There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned abstinence essay contest.
The fourth annual abstinence essay contest held by the Wayne County Health Department in North Carolina announced its winners recently.
In addition to small scholarships and gift certificates to the local mall, students also received “a t-shirt, abstinence bracelet, and gift certificate from McDonalds.� Can I get oral with that? (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)
The first place winner, 17 year-old Brandy Hardison, is the current Miss Teen Heartland.
"Dad made me do it. I'm glad he made me do it," she said. In her entry, she said she keeps a picture of her parents in her head and lives by the cliché, "your body is a temple."
Living by a cliché is scary enough. But “Dad made me do it?� What is it with these abstinence folks and their Daddy issues? In any case, I know I’m cruel to poke fun. It’s just when I read Hardison’s winning essay, I thought this excerpt was simply brilliant:
I view my virginity as a gift to my future husband. I don't know him yet, but I know he's going to be deserving of my love and for my waiting for him.... and all those punk guys I dated in high school will not come close in comparison.
Love it.
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"I view my virginity as a gift to my future husband. I don't know him yet, but I know he's going to be deserving of my love and for my waiting for him.... and all those punk guys I dated in high school will not come close in comparison."
Why not just give your future husband a condom seeing as he won't have been pushed the to make the same kind of pledges and could be carrying anything because he wasn't taught about contraception at school....
.... and is she saying punk guys can't be nice :)
If virginity is that valuable you'd think the winner would get more than small scholarships, gift certificates and fries.
Just saying...
Oh, and what are the odds that said future husband obstained for his future wife? Isn't she just as worth it to wait for? Highly unlikely that boys are being taught that.
This is just... sad.
It's sad to see a 17 year old with daddy issues that will haunt her for the rest of her life. It's sad that the best prize they could give her was McDonalds. It's sad to see the patriarchy and double standards laid out so clear. But I think what is saddest of all is that this poor girl will never live her life for herself. She'll live it for her father or some ambigious future husband, but not herself. She'll never have wild sex with abandon. She'll never make mistakes that make her cringe at age 30, but that shape her so fundamentally that she would never undo them. She'll never make her own choices, good or bad. And that's just... sad.
Those had better be some damn good fries.
From the essay: "Life doesn't have to be so complicated, there once was a time of innocence." Sure, honey.
to be fair, she also got 1000$ for college. the fries part just made me laugh.
I actually think abstinence is something I will encourage for my kids (female or male), as I do think the consequences of unintended pregnancy or STDs can be horrible and often young people are not ready for the emotional repercussions that can go along with sex. (Wow, I think that may be the most conservative thing I've ever said.) Anyway, that being said, encouraging abstinence and being naive enough to think that will stop them from having sex-- well, that's just burying your head in the sand. I also plan to provide in depth sex education and to make birth control accessible and acceptible.
Others have already commented on the double standard issue, so I want to point out a couple of other things that irk me about this essay.
First, I think it's sad that this girl has been taught the self-righteous notion that only virgins are "pure," like somehow people (excuse me, WOMEN) who have had sex are tainted. God, how puritanical can you get?
Secondly, who taught her that promoting birth control is a bad thing? Way to go, folks, that will protect her!
What a joke. But I'm sure daddy's proud. Ugh.
DO YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT SHAKE??
(couldn't resist)
Presumably this young woman chooses her own dates in highschool (unless her father does it for her?). Why does she only pick "punk guys"? (I assume that she is using "punk" as a generic dismissive descriptor, as opposed to the safety-pins-and-black-leather-studded -dog-collars punks.) Where does she think that her future husband is going to come from - one assumes that he would have gone to high school himself at some point?