Countering the Culture of Sex

Countering the Culture of Sex

Over the past twenty years teenage pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases between teenagers have been growing problems in the United States. In two articles, “Countering the Culture of Sex,” by Ellen Goodman and “Moms have strong impact on teen sexual activity,” by Daniel B. Wood solutions are brought as to how we can solve these growing problems. One text spends its time picking at the media, while the other shines the light on parents and guardians. Both writings push our society to see what is happening to the teenagers of our country, and asks our citizens to do something about it. While there is no clarity as to which paper has a greater understanding of how to solve this matter, by combining the ideas of both texts a solution is brought about that is sure to make an impact positively for this cause.

In “Countering the Culture of Sex,” by Ellen Goodman, the author paints the portrait of a community that sells sex to kids just as easily as it sells any merchandise. Goodman says that the images broadcast to teenagers day in and day out creates this illustration of a world with no consequences for unprotected acts of sexual behavior. She says that teenagers are more greatly influenced by their favorite television stars than they are by their own parents. Teenagers are watching their favorite celebrities having unprotected sex with no “reality”. Television does not show its characters getting pregnant at sixteen or contracting HIV. The argument in this literary work is that children are fed a false image of sex and thus do not know what they are getting themselves into when they have unprotected sex. The author calls on Congress to get involved, “These messages that kids actually listen to ought to be piped into the hearing rooms where Congress is busy concocting a new welfare policy”. Goodman wraps up the article with a little sexual truth-in-advising, “one part passion to two parts diapers”.

In “Moms have strong impact on teen sexual activity,” by Daniel B. Wood, the idea of parents having greater influence on their children than our society has given them credit for in recent years is used. Wood claims that parents are the key to keeping our children from making the mistake of unprotected and uneducated sex. This article reports that “21 percent of boys and 19 percent of girls have engaged in sexual intercourse before the age of fourteen.