The first national study of four common sexually transmitted diseases (STD) among girls and young women has found that one in four are infected with at least one of the diseases. The New York Times goes on to state that the number is closer to 50 percent of Black girls aged 14 to 19 years who have at least one of the diseases monitored in the study - human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, genital herpes, and trichomoniasis, a common parasite.The two most common STDs among all study participants were HPV and chlamydia. Most of the girls would show very few symptoms of any of the diseases which increases the likelihood of continued transmission.
There are treatments for all of the diseases and the disease agency recommends the HPV vaccination for all women ages 11 to 26. The use of latex condoms is highly effective at preventing infection by chlamydia, trichomoniasis, HIV, gonorrhea, and hepatitis B. Condoms are less effective against genital herpes, syphilis, and HPV.
Read the entire New York Times article here.
plez sez: this was a very disturbing article in light of the fact that i have a young daughter. it appears that our society has become more permissive of the sexualization of our children at younger and younger ages. my daughter is only six years old, so imagine the shock when she came home from school one day and said that another little girl in her class said that my daughter was gay! we had her look up the word "gay" in her children's dictionary... one crisis averted, but how long will we be able to beat back the constant barrage of sexual content that is directed at children at such a young age? how can we protect her innocence until she makes it to her teenage years?
this feeds directly into my revulsion at hearing so many girls (and yes, teenagers are girls) are infected with sexually transmitted diseases! there has to be an equal number of boys (yes, teenagers are boys) who are infected, as well. some would say that i was a late bloomer, sexually, but even when i got started (in college), i always had condoms or made sure that my girlfriend was on "the pill". and back then, i only "messed" around with women who had the potential to eventually become my wife.
and it is no surprise that the Black community carries the biggest share of the infection rate (50 percent)! with single parent households in the Black community hovering around 70 percent, little boys and little girls are doubtlessly witnessing their mothers with a number of male sexual partners without the benefit of marriage or commitment... it is quite likely that each sibling can have a different faceless father! it is no wonder that they have carte blanche to practice unsafe sexual behaviors with numerous partners without any thought to commitment or monogamy. little boys see these men come and go as they please, using their mothers as little more than sexual hookups. little girls model their behavior on the transient and seemingly slut-like actions of their mothers. i grew up with a loving respect for Black women, because my father always provided for our family and always respected my mother!
i contend that we are watching (yes... the Revolution is being televised) the unraveling of our moral and social fabric. we can no longer tell our little girls that it is shameful to be sexually active with little boys... i guess there's a coolness factor in being a whore (well, that's what we called girls who screwed around when i was a child). and even though it was every boys dream to "get some", it was the morals of my society that said that it was wrong to "knock up" a girl or for a girl to get "knocked up". remember how outraged we were the Genarlow Wilson had gone to jail for having sex with a 15 year old girl? remember that Genarlow Wilson was one of four boys who had had sex with this girl on the same night. remember the outrage at him receiving a ten year sentence for having consensual sex with a 15 year old? as if a 15 year old girl can consent to having sex (oral and vaginal) with four teenage boys! i would bet that at least four of those participants have an STD.
the sad truth is that "abstinence education" will not work in a society that glorifies the sexualization of its children. britney spears's pregnant 16-year old sister (Jamie Lynn) had a show on the Disney channel... they're not making new shows, but "Zoey 101" has plenty of re-runs... imagine the horror of catching my daughter seeing that! when we go to the grocery store, they have "Zoey" on the cover of all of the checkout lane mags talking about her pregnancy. the most popular song of the summer was by some geeky looking teenager, rapping about "superman dat ho'"... i don't allow my daughter to do the superman dance nor listen to that insipid song! and the list goes on and on...
it is time for the entertainment industry to own up to the fact that whether they like it or not, they set the tenor of the norms in our society (would we be as repulsed today by the scene in "Peyton Place" when the audience finds out that Selena killed her stepfather because he was raping her? i think not!). let's have more "Hanna Montana" and less "Madonna"!
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6 comments:
I'm glad you're addressing this important topic plez, cause there's nothing more important than protecting the lives and health our young people. I've got two teenage daughters, too.
On a different topic, if you're sick and tired of Billary & Co., and their demeaning attitude toward Obama and all Blacks, then sign the "Concede Now, Hillary!" petition and blog about this on the "Day of Blogging for Voter Justice", on Tuesday, March 25.
Also, please consider putting a powerful "Concede Now, Hillary!" widget on your blog, to direct people to the "Concede Now, Hillary!" petition.
This is the campaign being organized by the Afrosphere Action Committee that produced the Jena March. We need your participation, to show that Blacks are not going to take this lying down.
If you want to protect your daughter, first thing is to stop letting her watch television (what is she supposed to learn from "The Bachelor" or "Desperate Housewives" and don't let her listen to Hip-Hop (guns, drugs and Ho's don't make for good self esteem).
As a side to the issue of single women having multiple sexual partners and therefore multiple fathers for their children, I see this on a regular basis where I work (child welfare at the State level). This isn't an ethnic issue. It tends to be a drug addiction issue. When you are a doper, you worry more about your next fix not your birth control and besides, "John's" don't like condoms.
Having the entertainment industry police itself is like negotiating with the fox to eat less chickens. It is a fox dam it, it is going to kill your chickens. Morality can't be legislated. They will stop making demeaning and offense material when there is no longer a profit in it. That will only happen over time (and not in my lifetime), or it will happen with the election of the next Hitler or Mussolini. I am not real hopeful for the future.
Lets not forget what will happen when your daughter enters puberty. You want your values to have an impact, then you have to talk about your values. It can be straight talk or parables, but there must be some talk, then more talk. Not every one of those one in four are in fatherless homes or even homes without limits. I think that is what is so often wrong, is that we always think its the lowest among us that will fall and that ones child will not be among them.
When you mean sex, don't beat around the bush, say the words, so there is no ambiguity.
francis, lotus, and hathor,
i appreciate your thoughtful responses to my post... thank you.
What about thirty year olds? Do they have less STD's, not that I'm looking. LOL
"i only "messed" around with women who had the potential to eventually become my wife." - are U SERIOUS? But then again - i didn't realize until I'd gotten in my mid-30's that most of the clowns I would've been willing to marry were just that: CLOWNS!
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