Well, a CDC study vai reason.com comes along with this tidbit...
... teen pregnancy and abortion rates are both at historic lows. The pregnancy rate for teenagers fell 40 percent during the 1990–2005 period, to 70.6 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15–19 years. This rate was the lowest reported since 1976.More good news from the same source:
The overall decline for teenagers is reflected in significant declines in rates for live births and induced abortions, with much steeper declines for abortions (down 53 percent) compared with live births (down 32 percent). The pregnancy rate declined much more rapidly from 1990 to 2005 for younger teenagers 15–17 years (48 percent) than for older teenagers 18–19 years (30 percent). Pregnancy rates declined by 47–49 percent each for black and white non-Hispanic teenagers and by 23 percent for Hispanic teenagers.You might expect a hypersexualized culture of elder ignoring, morality evading, rude ignoramouses slouching toward idleness to get pregnant, and then to abort it. So, hyper sexualized culture or not, that isn't happening. That means either A) the hypersexualized culture is pretty smart (about pregnancy and sex, anyway) or B) maybe the 'hyper' in sypersexualized is either overrated or overplayed.
Just remember when ever an elder tries to tell you how life is going to hell in handbasket (or any time you might think some such) that "the good days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems."
I'd go with A, if only because using protection is taught in schools on a wider basis than it once was, which would offset any supa-sexin' that was happening. However, the fact that it drops probably just shows that the amount of sex happening is the same, but now people use protection.
ReplyDeleteI guess its possible that condoms and The Pill are at the heart of the drop.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think I fall somewhere in an unmentioned C (it was a trick question!) incorporating the A parts you bring up and B. The culture is different, and yes, maybe more sexualized, but that "different" doesn't automatically mean "wrong." I think some of the "hyper"sexualized culture is just women being more open and comfortable with themselves and empowered.
Frankly, today's youth culture is hypersexualized today's ruling culture, but I'm guessing today's ruling culture was "over" sexualized as youths in the eyes of that day's ruling culture; if that makes sense.
Until those worrying about the "hyper"sexualized culture of today start advocating for Elizabethian-era dress, I'm going to assume this is reactionary rather than well founded.