Schoolkids to Be Asked to Consider Oral Sex
Fri Feb 21,11:00 AM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Matthew Jones
LONDON (Reuters) - British school children are to be controversially asked to consider oral sex instead of intercourse as part of a drive to cut the country's high teenage pregnancy rate.
Sex education teachers are being trained to discuss with youngsters various "stopping points" on the road to full sex in a bid to reduce the number of teen pregnancies, the government said on Friday.
The idea is to encourage pupils to discover "levels of intimacy," including oral sex, which stop short of full sexual intercourse.
But the plan has been criticized as unworkable by family groups.
"The courses for teachers are to enable them to discuss various sex and relationship issues with pupils. One of those issues is oral sex," said a Department of Health spokeswoman.
"Oral sex is one of the 'stopping points' on the road to intercourse," she said, denying the advice was encouraging sexual activity.
"Another 'stopping point' is to hold hands," she added.
Family groups argue that oral sex is likely to lead to penetrative sex.
"One thing leads to another," said Robert Whelan, director of the Family Education Trust. "It is hard enough for adults to hold back and is even more difficult for teenagers with their raging hormones."
One teacher, who recently attended one of the courses, told the Times newspaper the advice could be construed as a green light to teens.
"By following this course, I feel that teachers are implicitly supporting underage sexual activity," said Lynda Brine.
Whelan also said oral sex was no protection against most sexually transmitted diseases.
"Delaying the onset of teenage sexual activity is the only way to cut teenage pregnancy," he told Reuters.
With nearly 39,000 girls under 18 conceiving each year, Britain has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Western Europe. The government wants to halve it by 2010.
In line with that aim, students have already been offered condoms, oral contraceptives and easier access to counselors in schools.
The Department of Education said on Friday sex education was determined by individual schools.
"We give guidelines but we don't dictate what material is used," a spokeswoman said. "We trust head teachers and teachers to make sensible decisions about sex education."
WHat I want to know is what age is "schoolkids"? Are they going and saying this to 11 year olds? They shoudl also promote vibrators and merkins.
― Mike Hanle y (mike), Friday, 21 February 2003 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)
Clearly, they should demand that all school kids have sex with each other twice a day before they're allowed to play Nintendo or Britney S. records, or whatever. This would incite widespread rebellion, they kids wouldn't do it, massive decline in pregnancy rates.
...well it works on Gilligan's Island. Uh, oh, maybe it doesn't work for Gilligan either...
― Skottie, Saturday, 22 February 2003 08:15 (twenty-two years ago)
Dear Andrew:
Cecil doesn't have the most reputable sources for this kind of thing. In fact, I blush to admit, I have been fishing for tips once
again on the Internet. I do not want to give the impression I spend all my time on the Internet, but in the right hands it is a
wondrous tool, and in the wrong hands it is an even better one. Here's what's turned up so far:
A merkin is somebody who lives in Merika. (Har!)
They used to shave off all the pubic hair as a cure for syphillis, so the well-to-do used wigs.
Before penicillin was around to ease the lives of the promiscuous, these were used to cover up any sores prostitutes may have obtained in the line of duty.
They used to treat the syphilitic with mercury, which caused baldness.
The merkin is for women with no pubic hair. Some people just don't develop hair down there, and this can be embarrassing.
In days of old a common problem was lice. One of the ways people dealt with this was to shave all the hair off their bodies, including arms, legs, and pubes. Wigs became very popular. Pubic wigs caught on slowly, starting among the kinkier set, but eventually became halfway respectable.
A merkin is a crotch wig for both men and women and is usually worn on the outside. Have you ever seen a Scot in full regalia? That little fur "purse" in front is a merkin.
In a country of mainly dark haired people, a prostitute may wear a blond merkin to be unusual and therefore more desirable. (Got this from a dictionary of sex.)
One of the more recent uses is to allow exotic dancers to comply with local laws prohibiting full nudity. They wear what amounts to a flesh-colored panty with hair on the front, appearing to the patrons of the establishment to disrobe completely without actually doing so.
In a sci fi story by John Varley called something like "The Barbie Murders," a group of women gives up individuality (and sex) and undergoes surgery to become perfect nonsexual beings resembling Barbie dolls. This involves losing genitals, pubic hair, etc. One Barbie goes back to being a woman for a night, painting on nipples and using a merkin.
Fascinating, ja? Erudite answers from around the globe, and not one of them duplicates another. Also, one is still left with a nagging question: who's a merkin supposed to fool? By the time you get to the level of intimacy where somebody is going to see whether you have pubic hair or not, your range of observation, as we might say, is such that a wig is not going to make for a very convincing masquerade, strippers possibly excepted. VOICE FROM THE NET: Yeah, but during the period when merkins were popular, the degree of intimacy among the upper class was low even during sex. ME: What's that supposed to mean, you had your valet do it for you? You sent it in by mail? Clearly more investigation needs to be done.
― Mike Hanle y (mike), Monday, 24 February 2003 03:53 (twenty-two years ago)
one year passes...
three weeks pass...