Kat and I
… well, let’s just say we didn’t get along.
As my ranking list of roommates from Hell goes, Kat wasn’t the
worst, but she was the most belligerent. We were stuck rooming
together in college for one very, very long semester, sharing a set
of bunk beds with my friend, Tiffany.
Kat and I … well, let’s just say we didn’t get along.
As my ranking list of roommates from Hell goes, Kat wasn’t the worst, but she was the most belligerent. We were stuck rooming together in college for one very, very long semester, sharing a set of bunk beds with my friend, Tiffany.
One night, we got into a discussion, and this is what I found: oral sex, Kat maintained, wasn’t really sex. To hear her tell it, it was simply an elevated form of making out – harmless, fun and safe to do with pretty much anyone. In keeping with common sense, I maintained that, yes, it really was sex, but both of us being the mature young adults that we were, these arguments were soon lost in a chorus of “is not’s” and “is too’s.”
I walked away from that discussion figuring that I was obviously right, and that any sane person would see my point of view, but were you to poll kids in the United States today, many of them would say I was wrong.
Instead, today’s teens are splitting the definition of sex with Bill Clinton-esque precision, maintaining that only vaginal sex really counts. But many of them have no idea of the risks they’re taking in pursuing oral and anal sex, including the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases such as genital warts, herpes and HIV.
In a federal study released Sept. 15, scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that about 12 percent of boys and 10 percent of girls ages 15 to 19 have engaged solely in oral sex with a member of the opposite sex, but by ages 22 to 24, just 3 percent of the population sticks to oral intercourse. This, according to study authors, could signal that American teens are using oral sex to delay vaginal sex, likely out of fear of STDs and pregnancy.
The study, based on research collected from more than 12,000 participants in 2002, is part of the new report, “Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures: Men and Women 15-44 Years of Age, United States, 2002.” It’s groundbreaking, according to lead author Bill Mosher, because it’s the first time CDC researchers have been able to collect data on the use of oral sex by teens, specifically teen girls.
One interesting finding: oral sex substitution is more likely to occur among white teens than their Black or Hispanic peers. It could be a reason for the statistically later age of first sex by whites, Mosher said, but the study’s findings aren’t that surprising in the medical and research community.
Since the inception of his presidency, George Bush has backed a line of abstinence-only sexual education that teaches school children the only safe sex is sex within the marital setting. This line of thought, divergent from the “safe sex” message of the 1990s, only allows teachers to talk about the failure rates of contraception devices such as condoms, and does not allow them to teach proper or effective use of them. Churches back the new style, with many of them supporting programs that focus on procuring abstinence pledges from teens, but it’s a recipe for disaster, according to experts like James Allen, president and CEO of the American Social Health Association.
Allen’s organization estimated the direct medical costs for the 9.1 million new cases of STDs reported by Americans ages 15 to 24 in 2000 at $6.5 million, and comprehensive sexual health information, he maintains, is the only way to bring those costs down. He may be on to something.
While abstinence pledgers take a vow not to have sex until their wedding day, and generally have far fewer sex partners than other teens, they’re just as likely to have an STD, according to a report by Yale and Columbia University researchers in the March issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. That’s because, while the pledges delay sexual activity, usually by a period of about 18 months, 88 percent of pledgers break their vows, and many of them engage in higher-risk sex than their non-pledging peers.
Teens are making substitutions to gratify their sexual desires, but they’re still putting themselves at risk, according to Hannah Brueckner, a study author and assistant professor of sociology at Yale University.
Among vaginal “virgins,” boys who pledged abstinence were four times more likely to have had anal sex, and pledgers of both sexes were six times more likely to have had oral sex, according t the study. These teens were also less likely to use condoms or get tested for STD’s, according to study authors.
The message here: talk to your kids about sex in all its forms, and about what they can do to protect themselves. If you don’t, you can’t guarantee anyone will.
