Time Magazine

This was an artical that I read today that really interested me and I thought that it related to the course well

http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/14/mind-reading-what-we-can-learn-from-the-dutch-about-teen-sex/

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Sexual Relationship Patterns in Adulthood

1) Singlehood

        - Increasing participation in singlehood

        - Do not feel they need to be in a relationship

        - Many young people are staying at home longer. They are living a kind of extended youth

        - Serial Monogamy - this is when people go from one serious relationship to another

        - Celibacy (abstinence) - as a choice there are three reasons why people would choose for this

                   1) Religious

                   2) S.T.I.'s - avoid HIV/AIDS

                   3) Moral - Just do not think that it is right

2) Cohabitation

        - People that Cohabitate before they get married have a higher chance of divorce

        - 84% of Canadian now approve of cohabitation

3) Marriage

        - Most people do get married in their life

        - Same sex marriage is a huge topic on society. If the institution of marriage opens up to this, it can weaken it or strengthen it, depending on the person’s opinion and how the person looks at the idea of same sex marriage

        - When marriage was opened up to same sex marriage it had an impact on everyone that is getting married or is married because it changes the cultural meaning of marriage.


Talking about the fact that people are single longer then they used to be, I think that the legal drinking age might have something to do with it because the legal drinking age was estabilshed in 1984 so the generations before ours did not have a legal drinking age. I think that this gave them more freedom to grow up at the pace that they wanted to. Most people go through a phase in their life where they have to party and do stupid thing. Most people this happens during the end of high school and during college which is when they turn 18 and become legal. I think that if their was not a legal drinking age and they let adolescence let loose when they wanted to that this might help them not have this crazy party phase. 

Sources of information about sex

Overview

       - Access to this information is uneven throughout the country. There is a greater access in cities

       - Used to have sexual education in school to solve problems of teen pregnancy

       - Now we have it to help prevent the spread of AIDS/HIV

       - When there was resistance about sexual education it was usually from the religious groups

       - Bill C44 was created for the parents to sign to allowed to kids to participate in sexual education, it gave the parents the right to take their kids out of the class

Meeting the needs of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth

        - The needs are not being met. The curriculum is blind to anything but heterosexuality

Sexual Values

       - When talking about sexual interactions it is our values that come out, when we show our values we participate in broader debates

       - This is implicated in ideology, German Ideology was Karl Marx's idea that support the dominate people are the dominate ideologies

       - We are always connected to something bigger

Canadian Guidelines for sexual Health Education

      - There are programs and websites the give information about sex that are available to everyone

Sexual Education Curriculum and Resources

      - There is a wide range of resources and in Alberta it is talked about in health class as a special unit called Sex Ed.

The training of sexual health professionals

      - Health professionals can be nurses, teachers, social workers, and psychologist

      - They usually do not have any post secondary education, anyone can be a sexual health profession and anyone can claim they are sexual health professionals without any training

      -  Under training is a common critique

      - Human sexuality courses are unevenly available in post secondary education. There are many post secondary institutions that do not offer a human sexuality course

Going it Alone; Solitary Sexual Behaviour

Sexual Fantasy

       - Starts with how we think about it

       - Can be by oneself or with another

       - Widely practiced

       - Sensitive topic

       - Fantasy gives you opportunity to go places you have never gone before or will ever go

Masturbation

       - In the past was believed to be self abuse, there was a play written by Aristophanes call Lysistrata that was about men fighting and then the women say no sex until you stop fighting

      - Over 2000 years of talking about masturbation

      - Problematic because it did not lead to procreation

      - Gram crackers were invented in the 1830's to decreased sexual urge

      - Today masturbation is a positive thing

      - May is national masturbation month

Abortion

Overview

     - Described many different ways 

               - Medical Procedure

               - Sin

               - It is a private matter between a women and her doctor

               - Injustice to the unborn

               - The text says it is “purposeful termination of a pregnancy before embryo or fetus is capable of sustaining independent life"

               - Explosive social cultural and moral issues

               - Issue of when human life begins

               - Issue of rights - fetus right to life versus mothers right to control her own bodily decisions

History of abortion

   - Up until 1969 - Abortion was illegal

   - 1969 - Only under certain conditions, being if the health of the mother is in danger

   - 1988 - Overturned abortion law

              - Not available everywhere in Canada, no or limited access in northern Canada, PEI, and New Brunswick

              - Done because of the rights of the mother and the rights of the unborn fetus

              - Some women have distress about getting it done but most are happy with their decision to do it.

I used to believe that abortion was wrong no matter what and no one could convince me that it would be right under any circumstance. Then one of my best friends in high school got kidnapped raped and pregnant. This was how she lost her virginity. The idea of her losing her virginity like this is already really hard for her to cope with. The fact that it got her pregnant just made things worse. The day I found out she was pregnant was the day that I changed my mind about abortions. I now think that if you are in a situation like my friend was that it is appropriate to have an abortion because even if you put it up for adoption you are still bringing a life into this world and you still know that your child is out there. Even though my friend will never forget how she lost her virginity I think that her having a child with the guy that raped her would be an even harder thing to live with.

Conception, Pregnancy, and Childbirth

This section is mostly about teen pregnancy and single motherhood.

Postpartum Issues

      - Baby blues

             - Period of tearfulness and sadness

             - 70% of mothers experience this

      - Postpartum depression (PPD)

             - Within 4 weeks of childbirth

             - This can stay for weeks to months

             - Moment of transition from one thing to another, changes in life lead to stress which in the case of childbirth leads to PPD

             - Concerns of whether or not the mother will be a good mother

             - Can be worse if there are marital problems

             - Can be worse if the child was not wanted or unplanned

             - Women all across the country experience this, the chemicals in their body change and they end up getting drug therapy.

Narcotics, Alcohol, Cigarettes can all be passed onto the fetus

F.A.S.

      - Developmental lags

      - Underdeveloped upper jaw

      - Flat nose

      - Wider spaced eyes

      - A smaller person

      - Smaller brain size

Smoking

       - Effects of smoking can pass onto fetus

       - There is a full range of complications

                - Miscarriage

                - Pregnancy complications

                - S.I.D.S. - (sudden infant death syndrome)

                -More chance of illness - vulnerability

                - Learning troubles

    

Storms

Storms had a square diagram of his belief about sexual orientation.

I think that this diagram is pretty self explanatory. The bottom left corner is asexual which is when a person is not attracted to either sex, and the top right corner is bisexual which is when a person is attracted to both sexes and then there is heterosexual in the bottom right corner and homosexual in the top left. The more right you go the more hetero-erotic you get and the higher up you go the more homo-erotic you get. I like this model because it adds asexual to the diagram which is nice because some people stay alone all their life because they are not attracted to anyone