We all know the legal age of consent differs from state too state, and with every country. What about culturally, religiously, or by gender? With women especially consent comes with many different thought processes and restrictions. Marriage, stereotypes, fearThese are all factors within todays society that define the age of consent for each individual. With a world full of different backgrounds and stereotypes, navigating through the world of sexuality can be difficult. In the world of sex, women are treated differently than men.
In the United States during the 20th century, the life expectancy was only in the 50 due to poverty, medicine, and bad nutrition. Today, Americans live to their mid to late seventies. Therefore, allowing the people to push things off for a later date such as becoming a family. Adulthood is also put off for later on. It has also made it taboo for a man in his thirties or forties to have sex with a women of eighteen, or even, nineteen. It is culturally frowned upon. In the United states, if a girl has sex at the age of 16 (which is the legal age of consent in Indiana) and word got out, she would be labeled a whore or slut by others. On the flip side, if you don’t have sex, you’re a prude. It’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If a boy the age of 16 boasts about his sexual conquests, he gets praised and slapped on the back. The harsh treatment of peers from their schools, convinces girls to wait to have sex.
Medias influence on the age of consent isn’t surprising. Today teens who saw the most sex on television were twice as likely to have intercourse within the next year. What happens when you have unsupervised children watching programs involving sex? You get sixth grade students boasting abo...
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... dumped after the guy “got what he wanted.” I wanted it to be special, a moment that I wouldn’t regret ten years from now. It was a personal goal I set for myself, and one I felt proud to achieve. My age of consent was based on what I wanted. Outside influences were included but it was ultimately my decision to wait until I was legally an adult.
I never talk openly about my sexual experiences except to a few close friends. I absolutely never talk about anything remotely sexual in front of my parents. I still get embarrassed if a movie has a sex scene in it and my parents are in the same room watching it too. When you get passed the legal age of consent, it’s all up to the individual. They decide what they want to do with their lives. It’s up to them to use protection, to accept the consequences if there are any, and most importantly to live a life without regrets.
“In 2005, out of 68% of TV shows that showed steamy sexual content, only 15% discussed risk and responsibility. And it’s not just movies and TV: Music, video games, and the Internet are also filled with sexually explicit, often-degrading messages that can shape kids’ attitudes about sex.” (greatschools.org)
Author Amy Schalet ultimately brings up a delicate and sensitive topic about teens having sex, comparing the different mindsets of families in the Netherlands and in America. By Schalet carrying the interviews, she found out that teens in America are a lot more secretive with their personal lives, and would not discuss it with their parents, unlike teens from the Netherlands that eventually told their parents. While some people might say that it’s a matter of common sense, some other people might argue it has to do with culture. Catholics, for example, believe in celibacy until you have decided on the person you will marry. You are taught from young age to protect your body and mind from carnal desires and focus on other things that will benefit you on the long run. Obviously, times have changed, and not many people practice this anymore. We can see an example on shows on television about teen pregnancy, while these shows aren’t necessarily telling to go ahead and have children at young age, it might have negative impact on younger girls, almost like a unintentional role model. On the other hand, writer Jamaica Kincaid, demonstrates the In The Girl we see the other side of the coin, a mother that is so demanding and is always right, no matter the outcome, she is right, and things have to be done a certain way. I think a figure like this would not benefit
The statutory rape law states that having sexual intercourse or being involved sexually in any form with a child below the age of sixteen is unlawful and could have charges pressed against as well as face imprisonment in a state prison or correctional facility. The law also states that one gender isn’t recognized more than the other; under the law children should be protected equally. Statutory rape is sex that occurs between an adult and a minor; an adult eighteen years or older and a minor is considered sixteen years or younger. The underlying principle behind the statutory rape law is the fact that children below the age of sixteen are incapable of giving their consent on sexual activities. Although the law states that all children are treated equally under the law, in several cases the court has chosen one gender over the other and the majority of the time the boys are the one who is faced with charges rather than girls (Oberman, 1994)
Parents are not as smart as they used to be in the sex education area. Many parents are afraid to speak with their children. Some may feel that their children are learning about it in school so why should they say it again. Many teenagers are sent to foster homes because the parents are too busy to take care of their responsibilities. Neglect is a cause for teenagers to get pregnant. They feel that if they have a child that they can be loved.
“…in the absence of comprehensive sex and sexuality education…adolescents are largely getting their sex education and socialization through media—and the higher their ‘sexual media diet,’ the earlier their sexual experimentation begins.” (Olfman 10) The vast lack of acknowledgment that the media controls childhood sexualization is astounding. As Dr. Sharna Olfman explains “Media can be viewed then as both a reflection and a shaper of society.” In the patriarchal society U.S. citizens live in, there seems to be a massive blindspot where there should healthy sexuality education. A direct result of this blindspot is the prevalent acceptance of rape as an inevitable, inextricable part of society. Men and women are both dangerously,
Studies show that between 2006 and 2011 there was an average drop of about 30% of teen pregnancies and 50% of teens involved in any kind of sexual activity (not just intercourse) in America. According to a recent study as of 2008, teen birth rates in the U.S., (which have been declining for tw...
In the past, sex was something that people tried to avoid talking about it, neither less teaching. Sex became a mystery, and a mystery would always trigger people’s nerves, especially teenager’s curious minds. That leads teenager at that time, who had no idea about sex, wanted to have sex to know about it. And when they had sex without any protection, they easily got STDs or HIV or even pregnancy. The case awakens society that sex education must be taught for students at the very first when they enter middle schools. But the way sex was taught those days was very much different from today. In the article “What the sex educators teach” posted on the Opposing View Point in Context website, Dana Mack has written about her experience when taking sex education class when she was a teen: “At the age of ten or eleven, girls and boys were herded into separate rooms - usually in the company of a parent. There, in industrial-gray pictures and solemn monotones, they were introduced to the world of gametes, ovaries, and menstruation. Not exactly titillating material, this reproductive information.” (Mack). Back in those days when sex was a newly revealed topic and sex education program had just been operated, people are still very shy to talk about sex and they often avoid having this kind of
The term “statutory rape” is used when the government considers people under a certain age to be unable to give consent to sex and therefore consider sexual contact with them to be a rape. The age at which individuals are considered to give consent is called the age of consent. The age of consent can ranging from thirteen to twenty-one, depending on the limits set by each state in accordance with local standards of morality. Even sex that violates the age-of-consent laws but is neither violent nor physically forced is described as statutory rape. In most jurisdictions, the expressions “under-age sex” or “sex with a minor” are more commonly used.
When people talk about sex it is considered taboo. Not only are parents of children not open to talking about sex, but also colleagues, peers, and friends are not always open to the discussion on the topic of sex. Society has taught individuals from a young age to keep sexual experiences to themselves because other people will think of them as perversive. In modern society, the topic of sexual experiences is not as secretive or taboo. It is completely turned around to some individuals bragging about their sexual experiences with people who are attractive, or what has happened in the
Watching television programs with a high level of sexual content can shape the patterns of sexual behavior of a teenager. According to Brown (Brown, Greenberg, & Buerkel-Rothfuss, 1993) many teenagers are not able to receive useful information about sex from their parents, this is the reason they usually use the alternative way to find this information through the media. A Kaiser Family research from 1996 (Kaiser Family Foundation, 1996; 1998) shows that a quarter of all the young people have told that they have learned a lot about pregnancy from television shows and 40 percent of them have gotten ideas how to talk about sexual issues. In these modern times media is holding the power to influence the audience and most of all the youngest audience which is developing their view about sex.
For many teenagers having sex with acquaintances it is their first experience. The reasons why they rush into sex may vary, but include peer pressure and a desire to live the experience at once. A recent SexSmarts survey, by the Kaiser Family Foundation and...
“The media may be especially important for young people as they are developing their own sexual beliefs and patterns of behavior and as parents and schools remain reluctant to discuss sexual topics (p.26)”.
The glamorous side of sex is everywhere; music, tv shows, movies and social media. To a mature adult, it is easy to ignore the sexual messages in those outlets. However, to a teenager, going through mental and physical changes and peer pressure, it is extremely easy to fall for what is shown to “cool.” Everyone has fallen for half truths to be cool in their teenage life. It just so happens that teen pregnancies and STDs are not one of those things that one can simply walk away from. Babies and STDs leave a lasting effect on everyone involved. The National Conference of State Legislatures states:
Nineteen-fifty five marked the debut of sex education programs in schools in the United States. Along the years, many have argued whether or not sex education should be taught in schools. Many believe that the education of sex encourages students to engage in sexual activities which lead to a higher number of pregnancies and sexual transmitted diseases (STD’s). As the number of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases climbs higher and higher every day in our country, one can only think that sexual education is a necessity in our school systems. Teens as young as fourteen years old have admitted to already engaging in sexual activities. No teen should be engaging in such acts at that age. Many schools give parents the choice to have their child opt out of the lesson or class. Few states are required to teach sex education to students in secondary schools unless they were withdrawn from the class by their parents.
I think that for society sex is a very touchy subject and because of this people are oblivious to everything about sex. Different cultures have different views on sex and how it is suppose to be done. From the time we are young the culture tha...