More important than shopping

[smokingboot]

http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/news/0,8363,1587041,00.html

I am indebted to larians for bringing the above to my attention.



Now you girls, be good, and don't go having sex of your own accord or before marriage. Or God who loves you very much will give you cuntrot and kill you. We don't want to encourage you into promiscuous activity, so no vaccination against cervical cancer for you. You shouldn't need it. Unless you're a slut.

Comments

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

I don't know about that actually - I certainly did as a teenager because mags like Cosmo discuss the pros and cons of contraception, and one of the arguments in favour of condoms is that whilst the incidence of cervical cancer is higher (even in later life) for most women who have sex as teenagers, if they used condoms it drops.

[caffeine-fairy.livejournal.com]

So as a teenager you were aware of contraception and why it was a good idea - rising numbers of teenage mums suggest that a lot of people don't even have that basic knowledge.

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

I really not convinced that they are without the knowledge - I think that in most cases they either kid themselves that it'll be all right just this once, it fails on them, or they fall prey to the ubiquitous "don't make me use a condom, I promise I won't come" that I'm sure we've all heard a dozen times. I can't see any way a girl could get to age 13 without knowing the basics of contraception as they pop up everywhere, from magazines to lessons to general gossip.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I agree that info is everywhere, but the messages are so mixed: sexualisation is big business (Was it Argos who started the line of thong panties and push up bras for little girls? Got discontinued I think) Public 'slutdom' is good business. Pretty ones ala Paris Hilton earn lots of money. Even ugly sluts a la Jade Goody can become celebrities) In the hype, the medical facts about pregnancy and stds and cervical cancers either get lost in school unheard, or get reinterpreted through some moral viewpoint.

[binidj.livejournal.com]

There are also, sadly, still a number of young women who get pregnant as a career choice. They know that if they get pregnant, they will be housed and given more money than they currently are ... more so if they don't keep the father around. It's a dreadful, dreadful shame but it does happen.

Career motherhood

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I think you are right, career mothering does happen - but I think the first baby is the big lesson of how wrong that decision can be. Only by then it's too late:

Thing is looking after a baby is lovely but often it can be dull. Young mum spends a lot of time in the house by herself, time ticking by and any marketable skill she has growing redundant. Frustrated and lonely, her mothering skills can suffer due to depression or just plain resentment of her mistake. Worse, for someone with such limited horizons, she learns that on discovery of her little family, a lot of guys run a mile. Most of the young mothers I have spoken to find themselves lonely and bored, desperately hoping that the big 'He' is going to come along and rescue their lives. They get desperate and go with the first guy who doesn't lose interest when he hears about the child. Then they have baby number 2. And on it goes...