“Abstinence Only:” America’s Insanity over Sex
When Paris Hilton, controversial heiress to the Hilton hotel chain, announced publicly two years ago her intention to reclaim her virginity for her future husband by undergoing hymen surgery,* the tabloids were surprised at the conservative shift taken by the young woman who was made famous on the Internet by a sex tape. The story does not say whether or not the starlet underwent the surgery, but these reports highlighted the importance, at least for part of American society, of saving sex for marriage.
This culture of abstinence is subsidized by the federal government and has been taught in public school 20 years running, particularly under the two presidential terms of George W. Bush. As governor of Texas, he spent at least $10 million in 1995 on the state's "abstinence-only" sex education program, designed to teach young Americans that the best way to protect themselves from the dangers of sex — STDs and teenage pregnancy — is to remain a virgin as long as possible if they cannot wait until marriage. This program is not accompanied by information on contraception.
Still today, the Republicans follow this course of action. The Texan delegates met in June to agree on their program for 2012, particularly in education. In the chapter "Sex Education," it reads, "We oppose any sex education other than abstinence until marriage."
Silence Contraception at Any Price
Since 2006, the same law stipulates that programs promoting sexual abstinence receiving federal money must not promote contraception, or even present abstinence as a form of contraception.
However, as the American think tank Think Progress shows, numerous studies have, to the contrary, shown that abstinence programs have failed to prevent early pregnancy among U.S. adolescents. For example, in 2010, Mississippi, whose public sex education program is abstinence-only, had the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in the county (55 per 1,000 teens).
In 2007, a federal report from Mathematica Policy Research presented the conclusion of its study on the results of abstinence programs in these terms: they "have no impact on rates of sexual abstinence."
Moreover, the average age of first intercourse is, in the U.S. and Europe, around 17. But while young Americans are partaking in the same amount of sexual activity as their European counterparts, a 2008 study shows that the latter are much more likely to use effective contraceptive methods. Consequently, the rate of teenage pregnancy is 10 times higher in US than in France.
A Total Psychosis Around Sex
The pro-abstinence movement grew in the United States during the late 1970s, driven by conservative Christians wishing to influence the content of sex education provided to American children, says Claire Greslé-Favier, Ph.D. candidate in American studies, in her article "Abstinence only? A Federal Policy Between the Years 1990 and 2000."
"In the early 1980s, there was a complete backlash. As a result denunciation of growing sexual abuse by feminists, the media coverage of AIDS and large cases of pedophilia, a total psychosis developed around sex," says the researcher. "The association between children and sex generates anxiety."**
In textbooks distributed in class, the model presented to children is of a society marked according to very strict codes. According to the eight points established during the reform of the Welfare System of 1996 (p. 250 of PDF), you must include teaching children "a faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the norm under which the condition of sexual activity can take place" and "that sexual activity outside of marriage is highly likely to cause harmful psychological and physical effects."
"In these books, the discourse is very sexist: The boys want to become firefighters who will protect the girls. In the Christian conservative discourse, men are passive beings subject to their passions. The women do not truly have desire, so it's up to them to be the guarantors of abstinence," said Claire Greslé-Favier.**
In a post entitled , Deborah M. Roffman,
Yet, "despite what the majority of Americans believe, the Puritans were not 'anti-sex' or sexually 'repressed,'" she says. "In fact, they had a very healthy respect for sexuality. (...) But what they disapproved was the public discourse on sexuality."
And even today, when she appeared in class, the word "sex" on the banner announcing her sex education classes was replaced by a post-it containing three dots...
Tense on the Issue of Abortion
If the policy of abstinence for the last 20 years was taken from the Puritans, then sexual moralism is not so much a question of political affiliation as a result of religious beliefs. In a study published in 2005 in the journal “Sexologies,” researchers Eric D. Widmer and Judith Treas have shown that "because of the importance they attribute to religion, North Americans are on average more conservative in matters of sexual morality than most Europeans are."**
However, the two researchers are careful to emphasize that there is a "very significant proportion of Americans who do not adhere to standards of moral conservatism" and that there is "a heterogeneity of moral attitudes in the U.S."
"The fact remains that there is what some would call an active minority of conservative moral perspective, transcending distinctions of class and ethnicity, strongly religious, associated with Christian conservatism and, more precisely, the Protestant religion. This minority has without a doubt until now compensated for their inferior numbers by their homogeneity and simplicity of their message," they conclude.**
For Claire Greslé-Favier, the main consequence of this speech is a conservative moral tension over the issue of abortion.
"In the 1980s, the topic of abortion was easily dealt with in public, but today, it becomes very difficult to talk about abortion. Girls prefer to carry their pregnancy to term, even if it means abandoning the child," she says.
While Barack Obama has made budget cuts to the abstinence-only education program since becoming president in 2009, RH Reality Check, an organization defending sexual rights, recently accused the Obama administration of tacitly approving the legacy of this ideology. For the organization, the administration has "succumbed to the political pressure of social conservatives and allowed the ideology of the right to prevail over the health and well-being of the nation’s youth." This is a political issue far from insignificant in an election campaign.
*Editor’s note: could not find a single English language article about this.
**This quote, while accurately translated, could not be verified.
This culture of abstinence is subsidized by the federal government and has been taught in public school 20 years running, particularly under the two presidential terms of George W. Bush. As governor of Texas, he spent at least $10 million in 1995 on the state's "abstinence-only" sex education program, designed to teach young Americans that the best way to protect themselves from the dangers of sex — STDs and teenage pregnancy — is to remain a virgin as long as possible if they cannot wait until marriage. This program is not accompanied by information on contraception.
Still today, the Republicans follow this course of action. The Texan delegates met in June to agree on their program for 2012, particularly in education. In the chapter "Sex Education," it reads, "We oppose any sex education other than abstinence until marriage."
Silence Contraception at Any Price
Since 2006, the same law stipulates that programs promoting sexual abstinence receiving federal money must not promote contraception, or even present abstinence as a form of contraception.
However, as the American think tank Think Progress shows, numerous studies have, to the contrary, shown that abstinence programs have failed to prevent early pregnancy among U.S. adolescents. For example, in 2010, Mississippi, whose public sex education program is abstinence-only, had the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in the county (55 per 1,000 teens).
In 2007, a federal report from Mathematica Policy Research presented the conclusion of its study on the results of abstinence programs in these terms: they "have no impact on rates of sexual abstinence."
Moreover, the average age of first intercourse is, in the U.S. and Europe, around 17. But while young Americans are partaking in the same amount of sexual activity as their European counterparts, a 2008 study shows that the latter are much more likely to use effective contraceptive methods. Consequently, the rate of teenage pregnancy is 10 times higher in US than in France.
A Total Psychosis Around Sex
The pro-abstinence movement grew in the United States during the late 1970s, driven by conservative Christians wishing to influence the content of sex education provided to American children, says Claire Greslé-Favier, Ph.D. candidate in American studies, in her article "Abstinence only? A Federal Policy Between the Years 1990 and 2000."
"In the early 1980s, there was a complete backlash. As a result denunciation of growing sexual abuse by feminists, the media coverage of AIDS and large cases of pedophilia, a total psychosis developed around sex," says the researcher. "The association between children and sex generates anxiety."**
In textbooks distributed in class, the model presented to children is of a society marked according to very strict codes. According to the eight points established during the reform of the Welfare System of 1996 (p. 250 of PDF), you must include teaching children "a faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the norm under which the condition of sexual activity can take place" and "that sexual activity outside of marriage is highly likely to cause harmful psychological and physical effects."
"In these books, the discourse is very sexist: The boys want to become firefighters who will protect the girls. In the Christian conservative discourse, men are passive beings subject to their passions. The women do not truly have desire, so it's up to them to be the guarantors of abstinence," said Claire Greslé-Favier.**
In a post entitled , Deborah M. Roffman,
Yet, "despite what the majority of Americans believe, the Puritans were not 'anti-sex' or sexually 'repressed,'" she says. "In fact, they had a very healthy respect for sexuality. (...) But what they disapproved was the public discourse on sexuality."
And even today, when she appeared in class, the word "sex" on the banner announcing her sex education classes was replaced by a post-it containing three dots...
Tense on the Issue of Abortion
If the policy of abstinence for the last 20 years was taken from the Puritans, then sexual moralism is not so much a question of political affiliation as a result of religious beliefs. In a study published in 2005 in the journal “Sexologies,” researchers Eric D. Widmer and Judith Treas have shown that "because of the importance they attribute to religion, North Americans are on average more conservative in matters of sexual morality than most Europeans are."**
However, the two researchers are careful to emphasize that there is a "very significant proportion of Americans who do not adhere to standards of moral conservatism" and that there is "a heterogeneity of moral attitudes in the U.S."
"The fact remains that there is what some would call an active minority of conservative moral perspective, transcending distinctions of class and ethnicity, strongly religious, associated with Christian conservatism and, more precisely, the Protestant religion. This minority has without a doubt until now compensated for their inferior numbers by their homogeneity and simplicity of their message," they conclude.**
For Claire Greslé-Favier, the main consequence of this speech is a conservative moral tension over the issue of abortion.
"In the 1980s, the topic of abortion was easily dealt with in public, but today, it becomes very difficult to talk about abortion. Girls prefer to carry their pregnancy to term, even if it means abandoning the child," she says.
While Barack Obama has made budget cuts to the abstinence-only education program since becoming president in 2009, RH Reality Check, an organization defending sexual rights, recently accused the Obama administration of tacitly approving the legacy of this ideology. For the organization, the administration has "succumbed to the political pressure of social conservatives and allowed the ideology of the right to prevail over the health and well-being of the nation’s youth." This is a political issue far from insignificant in an election campaign.
*Editor’s note: could not find a single English language article about this.
**This quote, while accurately translated, could not be verified.
Next article![]( "Obama Is a Historical Figure for Americans, Not Us")
