Sometimes, no matter how good an organization’s intentions are, they still get it horribly wrong.
The Candies Foundation is trudging along at full speed in their efforts to prevent teen pregnancy with their Teen Ambassador (and teenage mom) Bristol Palin, and other celebrities such as Hayden Pannetiere (who dated someone in their 30s when she was barely 18) to get teens to be sexy, but to not have sex.
Yes you read that right.
One of Candie’s tips for teens is to “Be Sexy: It Doesn't Mean You Have to Have Sex”.
Why, there’s even a T-shirt you can get that says, “I’m sexy enough to keep you waiting.”
What the fuck does that even mean? Waiting is sexy? Does being “sexy” and keeping someone waiting mean oral sex is OK? Or is that a no-no?
The Candie’s Foundation Website states that:
“The mission of The Candie’s Foundation is to educate America’s youth about the devastating consequences of teen pregnancy through celebrity PSA campaigns and initiatives.”
Devastating consequences... you know, like a baby? DEVASTATING.
Seriously, we know that a “devastating consequence” of teenage pregnancy is dealing with something that you’re not meant to deal with at 14 or 16. Dropping out of school to take care of your newborn is devastating.
Being forced to play the game of adults when you’re a teen is devastating. But isn’t “being sexy” another form of adulthood that when taken on by teens has some “devastating consequences” as well?
Surely Candies is missing the point here.
A lot of the problems in American society and culture seem to be based on giving teens and children very strict limits. It’s all either yes or no, rather than gradually settling them into something. You hold them back, and then release them into the wild, without any training or proper experience. Their only knowledge is theories they've learned in school and what they’ve seen on TV.
How many teenagers suffer from alcohol poisoning or make stupid, horrible mistakes involving alcohol because they snook out and got drunk with their friends? How many kids in college, when they turn 21, go absolutely apeshit because - hey! - they can finally drink, and then they end up fucking up their scholarships and grade point averages because they were too busy partying?
Likewise, how many horny-ass teenagers end up having unprotected sex because they were too turned-on to “be sexy yet abstain" and because “sex is bad” and “waiting is good” they didn’t have a condom on them, so they just had unprotected sex instead?
How many “devastating consequences” such as AIDS, HPV, herpes and Chlamydia, as well as teen pregnancies could be prevented if we stopped treating teenagers having sex as the a problem and started treating teens having unprotected sex as the obstacle we need to overcome?
Teenagers have sex!
While I don’t necessarily think 14-year-olds have the emotional (and sometimes physical) maturity to start sexual relationships with anyone - what if we stopped treating teens having sex as taboo (and teens who wait as being “sexy”)? Maybe, just maybe sex would no longer be such an OMG big thing.
Maybe parents could actually talk to their kids about sex properly and teens would no longer act like idiots and be too scared and lazy to buy condoms. Young girls would no longer be too scared to ask their parents to go and get the Pill.
Maybe we’d no longer have these “devastating consequences”.
But sure. Go on and sell your stupid “I’m sexy enough to keep you waiting” T-shirts instead of “I’m sexy enough to use protection” branded condoms.
You know, because T-shirts are the way forward in the “fight” against teen pregnancy.