hedgehog.

[squeequeg]

The painters have started work. What began as just a constant scraping noise, not unlike a giant hedgehog attempting to scratch itself against the house, has grown into multiple scrapings and bangings. Like an army of hedgehogs.

I think I may try to spend the day away from the apartment.

In other news, I saw an article about how federal guidelines on sex and AIDS education are now federally required to stress the limitations of condoms. Does this strike anyone else as weird? I mean, teaching sex ed by emphasizing condom failure rates seems a little like teaching drivers' ed by emphasizing seat belt failure rates. Yeah, neither of them is perfect, sometimes you'll die even if you used them, and if you're being an idiot about the correct way to use them then you're definitely more at risk, but if you're going to drive then it's safer to use a seat belt.

Abstinence teaching only works for a while -- maybe enough that those taught are now psychologically ready for sex, which is good in some ways -- but they don't know how to protect themselves once they're ready. This isn't so much about teaching values any more as about teaching survival skills.

Anyway. Rant over.

Comments

from collectibles to fishbowls

[minyan.livejournal.com]

When I was writing for the paper, I covered a Berkshire Coalition to Prevent Teen Pregnancy meeting that was fascinating. They had a documentary about European teenager and American teenagers, and their response to condoms. (In Europe, according to the film, teen pregnancy is substantially lower.) In europe, condoms appear in ad all the time - and ads that sugest the wearers are having a great time. In America, they appear with images of green filds and a voiceover like a Woolite promoter, and they'e advertised for married couples.
In europe, they're as normal as balloons: in one ad, children collected them as brightly colored objects and tossed them around on a school bus. in another, a woman broke her goldfish bown in a crosswalk, picked up the fish, dashed into the nearest pharmacy, asked for a condom and filled it with water for temporary transport. Parents and teachers helped reinforce the message, and the teens thought it was common knowledge: one said, it's not hard - you wait, or you use a condom. In America, it's harder to get condoms, and the kids interviewed thought it would mak them look too forward - nice people don't want to have sex, therefore they don't come prepared. if a girl finds out you have a condom, she won't think you're taking a practical precaution out o respect for both of you: she'll think you want too much too fast. It struck me that the American kids were trying to do the 'good guy' thing, as it had been presented to them.
I figure a teenager who's in a position to have sex for the first time isn't going to be at his or her rational best; they'll be half flying blind on emotion and half relying on what they think this situation is suposed to be lke. It'll all be unamiliar. If condoms are a familiar part of the pattern, they'll think to use one. If condoms are something still more unfamiliar, they won't.