not act responsibly and do not always use contraception. So how would encouraging more exploration solve that? I do agree that being more open about sexuality and providing clearer information earlier in people's lives would be advantageous for everyone.
You make a lot of good observations here. Keep in mind that Hubbard is being intentionally provocative in her prose to really shake up her audience and to get them to think about sexuality from a different point of view. In regard to yours concerns, there are many debates going on at present in regards to the best methods of sex education in American schools. I think that what Hubbard is getting at is that part and parcel of encouraging exploration is also teaching young people to have safe sex. Also, your observations assume that all young people are heterosexual, as gay and lesbians would not have the same concerns over issues of teen pregnancy.
ReplyDeleteAhhh, right, I did not cover that point at all in my post. Although STI's are always a large concern and they would still affect gays and lesbians.
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