AMERICA'S ALTERNATIVE SEX EDUCATION
HIV puts scare into California porn industry

From the Los Angeles Daily News via the Houston Chronicle:

Much of the multibillion-dollar adult-movie business in Southern California has halted production and banned nearly four dozen actors and actresses from working after two tested positive for HIV, industry officials said.

Companies that churn out movies in what is estimated to be a $9 billion to $10 billion industry annually took a cautionary approach to the scare, which was revealed by the health agency that the industry created several years ago as part of its self-policing of sexually transmitted diseases.

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I first read this on Friday at the school where I teach. After reading the article, I looked out at my students who were busy working on their assignments, and it struck me that this story has much wider ramifications than simply within the porn industry.

Consider these facts. High school sex education in American public schools is lousy--even the lucky schools that use "comprehensive" rather than the fundamentalist Christian driven "abstinence based" sex ed programs deal far more with issues of sexual health and biology than they do with issues of sexual roles, sexual technique, and sexual etiquette. Most teens, however, are quite interested in the latter topics, and many tend to do their own research in those areas. Given that a recent study shows that nearly 50% of American internet users visit (more like “admit to visiting”) pornography sites, it doesn't take a genius to realize that a lot of these people are teenagers. My bet is that much of the aforementioned research is done at these sites (and in the back seats of cars, but that's another story). In other words, pornography, for better or worse, has become a de facto alternative form of sex education.

This is bad.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like porn. Much more than I'm willing to admit. However, pornography is not sex education: porn sends out lots of negative and harmful messages. Pornography tends to objectify women. That is, women are almost always portrayed as completely willing to have lots of sex with pretty much any man who pops onto the screen waving his willy--this is not at all like real life, and certainly not at all like my own personal experience. Pornography rarely shows anybody's feelings being hurt, rarely shows anyone feeling used or burned by macho-asshole attitude--this, too, is not at all like real life. Most importantly, pornography never shows the negative consequences of unprotected sex. No one gets pregnant; no one gets any sexually transmitted diseases--again, this is not at all like real life.

I must repeat: this post is not to be construed as being anti-pornography. Rather, my point is that the young impressionable minds that are being horribly failed by our public schools are very likely picking up some very negative ideas about sex from pornography. The solution to this problem is not to ban pornography (which I like, and censorship is, after all, unAmerican): the solution is to develop sex ed programs that understand the true realities of teen lives, that are non-judgmental, and that are open, honest, and unafraid of human sexuality.

However, given that our overall society is in denial about teen sexuality, is very judgmental about sex, and is narrow-minded, dishonest, and scared shitless about sex, I'm not going to be holding my breath waiting for such programs to be implemented.

Just another cause for despair in 21st century America.

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