A step away from teaching kids brahmacarya?

[Guest guest]

http://www.mtulode.com/article.php?articleId=268

 

Published the week of 2006-09-27

 

Let's talk about sex

By: Benton Martin

 

Let’s talk about sex. Truth be told, if something flashes the word sex, I’m

likely to look at it. We all know sex sells; Hollywood, clothing lines,

musicians all thrive off of our natural drive and yearn for sexual

relations. I feel the urge to be sexually active and realize that it’s

something I intensely desire, but before we unbuckle and settle for blindly

pursuing our cravings, what are the effects of this foreplay-rich culture we

participate in?

 

Jean Twenge writes in her new book “Generation Me” that Americans of our

generation have more sexually liberal views than any generation before this.

Her study was the largest of its kind, having interviewed 1.3 million young

people to try and figure out our generation (she has a Ph.D. in Psychology,

so it’s her job to figure things like this out). On top of discovering the

active sexual status of our age group, she also discovered something else:

we are also more anxious and depressed than any other generation before us.

 

Of course this anxiety and depression can’t be linked solely to sex. Baby

boomers have put unprecedented demands for achievement on their children,

which has caused many failed expectations to develop from young people

aiming at perfection at a time when our country is more competitive than

ever. At the same time, we can’t overlook the fact that our rise in sexual

activity hasn’t had a positive effect on our personal fulfillment. It

appears sometimes to reach true fulfillment. We have to deny the fulfillment

of certain desires.

 

Analysis by Kirk Johnson, Ph.D. agrees. In a study published online by the

Heritage Foundation, Johnson and fellow researchers uncovered that while

25.3 percent of sexually active teen girls report struggling with

depression, only 7.7 percent of non-sexually active teen girls struggle with

the same issue. Similarly, but not as drastic, 8.3 percent of sexually

active guys reported having dealt with depression versus only 3.4 percent of

non-sexually active guys. Also, girls who have had intercourse are almost

three times as likely to commit suicide and guys who have had intercourse

are six times as likely. The message is clear: being sexually promiscuous

only hurts us.

 

Being at Michigan Tech, I constantly hear of friends who give themselves

away sexually to other friends. I cringe when it’s so often celebrated. When

we allow ourselves to give into our sex drives, we end up hurting ourselves

and others. I feel that it’s imperative that we view sexual flirting,

foreplay and intercourse as just as serious as they are. I’m convinced that

if you really love someone, you’ll wait until you’re fully committed to that

person before you engage them in the deepest physical, and often emotion,

manner possible.