Contemporary Sexuality - September 2008 - (Page 4)

The Myth of Teen Promiscuity continued from page 1 “Here are America’s girls: experienced beyond their years, lacking any clear message from the adult community about the importance of protecting their modesty, adrift in one of the most explicitly sexualized cultures in the history of the world. Here are America’s girls: on their knees.” — Caitlin Flanagan, Atlantic Monthly data from 99 people (resulting in 10 cases of syphilis), researchers sought to uncover how social networks spread the infection. Other facts of the cases prompted media attention and societal worry. Most of the girls were under age 16; the boys were slightly older. The girls were white; the boys were white and black. The blunts they smoked were often laced with marijuana or cocaine. The parties took place in a place where parents didn’t fear for their offspring’s safety: home. (Parents were at work or away for the evening.) In 1999, PBS broadcast “The Lost Children of Rockdale County,” a Frontline documentary about the sex, drugs and alcohol parties in suburban Atlanta. Soon, many Americans began to believe teenagers were engaging in indiscriminate oral sex outside of the context of a relationship. Here’s a sampling of media attention focused on the issue: In 2002, Oprah Winfrey dedicated a show to the issue, claiming there was a national “oral sex epidemic.” On the same episode of the popular daytime television program, Dr. Phil castigated a teenage girl, saying, “When you’re saying ‘It’s just friends,’ let me tell you … a friend doesn’t ask you to go in the bathroom, get on your knees in a urine-splattered tile floor and stick their penis in your mouth. That’s not what I call a friend.” Lilith, a progressive Jewish magazine, worried about alleged oral sex parties where girls serviced boys on buses after bar mitzvahs. An excerpt: “No one is suggesting, even for a moment, that Jewish teens are leading the oral sex revolution. But they may have earlier and more frequent opportunities for sexual contact in a supercharged social milieu than their nonJewish peers.” What really ignited reports of an increase in teen oral sex was a novel called “The Rainbow Party,” by Paul Ruditis. The protagonist of the book, a high school sophomore named Gin, invites guys to her house, promising them a series of blow jobs by girls wearing different color lipstick. By the time the party ended, they’d walk away with rainbow-colored penises. In a 2006 article in The Atlantic Monthly, journalist Caitlin Flanagan summarized her reporting on the issue this way: “Here are America’s girls: experienced beyond their years, lacking any clear message from the adult community about the importance of protecting their modesty, adrift in one of the most explicitly sex- Rachel Jones (top), John Santelli (bottom) ualized cultures in the history of the world. Here are America’s girls: on their knees.” Inadequate data and ‘moral panic’ The only data Flanagan relied on in her lengthy article was a 2005 report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that showed 55 percent of teens had engaged in oral sex compared to about one-half who had engaged in vaginal sex. From that, Flanagan (and many other reporters) speculated that many teens had oral sex outside the context of a relationship. A pair of headlines from USA Today in 2005 asserted: “Teens define sex in new ways: Shocked parents don’t understand casual attitude” and “‘Technical virginity’ becomes part of teens’ equation.” Santelli, a Columbia University professor at the Mailman School of Public Health, believes fears about a teen oral sex craze were based on a series of studies with small sample sizes and improperly interpreted CDC data. “When those early reports came out they got sensationalized. That’s not to say there’s not a real risk of STD transmission, but it’s not new and it’s not an epidemic,” he said. Yet the idea of “rainbow parties” scared many American parents. “It probably had nothing to do with reality,” Santelli said. “It was a moral panic. There’s this myth that teens are engaged in promiscuous non relational sex. Some teens do have have multiple partners, but it’s not true of most teens. They are interested in real relationships and they want to be responsible.” In the Guttmacher study, Lindberg, Jones and Santelli wrote, “It has been suggested that serial 4 Contemporary Sexuality www.aasect.org | September 2008 Vol. 42, No. 9 http://www.aasect.org

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Contemporary Sexuality - September 2008 Contents The Myth of Teen Promiscuity Member Spotlight Book Reviews News of Members Quick Hits: Sex in the News Reflections on AASECT's Annual Meeting

Contemporary Sexuality - September 2008

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