vasectomies all around!
So there I was, on facebook, getting into a discussion about paternal rights when it comes to the issue of abortion.
Do men have a choice? Can they ever truly have the final say?
(Personal opinion? Probably not, but if you can come to some sort of agreement where the woman will carry the baby to term and the man can become sole guardian, more power to you.)
This discussion then moves into the prevention of abortion in the first place, since no one thinks that abortion should be used as a form of birth control.
Sterilization is the common denometer for most of the people in the discussion. just get a vasectomy that can be reversed if you ever feel like having a child. reversable vasectomies for everyone! give them out in high school! (could you imagine? the current uproar over condoms being passed out, and now we should pass out vasectomies?)
I left the conversation here, because it seemed as though the only consequence being spoken of when it comes sex is that of pregnancy. This, obviously, was the subject of the whole thing, but I felt like there was a lot not being said.
Not even getting into the whole STD (I’m sorry, i’m still not hip enough to switch over to STI when I reference these things) crisis which would obviously errupt if a bunch of high school students know they won’t get knocked up and will find no real reason to wear any form of protection, what about the still very real flood of teenage hormones that will be thrown around in the process?
I don’t give sex the merit some people do. I don’t think your “special gift” is something you should cherish until marriage and you will one day regret not doing so if you get deflowered a little too soon. But sex is complicated. It can make a relationship difficult. It finds a way to weave itself in and out of almost every aspect of someone’s life, and I don’t think it should be taken as lightly as “it feels good.”
If you take the risk of getting pregnant away, that does not make sex any less… messy. It wouldn’t take away the jealousy and the vulnerability, the passion or the fear. It wouldn’t make men beg for it any less, or make women less likely to feel pressure to have it. In fact, being able to say, “but we won’t get pregnant” would only take away one of the less embarassing reasons a girl/woman can use when, contrary to all the commercial, shows, magazines, and movies, they’re just not ready.
The over simplification of sex runs parallel with the disaster of pretending sex doesn’t exist among teens and young adults. When you don’t look at the many facets of it, ignorance is rampant. You may not have a baby because of it, but you will have a woman questioning whether her worth lies in her intelligence or her vagina.
*sighs*
Sex, with or without potential babies, just can never be that simple.
~krystle
