Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

NatGeo Sees No ‘Taboo’ in Teen Sex
The Christian Diarist ^ | July 9, 2012 | JP

Posted on 07/09/2012 9:35:01 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST

The latest episode of “Taboo” aired last night on National Geographic Channel. It explored the issue of “Teen Sex.”

One segment introduced viewers to the Kreung people of Cambodia, who build “love huts” for their teen-aged daughters to have pre-marital sex with as many teen-aged boys as they like.

Another featured 15-year-old Australian tart Cassie Osborne and her teen-aged girlfriends, wearing barely-there dresses, practicing their sexual flirtation, looking forward to becoming some young bloke’s boy toy.

And yet another took a look at Purity Balls here in the United States, in which teen-aged girls pledge to remain pure and abstain from sexual relations until they are married.

“Taboo’s” producers were uncritical of the Kreung’s love huts. “Some argue that this gives the girls a sense of empowerment,” they noted.

They uttered nary a discouraging word about come-hither Cassie and her Aussie BFFs, apparently considering their race to lose their virginity an expression of girl power.

But they ridiculed Purity Balls, which were conceived by evangelical Christians, which encourage teen-aged girls to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

“Some argue that pressuring a girl to participate in a Purity Ball puts her in a position,” according to “Taboo’s” producers, “where a man is always in control of her sexuality, first her father, and then her husband.”

Moreover, said Helen Fisher, a Rutgers University biological anthropologist, “There’s a great deal of data that young girls who swear off sex tend to have sex anyway. They simply just delay it for one, two or three years. Then they impulsively go out and have sex without having gotten any sex education.”

Indeed, said “Taboo’s” disembodied narrator, echoing Fisher, “Recent studies suggest that teens who pledge to stay virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who make no such pledge.”

Of course, “Taboo” provided no references for the “data” Fisher mentioned; no citations of the “studies” to which it alluded.

That’s because data and studies questioning the efficacy of purity pledges, of abstinence-only programs almost always have been ginned up by agenda-driven researchers biased in favor of sex education.

The proof of that bias is that neither Fisher, nor “Taboo” acknowledged the most impartial, most authoritative study of abstinence-only programs, which was released in 2010 in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The researchers – whom, it should be noted, were not evangelical Christians – followed sixth and seventh graders in two groups, one of which concentrated on abstinence, the other on contraception and “safe sex.”

Two years later, the researchers checked back with the kids. Half those learning safe sex were sexually active, while only a third of those encouraged to practice abstinence were engaged in sex.

Interestingly, the abstinence teachers were values-neutral. They never mentioned religion, morality or marriage. Had they done so, I believe the kids who remained pure after being taught abstinence would have been three-quarters or more, rather than the actual two-thirds.

Indeed, most of our teens are living down to society’s low expectations of them.

But it’s not impossible for the under-aged to control their hormones. It’s not inevitable they are going to be sexually active. And it’s not unreasonable to expect them to abstain from sex until, at the very least, they reach adulthood.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Religion; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: abstinence; cassieosborne; natgeo; premaritalsex
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last
The popular culture bombards our teen-agers with the message that pre-marital sex is expected of them; that “everyone's doing it (all the cool kids, that is).”
1 posted on 07/09/2012 9:35:12 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

I don’t appreciate the use of the term “teen sex”, as there is certainly nothing wrong with a couple of responsible 18 years olds geting married. Depending on what is being described, extra-marital relations (”sex” being best reserved to denote the two sexes, male and female), loose behavior, unnatural acts, etc.


2 posted on 07/09/2012 9:44:12 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Stronger. You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid! "--Eros, Plan 9 From Outer Space)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!


3 posted on 07/09/2012 9:49:27 AM PDT by Edward Teach
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
The popular culture bombards our teen-agers with the message that pre-marital sex is expected of them; that “everyone's doing it (all the cool kids, that is).”
4 posted on 07/09/2012 9:54:46 AM PDT by trailhkr1 (That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence - Christopher Hitchen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
The popular culture bombards our teen-agers with the message that pre-marital sex is expected of them; that “everyone's doing it (all the cool kids, that is).”

Pre marital sex has always been going on. Nothing new. We just hear about it more today through media and people are more open about it. Some of the stat's of the early 1700's was 30-35% of births would have been out of wedlock except they got married.

5 posted on 07/09/2012 9:55:19 AM PDT by trailhkr1 (That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence - Christopher Hitchen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: trailhkr1

They were all over their panties wadded up over how “bad” purity balls were.

But they soft sold the 13year old mother.

I watched it and had to laugh at how liberal the agenda was.

The show Taboo is all about pushing cultural relativism.


6 posted on 07/09/2012 10:03:33 AM PDT by GraceG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: trailhkr1

They were all over their panties wadded up over how “bad” purity balls were.

But they soft sold the 13year old mother.

I watched it and had to laugh at how liberal the agenda was.

The show Taboo is all about pushing cultural relativism.


7 posted on 07/09/2012 10:09:04 AM PDT by GraceG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: trailhkr1

I agree. It’s not as if a huge sex drive has risen recently. It’s been around. Just now, it’s more accepted and even pushed. Sad. Acceptance of immorality is going out the window more and more.


8 posted on 07/09/2012 10:12:38 AM PDT by justice14 ("stand up defend or lay down and die")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Nat Geo still pushing the ol’ Margaret Mead crap for going on eight decades now...


9 posted on 07/09/2012 10:16:11 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Sivana

As someone who got married at 18 I appreciate your comment.


10 posted on 07/09/2012 10:25:27 AM PDT by MeganC (January 20, 2013: The End of an Error)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MeganC
As someone who got married at 18 I appreciate your comment.

My mother was 18 when she married my father, who was 21. She was 19 when my big brother was born. (Zounds! A "teen pregnancy"!)

My wife was 19 years old when I married her, and I can say that she was far more mature and responsible than some of the older ladies I knew before meeting her.

If you are hell-bent on delaying maturity you will likely succeed.
11 posted on 07/09/2012 10:30:09 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Stronger. You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid! "--Eros, Plan 9 From Outer Space)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Sivana

With your permission, I think I have found my new tag line!


12 posted on 07/09/2012 10:31:56 AM PDT by MeganC (If you are hell-bent on delaying maturity you will likely succeed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: trailhkr1
Some of the stat's of the early 1700's was 30-35% of births would have been out of wedlock except they got married.

When divorce was extremely rare and many families experienced five or more births? Not likely.
13 posted on 07/09/2012 10:32:01 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Stronger. You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid! "--Eros, Plan 9 From Outer Space)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: MeganC

I am honored.


14 posted on 07/09/2012 10:32:58 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Stronger. You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid! "--Eros, Plan 9 From Outer Space)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Another featured 15-year-old Australian tart Cassie Osborne and her teen-aged girlfriends, wearing barely-there dresses, practicing their sexual flirtation, looking forward to becoming some young bloke’s boy toy.

Modern slang is not my forté, but isn't a "boy toy" by definition a male object of affection - not the object of affection of a male?

Regards,

15 posted on 07/09/2012 10:38:34 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinarily good evidence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Sivana
When divorce was extremely rare and many families experienced five or more births? Not likely.

What does divorce and # of kids have to do with premarital sex?

I think you might find this of interest. From "Everyday Life in the 1800s" by Marc McCuctcheon, Chapter 10 Courtship and Marriage, page 205:

"premarital sex: the late 1700s and early 1800s were marked by a notably higher incidence of premarital sex than in later years. Records show, in fact, that around the turn of the century one third of New England brides were already pregnant when they married, despite civil statutes against fornication. By the 1830s, premarital pregnancies dropped to 20 percent, and then to just 10 percent in the 1850s, suggesting better contraception and more widespread abstinence.

16 posted on 07/09/2012 10:43:11 AM PDT by trailhkr1 (That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence - Christopher Hitchen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

National Geographic...don’t they conduct those underage sex safaris to Thailand?


17 posted on 07/09/2012 10:44:41 AM PDT by miserare
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Edward Teach

Coming soon to a nation near you!!! Massive attitude adjustment, courtesy of the Creator.

This world is becoming more inhospitable to Christians with each passing day. Sodom and Gommorah, the sequel.


18 posted on 07/09/2012 12:13:56 PM PDT by Aleya2Fairlie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: trailhkr1

Yes, they did get married, because males who fathered a kid were called bums if they didn’t and we all know what the girls were called. Served a purpose, that.


19 posted on 07/09/2012 12:34:25 PM PDT by Amberdawn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
One segment introduced viewers to the Kreung people of Cambodia, who build “love huts” for their teen-aged daughters to have pre-marital sex with as many teen-aged boys as they like.

Well seeing as how the world isn't exactly overrun by Kreung people, maybe - just maybe - this is a technique the tribe uses to increase its population as fast as possible.

But hey, why should a publication called "National Geographic" be expected to consider such a socio-anthropological explanation?

20 posted on 07/09/2012 3:01:08 PM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson