The Reasonable Activist

In the “Not Now” abstinence-only-until-marriage program, delivered to students in part of Mississippi, students participate in a mock wedding ceremony. As part of the ceremony, the bride presents the groom with a dirty sneaker as a wedding present. The dirty sneaker signifies “a lifestyle of impurity” and relays the message that no sock (representing a condom) could ever fully protect the foot from dirt and diseases. The groom, on the other hand, gives the bride a clean sneaker representing his “purity up until marriage.” At the end of the wedding activity, the students “pledged to remain pure” and bring clean tennis shoes to marriage.

While this is awful messaging in and of itself, research also shows that 88 percent of students who pledge to remain abstinent until marriage fail to keep this pledge and have the same STD rates as those who didn’t take a pledge. They are also less likely to use contraception when they do become sexually active.

All I can say is, what the hell?

REFERENCE:
This is an except pulled from http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/.

April, perhaps because it is in spring and therefore associated with hope, seems particularly burdened with excessive activist days.  It is both National Poetry Month and Jazz Appreciation Month, which makes attending a poetry slam practically mandatory.

It is Conflict Awareness Month, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and National Child Abuse Prevention Month.  This goes hand in hand with Alcohol Awareness Month, although why it wasn’t called Alcohol Abuse Awareness Month is beyond me.  (A few places have smartened up and started calling it Alcoholism Awareness Month.)

Television network CNN dubbed it the official Children & Nature Awareness Month, perhaps because in addition to being the banner month for abuse prevention, it is also Youth Sports Safety Month and Earthquake and Tsunami Awareness Month.  Corporations love to jump on the eco-bandwagon.  Both Marriot and Santa Clara Valley Water District felt compelled to designate April as the generic “Environmental Awareness Month” in case we couldn’t figure it out, what with Earth Day and all.

On a more local level, in Baton Rouge, April is Flood Awareness Month. Santa Cruz County dubbed it College Awareness Month to stress the importance of higher education.  In fact, many colleges celebrate April because, for no particular reason I could find, it is also the month for Mathematics Awareness (as if college students needed to be more aware of math).

April is the month for being aware of a host of medical ailments, including Cancer, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, STDs, Primary Immunodeficiency Disease (PIDD), Rabies, Rosacea, Parkinson’s Disease, and Autism.  Regret your abortion?  It is officially Abortion Recovery Awareness Month according to pro-lifers.  It is Women’s Eye Health and Safety Month (which is apparently different from the men’s) and also Oral Health Month.  Podiatrists have declared it Foot Health Awareness Month and encourage us to start walking.  For the rest of the health care providers, April 2009 will be the first National Safe Handling Month, regarding hazardous drugs in the healthcare setting.  Should you die, it is Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness month.  And who could forget Cesarean Awareness or National Occupational Therapy Month?  So add a blue ribbon (child abuse) to your pink ribbon (breast cancer) and your multi-colored puzzle ribbon (autism).  Multiple Birth Awareness Month doesn’t have a ribbon yet, but I suppose we could use a loop with eight ends since it is Octo-Mom who will make this month famous.  It will go right next to the upside-down ribbon which signifies a cesarean.

And these are just the events that caught on with the public.  President Bush declared April to be National Oil Awareness Month in 2007.  April has also been known as the Copyright Month.  Somehow, April currently seems to be Asian-American month, but in 2001 it was Latino Awareness Month according the Clinton administration.  In 1997 it was Food Safety Month, and maybe we should have kept that one around considering the mess which happened later.

It is the month hosting Porphyria Week, World Autism Awareness Day, Arbor Day, Brain Tumor Action Week, Window Safety Day, Alopecia Day, Volunteer Week, World Hemophilia Day, and the generic but popular World Health Day.  All these events probably contribute to us feeling extra taxed on Tax Day.

Not surprisingly, it is also both Stress Awareness Month and Counseling Awareness Month. 

Personally, I’d like to send up a call for a new awareness day, called “Let Us End All These Awareness Days! Day” because the only April Awareness event I am truly interested in is Administrative Professionals Day.  Love your secretaries, everyone.

REFERENCES:

http://www.genocidepreventionmonth.org

http://www.awarenessdates.com/2007/01/april-awareness-dates.html

http://www.nomotc.org/index.php?Itemid=226&id=258&option=com_content&task=view

http://blog.nola.com/SELU/2008/04/baton_rouge_the_east_baton.html

http://www.abortionrecoveryinternational.org/ourwork/abortionrecoveryawarenessmonth/aprilisawarenessmonth/tabid/61/Default.aspx

http://www.fundraisers.com/causes/awareapr.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April

http://amystodghill.greenoptions.com/2007/04/01/president-declares-april-as-national-oil-awareness-month/

http://advance.uconn.edu/2001/010402/01040205.htm

http://www.podiatrists.org/enewsroom/foothealthnews/2007foothealthawareness/

http://genasu.com/rosacea-awareness-month-in-april/

http://www.epi.hss.state.ak.us/bulletins/docs/b1997_16.htm

http://blog.nj.com/brielle/2007/04/april_is_organ_and_tissue_dono.html

Govt Commercial Promoting Abstinence-Only Education

Under the Bush administration, $176 million was allocated to abstinence-only education programs.  Part of this money funded virginity pledges, documents signed by teenagers stating they would not have sex before marriage.

The latest study, conducted by Janet Elise Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, shows that not only do these pledges have no effect on teen abstinence rates, but that students who sign these pledges are more likely to engage in sex without using a condom or birth control.  The complete study is published in the January 2009 issue of Pediatrics.

So what things do work when it comes to keeping your teen from sex?  Specifically, it is involvement.  Teens raised with more traditional values are less likely to have sex at an early age.  On the downside, they are more likely to feel guilty about sex in general.

Teens with fewer friends who drink or use drugs are also less likely to engage in sex.  Participation in regular positive youth groups seems to be of benefit as well.  It is all about peer pressure, of the positive kind.

You can’t just tell folks not to do something ‘exciting’ and expect them to listen when they are bored and have nothing better to do.  That’s why abstinence-only doesn’t work, it doesn’t provide alternative activities.  Getting your kids into sports, the arts, church groups, or any other regular positive activity will do more to keep your children out of trouble than preaching at them.  Talk to them, get to know their friends and their friends parents.  Not only does this show your children your commitment to your values, it also shows them your commitment to them.

REFERENCES:

http://www.prwatch.org/node/8101

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/134254.php

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/heart-to-heart/2008/12/30/7-factors-that-foster-teen-virginity-pledge-or-no-pledge.html