Abstinence Billboard: Sex will Kill your Career Prospects
Wed, 2008-08-13 07:26
#1
Abstinence Billboard: Sex will Kill your Career Prospects
Wed, 2008-08-13 07:26
#2
[img]http://contexts.org/socimages/files/2008/08/2i05idw.jpg[/img]
![http://contexts.org/socimages/files/2008/08/2i05idw.jpg[/img]](http://contexts.org/socimages/files/2008/08/2i05idw.jpg[/img]){kind=link}
wtf is that?
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[url=http://tinyurl.com/6patam]http://tinyurl.com/6patam[/url]
ENCOURAGING ABSTINENCE–AND MAKING ENGINEERING SEEM REALLY LAME
by gwen on Aug 12, 2008 at 12:06 am
quote:
Timothy H. sent in this billboard (found here), which advertises…actually, I’m not sure because I can’t read the small print in the left corner (I read online somewhere that this billboard was up in Kansas City, and I think the second line says “The Kansas City [something] Health Department”). I guess the message is that in order to have a good future you need to be abstinent?
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Also some commentary at cosmicvariance,
[url=http://tinyurl.com/6xn6zh]http://tinyurl.com/6xn6zh[/url]
quote:
That’s why you should become scientists, kids! (Because engineers don’t have sex. You want me to spell it out for you?)I really should just leave it at that, but the sprawling, multifaceted stupidity of this public service announcement — apparently having sex, like smoking the wacky weed, kills brain cells and will cripple your SAT scores, or something — is difficult to let pass without comment. The immaturity of our cultural attitudes toward sex is flat-out embarrassing. There are real concerns that adolescents should be taught about — disease and the risk of unwanted pregnancy being the obvious ones. But they should also be taught that, as long as you are careful about such things, there is nothing wrong with having sex. Done correctly, it can be fun! Sure, there can be emotional trauma, awkward moments, broken hearts, impetuous late-night phone calls that you wish you could take back the next day. But these are downsides associated with life, not with sex per se.
[ 13 August 2008: Message edited by: 500_Apples ]
[ 13 August 2008: Message edited by: 500_Apples ]
Wed, 2008-08-13 09:12
#3
remind
My first thought was that it is directly targeting a racial demographic in its encouragement to not have sex and to have continued education instead. I do not see it as a blanket abstinence billboard.
Wed, 2008-08-13 09:29
#4
Wow. That's something else.
In one way, I can sort of understand it - probably the vast majority of teens who become parents don't go on to post-secondary education (and probably a lot drop out of even high school too). At least, not right away when their peers generally go, after high school.
But hello, there ARE ways of not ending up being a teen parent. And I'm sorry, but abstinence-only education isn't going to achieve that goal.
Wed, 2008-08-13 09:33
#5
Do the people who made this billboard honestly believe that you can't have a sexlife and be a good student as well? Weird.
[ 13 August 2008: Message edited by: CMOT Dibbler ]
Wed, 2008-08-13 10:37
#6
quote:
Originally posted by remind:
[b]My first thought was that it is directly targeting a racial demographic in its encouragement to not have sex and to have continued education instead. I do not see it as a blanket abstinence billboard.[/b]
I thought of that but I couldn't come up with any plausible agenda that would lead them to do that.
That being said, I have trouble merely coming up with a plausible agenda for abstinence, period.
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
[b]But hello, there ARE ways of not ending up being a teen parent. And I'm sorry, but abstinence-only education isn't going to achieve that goal. [/b]
When I showed the ad to someone a few offices down he said "that's what abortion's for." I don't think that's what these people are getting at.
Wed, 2008-08-13 11:21
#7
Maysie
Interesting thread, 500.
I think when sex is equated with getting pregnant we can be assured that this billboard is not a promotion by a pro-birth control organization.
And 500, your friend who said "that's what abortion's for", though technically correct, is a sexist twit. Access to abortion is not about a guy's ability to be more of a jackass, though it clearly has that effect sometimes.
Back to the billboard: was this part of a series? Were there other images of young people besides the Black young man? I won't leap to any conclusions without knowing this info.
Wed, 2008-08-13 11:21
#8
quote:
Originally posted by 500_Apples:
[b] I thought of that but I couldn't come up with any plausible agenda that would lead them to do that. That being said, I have trouble merely coming up with a plausible agenda for abstinence, period.[/b]
Some fundamentalist Christians have influence in Kansas City (not the most progressive place in the USA) and this ad is how they express religious beliefs while hiding it behind a public service message. That sign should announce the location of publically distributed condoms and family planning services but, well, that's not what the Christians believe in, so they promote abstinence. If that sign is paid for by the public school board I would not be surprised, Christians love to send their messages out to the public on the taxpayer's dime, they just leave out any direct mention of God to avoid legal challenges.
Wed, 2008-08-13 11:31
#9
quote:
Originally posted by Robespierre:
[b]Some fundamentalist Christians have influence in Kansas City (not the most progressive place in the USA) and this ad is how they express religious beliefs while hiding it behind a public service message. That sign should announce the location of publically distributed condoms and family planning services but, well, that's not what the Christians believe in, so they promote abstinence. If that sign is paid for by the public school board I would not be surprised, Christians love to send their messages out to the public on the taxpayer's dime, they just leave out any direct mention of God to avoid legal challenges.[/b]
Yes,
But,
Evangelical christians in the USA seem to practice pick and chose christianity, you don't hear much about Jubilee from these people.
Wed, 2008-08-13 11:36
#10
quote:
Originally posted by bigcitygal:
[b]And 500, your friend who said "that's what abortion's for", though technically correct, is a sexist twit. Access to abortion is not about a guy's ability to be more of a jackass, though it clearly has that effect sometimes.[/b]
I presumed he was making fun of the organization that funded the billboard, and was not making a technical or moral argument.
Wed, 2008-08-13 12:25
#11
quote:
Originally posted by 500_Apples:
[b]Yes,
But,
Evangelical christians in the USA seem to practice pick and chose christianity, you don't hear much about Jubilee from these people.[/b]
I do not know what Jubilee means. sorry
Wed, 2008-08-13 13:26
#12
quote:
Originally posted by remind:
[b]My first thought was that it is directly targeting a racial demographic in its encouragement to not have sex and to have continued education instead. I do not see it as a blanket abstinence billboard.[/b]
Can't we have both sex AND education? I suppose the argument is that education would be incompatible with accidentally becoming a parent, but it's not as though there aren't ways of making that unlikely.
Wed, 2008-08-13 14:07
#13
quote:
[b]I do not know what Jubilee means. sorry[/b]
[url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3849/is_199805/ai_n8790151/pg_1?... is an article about it.
[ 13 August 2008: Message edited by: RosaL ]
Wed, 2008-08-13 14:46
#14
quote:
Originally posted by RosaL:
[b][url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3849/is_199805/ai_n8790151/pg_1?... is an article about it.
[ 13 August 2008: Message edited by: RosaL ][/b]
Oh, thanks a lot, Rosa.
Wed, 2008-08-13 15:37
#15
remind
quote:
Originally posted by bigcitygal:
[b]Back to the billboard: was this part of a series? Were there other images of young people besides the Black young man? I won't leap to any conclusions without knowing this info.[/b]
Well, I googled "sex can wait" image after apples put it here and I found these:
[img]http://www.psi.org/HIV/images/sex-can-wait-boy.jpg[/img][img]http://img2...
![http://www.psi.org/HIV/images/sex-can-wait-boy.jpg[/img][img]http://img2...](http://www.psi.org/HIV/images/sex-can-wait-boy.jpg[/img][img]http://img2.travelblog.org/Photos/1161/17202/t/77613-Because-tomorrow-is-mine-1.jpg[/img]){kind=link}
and the one above as being the only billboard images available, to see on line anyway.
Wed, 2008-08-13 17:32
#16
Maysie
Thanks remind, I guess I could have googled too.
There seems to be a theme here between the 3 images. And it's an AIDS/HIV awareness campaign, which wasn't entirely clear from the first image 500 posted.
I'm thinking [i]some[/i] good things about these images, which are positive and alternative images of young Black men, how often is this found in the media?
Many young Black men don't see themselves going to university for a number of reasons, not the least of which is how they're treated in elementary and high school, which is to say, badly.
Negatives: the focus on young men does leaves young Black women invisible, however, which isn't good. Worse, in that one ad it seems like a not-so-subtle way of blaming young Black women for the sexuality of young Black men (Where have we heard that before? [img]rolleyes.gif" border="0[/img] ), as if it's the young women's fault alone if they get pregnant and it's they who woo young Black men into ruining their futures. Not cool. The complete erasure of any mention of birth control/condoms, as I said upthread, is also suspect.
Wed, 2008-08-13 19:56
#17
Not only Jubilee, Robespierre, but those "Christians" don't seem to have read up on the Beatitudes that much.
I don't know that that many "Christian" school graduates would be able to finish this sentence:
"Blessed be the meek, for they shall inherit the___"
Or fill in the blanks in this one:
"More easily shall a camel pass through the eye of a needle than a R___ M___ through the gates of Heaven."
Wed, 2008-08-13 21:50
#18
If any one still thinks that Christian religious values are not primarily what is behind this kind of campaign, all I can say is god help ya. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]