Condoms on Bananas or Self Worth?

Let’s teach 12-year-olds to put condoms on bananas! Whoopi said.

And, while I was expecting Elizabeth’s head to explode in a impulse of maternal Republican furry, I was pleasantly surprised by Sherri Shephard’s screeching halt to such talk.

I am forever surprised by my own maternal response to political issues I previously believed I held. Human Biology, including the reproductive system, education is one of those areas.

Now that I’m sending my kid off to the public school system and have lost some control over what goes into her little impressionable brain I realize I would be upset if the schools were being that explicit.

Even when I right about girls’ empowerment and encourage you to write your representatives to encourage human reproductive education to empower girls, I’m not sure we should be quite so flippant about adolescent sexuality.

For one thing, as we explore the issue on So Sioux Me, girls aren’t being given healthy information about sex. According to an extensive report by the American Psychological Association (APA) girls are sexualized to the point of becoming objects, even objectifying themselves, and therefore don’t even have the self worth to understand or responsibly act upon their sexuality. This type of education, as in the Real Act, I wrote about Tuesday, the APA believes, may reverse the effects of sexualization of girls.

I found myself thinking, thank you Sherri. Through the conversation Whoopi and Joy – whose daughters are already adults – strike me as flippant about the issue. Elizabeth strikes me as oblivious to the reality of being a teenager or a girl in today’s culture.

Sherri alone spoke the voice of reason Why don’t we do some work and tell our girls you don’t give men bleep. Love your self and get some self worth.

The APA recommends sexual education that encourages sexual responsibility that includes respect and responsibility for ones’ self with an emphasis on consentual, non-exploitive activity. Comprehensive education about sexuality, the APA’s evidence suggests, effectively combats the sexualization of girls with accurate information.