Promiscuity and Carelessness in the Modern Day
Times have certainly changed from how things used to be. A great benchmark would be modern TV and the FCC with regard to how much "swearing" now passes on TV shows nowadays. Words like "bitch", "bastard", "slut" and etc are now part of modern vocabulary for TV show scripts when about a decade ago they were not acceptable language for society. With vernacular changing, so have behavior or even conceptions of life. Which it's honestly not surprising, because our modern society has advanced far on many facets but as far as not matured accordingly.
The big thing that bothers me is irresponsibility and promiscuity of today's youth on their view of sex. It's not something to be taken lightly, yet on the flip side, you hear tons of stories (and/or local gossip) of 10 - 12 year old children being enticed to sex. Be it a 10 - 12 year old couple being caught in the school bathroom having sex or older sexual predators trying to take advantage of their naive nature to sex, it's almost like a step backwards into the Dark Ages so to speak. Maybe it was alright in the Dark Ages to have sex at an early age to begin propagating a blood line due to the horrors of famine, disease, and pestilence, but life expectancies were unfortunately short and/or tragic back then. Sex was not often thought of for pleasure, but in the modern day, sex is now regarded as an act of pleasure with the passing years. Unfortunately, the well-intentioned purpose of birth control is often misconstrued as the younger generations just don't seem to understand their proper uses.
Disclaimer: I do not oppose the views of pro-choice or pro-life, so keep this argument out of your mind for the next few points. I am trying to focus on the semantics of sex, not a preaching on what my beliefs are in regards to pro-choice or pro-life.
Condoms, probably the oldest method of birth control dating back to ancient civilizations. The original purpose being self explanatory and it has quite a bit of history to it all. Some civilizations even today have banned their use or forbid of even endorsing their use. With the modern day and the new discoveries that sexually transmitted diseases now making their appearance, it really changes their purpose now as disease barriers in addition to circumventing the start of a new human life. Their only flaw being that improper use can still result in a 10% - 20% chance of pregnancy. The primary benefit is that they are easy to obtain in most markets without any difficulties as well as not requiring a prescription to purchase them.
Female birth control pills, patches, and other forms have been a dicey topic to some countries as it empowers women with a choice. By empowering women in nations where the male has complete authority, it brings up all sorts of unwanted things that the conservative systems do not desire. There are the bad side effects such as more water retention, weight gain, incompatibilities due to body chemistry. On the good side of the spectrum, there are cases where acne clears up or good results in controlling irregular and erratic period cycles. This is one form where some young women know the purpose is to inhibit the body from becoming pregnant and understand that, but as well as a point of view where the woman cannot become pregnant at all (misconstrued at best). Though some women have misconstrued the use of birth control pills (or patches, IUD's, etc) as preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, which has been disproved and there is a disclaimer stating such. This is a form where it is quite difficult to obtain as it may require periodical exams before a prescription may be written for purchasing the birth control. This will lead into my last big point...
The most controversial form of birth control is ultimately (in 2007's standards) the "Morning-after Pill" or Plan B (in America). It has been around since 1970 with a mechanism of delivering a potent dose of Levonorgestrel to the woman's hormonal system causing a simulated state of pregnancy to inhibit the pregnancy to even occur for up to 72 hours from the event. For the longest time, the medication has been prescription only from a standard doctor's office or a licensed medical professional at a Planned Parenthood center. This would be the case until 2006... you would never see many people entering a pharmacy just to get Plan B through prescription, but in 2006, when the FDA changed the drug's classification from a prescription to an over the counter medication... The headlines exploded with provoking stories on how immorality would fester from this event. Planned Parenthood even had a campaign that would cast out retailers like Target or Wal-Mart for not stocking the Plan B tablets, but many public relations representatives from the big companies stated very firmly that they had not reached contract deals for distribution yet. Although, Planned Parenthood even has gone as far as having random "spot-checks" to make sure that retailers have it readily available for sale as well as making sure that pharmacy staff is not letting religious bias get in the way of selling the Plan B medication. The part about Plan B making its way to the common public like any other product, such as weight loss pills, is that the significance of the drug is quickly lost. Some young women now feel that a condom is almost unnecessary as Plan B can now circumvent unsafe sex. The former scenario was the typical sex, but condom broke, panic ensues and then the debate on seeing a Planned Parenthood for a prescription of Plan B or keep the unwanted pregnancy. The scenario now changes to sex without a condom and then just non-nonchalantly going to the pharmacy on the next morning to purchase Plan B. It's almost like the young women nowadays don't even care for the short course of sexual education all due to a pharmaceutical "miracle".
I am not condemning women who've been raped and have a truly dignified reason to be using Plan B, as I know some women who have been raped and can understand they do not wish to be haunted by a living reminder of their attacker. But at another viewpoint, the effects have not been studied extensively from overusing emergency contraceptives... So in the case of a woman who was the former "sex party girl" who finally finds a respectable man to be her husband and wishes to bear his children, if she abuses the use of Plan B to stop unwanted pregnancies... there's not enough sufficient data to say that her ability to bear children has been damaged from excessive use of emergency contraception.
In my observation, I feel that the American curriculum for sexual education could use a modern day refresher course to deal with modern changes in culture. Reflecting back on the course curriculum I received in 5th grade and 9th grade, it was poor education at best. If the American public is concerned with the taboo of premarital sex, then they should step up and take a stand in ensuring that proper sexual education can be given to reinforce than sex is not simple... it complicates things beyond the scope of "it feels good" or "it's just for fun... right?" to a more life changing scale.
