Posts Tagged ‘sex education’
Teens should learn about sex from uninformed peers, not MTV.
A Huntington Beach mom was upset by MTV producers soliciting her daughter to apply to be on “Sex … with Mom and Dad,” the show in which Dr. Drew Pinsky is supposed to help parents and teens feel (more? barely? somewhat?) comfortable talking to each other about … well, you know.
Julie Norton told the Orange County Register the Huntington Beach Pier is unsafe for families and the fact that MTV producers wanted to discuss her daughter’s sex life with the teen “sickens” her. Norton plans to ask city officials to stop MTV from distributing fliers and surveying teens. Officials have already told the newspaper they cannot regulate producers’ fliers because the pier is a public forum.
Show me a mom who gets hostile toward benign, voluntary surveys, and I’ll show you a mom who has never talked to her teenage daughter about sex. (Hint: it’s the same crazy woman.) It’s not as if her daughter could have brought her on the show without her knowledge.
It’s hard to believe how closeted, restricted and regulated sexuality is in America when it’s obviously an issue in several ways: teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and rape and sexual assault, to name a few. Case in point: the top-grossing NC-17 film of all time, “Showgirls,” earned less than 4 percent of what “The Dark Knight” did at the American box office. (I’m not saying the two are anywere near each other in regards to quality, but it’s a poignant compairson of a highly sexual film to a highly violent one.)
I don’t believe Norton would have been as upset by MTV’s producers if she had an open dialogue with her daughter about sexual issues. The fact that she takes the producers’ soliciting of 16- to 19-year-olds – I’m guessing they estimate by sight and aren’t out there checking IDs before handing out applications – as an affront to families’ safety says a lot about what’s going on in her own.
MTV has its share of awful, exploitative shows: “My Super Sweet 16,” “From G’s to Gents,” “Paris Hilton’s New BFF,” “A Shot at Love,” “A Shot at Love 2,” “NEXT,” “The Hills,” “The X Effect” … basically the majority of its “reality” shows. And although “Sex … with Mom and Dad” isn’t completely free from the overtones of MTV exploitation – rowdy, sexually out-of-control teens ready to air their dirty (literally) laundry with mom and dad – it at least took a stab at helping its subjects, too.
Maybe the teens and parents don’t need to engage in tell-all sessions like this mother and son who took each other on a walking tour of the location of a memorable sexual experience, but communication about sex has to start somewhere. Abstinence-only sex education isn’t helping kids, if they’re getting sex education in school at all.
Parents have to step in – even if it’s uncomfortable – and be their kids’ most accessible authority on sexual health issues, such when sex is appropriate, preventing STDs and pregnancy, and the repercussions of irresponsible sexuality. They don’t have to teach them new moves or compare notes with the latest issue of Cosmo, but teens shouldn’t have to drag their parents onto a TV show to get the conversation started.
