Every once in a while, I find something online that confuses me. Not like that ridiculous Leonard Nemoy Salsa thing. I mean something of a serious nature. I was on Common Dreams when I got hit with this: It's time someone praised and defended reckless teenage girls and young women who behave badly, dress provocatively, engage in risky sex, and get pregnant. They are the normal ones. The rest of us are the deviants. They are behaving in the most natural way. The rest of us are mutants. Here's the whole thing.

When you read the rest of the article, it's really about child care legislation in Australia, but that opening paragraph and the one after it, knocked me upside the head. The guy was only focusing on woman and reproduction, but what about sexuality in general. I mean, we tell our daughters not to be "sluts" then we buy products that advertise using sex. And normally these ads feature young, too-skinny women who give the aire that this is your only way of being popular or to get what you want. Capitalism is great, competition is good - but when corporations use psychologists to create advertising to children we wonder what's wrong with our kids and that it must be the parents' fault.

Kids are sexual beings and I think they should engage in sexual behavior (I think I should too, but that doesn't seem to be working out too well, either). And in my professional life there have been many instances where I've had to talk with kids about sexual issues. I've rarely been able to say what I really have wanted to for risk of getting fired or a kid not understanding what I'm saying. If a kid has been exposed to nothing but repressive ideas around his/her sexuality for 15 years, a 30 minute discussion with me isn't going to bring about a big change.

Look, I'm not going to just tell a kid to "pork away, pal." (Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda) But I have no problem in having a discussion with a teenager where the main jist is that the kid should do what he/she feels comfortable with in a safe, consensual manner. This is where sex education comes in. I guess it's how you see sexuality. Procreation, recreation or both. Some see it as a commodity or a means to an end (no pun intended). Some are able to see it as different things at different times.

I wish I had the time to go deeper into this, but I don't right now. Another time. But I will sum up with this...it's very difficult to break familial patterns. Whether it's abuse, addiction, being obnoxious...the same goes with sexuality. If you grew up in a house where sex was connected to something negative either directly or indirectly, it takes a lot of hard work to not have that be the case in your house. Some are able to use our parents'...ummmm...inadequacies to teach us how not to be parents ourselves, but it's not easy. It takes a lot of recogition and understanding of what the deal is.

I guess I drifted off the point there...I should be punished. But that's a different topic.