Earlier this week, in a class on adolescent life, my entire grade was given a homework assignment where we had to purchase condoms. Along with the assignment, we were also given a sheet to fill out. On the sheet, we had to write down the type of condom, price, where we bought them, and whether the sales clerk was male or female. In addition to this, we had to mention our level of comfort while purchasing the condoms, if we went alone or with a friend, and if we thought that condoms should be distributed to the high school. It was really interesting, because I saw that my friends had various levels of comfort doing the assignment, ranging from comfortable to very nervous. There were even some people who were so nervous about it that they made their friends do the assignment for them!

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Things happen in life that we have to learn to overcome.
Sometimes people will use the words ‘I love you’ to take advantage of you.
Sometimes people will lie to you to protect you, but at the end the truth will come out & they will hurt you.
But after you been hurt so much, the pain becomes numb to you, you learn how to take all that pain & turn it into strength.

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Everyone must have heard of Gonorrhea as some kind of disease, but does everyone know what exactly the disease is, and how it has become an epidemic problem in the United States and potentially the entire world?

Gonorrhea is caused by a bacterium, Neisseria Gonorrhoeae, and can be passed from person to person through any type of sex. The infection can be spread by contact with the mouth, vagina, penis, or anus. Symptoms of gonorrhea usually appear within 2 – 5 days after the infection, however, in men, symptoms can take up to a month to appear and for majority of males they do not show any symptoms at all. Symptoms in women are very mild and nonspecific. When symptoms do become prominent for women they will mistake gonorrhea for another type of infection. [Check out the article in the New York Times for specific symptoms: http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/gonorrhea/overview.html]. If the infection is left untreated it will lead to: Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) for women, Epididymitis for men, Arthritis, Meningitis, Infertility, and death.

On the other hand, if gonorrhea is detected at its early stage it is curable. There are certain specific antibiotics that scientists have discovered that will help the body fight off the disease. Unfortunately, scientists, recently, have found gonorrhea strains in Japan that resisted antibiotics. In July 2011 government health officials announced that gonorrhea, the second most common sexually transmitted disease, “is becoming increasingly resistant to the last type of antibiotics left to treat it.” [New York Times: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/worries-about-a-gonorrhea-superbug/]. Although it is stated that there are no resistant strains found in the United States, scientists are becoming increasingly worried because Neisseria Gonorrhoeae has an amazing ability to mutate itself on its cell surface for people to develop resistance to antibiotics. What is more frightening is the fact that this bacteria will continually try to mutate itself into a form that will prevent the body from accepting any type of antibiotics.

The moral of this blog post is not to scare anybody, but to inform and educate people that there is a specific strain of gonorrhea out there that is resistant to antibiotics. Gonorrhea infection is not a joke and all people have to do is protect themselves from gonorrhea and other STD’s by using a condom. Any STI can have the potential to develop into a superbug and resist antibiotics and if everyone knows how to protect themselves, maybe in 2040, all STI’s will be eradicated including HIV.

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Men in porn are often regarded as sleazy, chauvinistic, and vain, but there is no denying that they enjoy their professions because, well, why the hell wouldn’t they? Most of their male fans are, on varying levels, jealous of their extremely raunchy, active, and public sex lives, as well as their incredibly gracious endowment (seriously, female pornstars don’t know whether they’re supposed to have sex with them or feed them peanuts). No remotely libidinous boy or man would ever feel sorry for a pornstar with a Y chromosome because, after all, they are living the male dream: having sex, and a lot of it.

Female pornstars, on the other hand; well, guys certainly get off to them, but does anybody regard them as lucky? Whenever they come up in conversation, they are predicted to have been abused or molested as children, perhaps forced into the profession by a loving-boyfriend-turned-pimp, and are almost always beheld with sorrow.

Female pornstars- we tend to feel bad for them. God forbid our daughters develop anorexia after seeing how thin they are, and god forbid they start having sex after stumbling across internet porn.

Why?

Yes, I do believe that porn can be exploitative and often is, but is it not as exploitative to men as it is to women? Can boys not develop poor body images after watching men with twelve packs and twelve inch penises have rough sex with girls who weigh twelve pounds? Can male pornstars not feel incompetent when they have to pop Viagra every time they have to shoot a scene, or degraded when they are declined a job because his penis doesn’t suggest that he is part horse?

Lastly, can a woman not enjoy having sex on film as much as a man can? Perhaps the most degrading part of being a female pornstar is the fact that nobody believes that she could possibly be enjoying herself.

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Back Up Your Birth Control Teen Night was great! A night for teens to learn about the many different types of contraception out there and how effective they are.

On February 8, 2012, me, Sheniece, Tamara, and Brandon hosted the 2nd annual Back Up Your Birth Control Teen Night. The highlight of the event was giving the facts on EC (emergency contraception). I had a blast watching the groups create their commercials and performing them. We divided the groups into small groups, gave each group a method of contraception and they came up with amazing commercials. Getting into groups helped the teens to interact and share ideas. At the end of the event, teens left with great contraception facts that they can share with their peers. Coming soon … IUD Teen Night! Stay tuned.

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I think that Plan B should be available over the counter for people of all ages. It’s important that people have access to emergency contraception so that they would not get into any situations like unplanned pregnancy. Giving all people access to Plan B would not promote careless behavior. People would more likely be responsible if they are aware of the types of contraceptives that are available to them, and they will also take control of their personal health and be more aware on how to take care of themselves. It’s liberating for people to be able to have this type of control over their bodies. People should be able to plan parenting, so providing them with access to safe contraception methods is the best way to ensure that.

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Yesterday I was on the train when I overheard a teenage boy talking to his friend about gay parenting. He said “I think it’s fucked up when two men or two women try to raise a kid. Their child is bound to end up fucked up.”

His friend replied “Word. If I didn’t have a mom and a dad who raised me I don’t think I would have ended up normal.”

The boy who initiated the anti-gay parenting rant dissented, saying “don’t say that man. That’s fucked up. I never met my dad…he left my mom before I was born!”

Was something lost in translation?

I grew up in a broken home. Most of my friends grew up in broken homes. We are all perfectly functional members of society.

Not despite, but rather in spite, of what I just said, I would have rather have had two moms or two dads who loved each other than two parents of opposite sexes who couldn’t reconcile their differences, any day.

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As I was getting ready for school Friday morning, I performed my morning routines checking myself out in the mirror as I tuned into Z100. To my surprise, they were reporting a story about a 15-year-old girl who deliberately jumped in front of a bus, committing suicide on December 27, 2011. Her name was Amanda Cummings and she was a victim of bullying. What continues to shock people all over is that Amanda is still being bullied after her death. A memorial page was set up for Amanda and people posted disturbing messages, videos, and pictures mocking her death. Amanda’s Facebook posts had shown signs of her depression, directly saying that she would end her life.

The line was already crossed at bullying itself. I would have never imagined that it could be taken even further into mocking someone after they have taken their own life because of what you have done. I viewed some of the comments and posts that people left on her wall, and even if Amanda hadn’t taken her own life, saying such things is unacceptable. It is never a laughing matter when someone wishes death on you and especially when someone wishes their own death. This happened right in Staten Island, right in New York. As a teen of the region, I feel ashamed and embarrassed that young people who bully people to such extremes are representing all NYC teens. These teens are proving stereotypes about teenagers to be true. I’m pretty sure they all have consciences and the better judgment to know that bullying is wrong and even when someone else is doing it, that doesn’t mean that you have to jump on the bandwagon and follow suit. People are born as individuals to contribute what greatness they possess to the rest of the world. They shouldn’t be put down or ridiculed for what they are and you can learn from them and them from you.

Another disturbing part of this story is that a popular social network, Facebook, is being used to bully people. The site was made to socialize, have fun, and share information to be shared with the world and your selected friends. Facebook workers have launched their own anti-bullying campaign on the website acknowledging the problem.

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Recently I saw an advertisement with Angela Simmons and was confused by the message they were trying to portray. The only thing that was running through my mind was how nice her body looked. It turns out that the ad was about becoming a vegetarian and was sponsored by PETA. I noticed that many of PETA’s ads display people looking like they are posing for Play Boy or something. They use sex as a way to raise awareness about animal cruelty which is certainly eye catching but it can also take away the primary message of their cause. Instead of focusing on animal cruelty I end up looking past that message and just looking at the beautiful face. It’s important for organizations like PETA to try and connect with people in other ways than just sex especially when these ads would be seen by a younger audience. We want them to take action against animal cruelty not just to idolize their favorite celebrities.

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Sex, and the implications thereof, differ from culture to culture, from era to era, and from individual to individual. For most Americans, the notion that one should wait until marriage to have sex is uber conservative and outdated- even my parents and grandparents admit to having engaged in premarital sex.

While it does seem like the rules governing proper sexual conduct are loosening up and allowing today’s American youth (and the youth of citizens of virtually any relatively secular nation) to feel free to experiment sexually to a certain degree, it seems to me that, as a general rule, I find that from year to year, sex means less and less to teens of comparable ages.

I, along with a hefty portion of my peers- am comfortable ‘hooking up’ with platonic friends, casual acquaintances, and sometimes even girls whose names I never bother to learn. My mother, savvy to the sexual freedoms of teenagers in the 21^st century, asked me recently “the way that you guys hook up so frequently- can sex ever be special for you?” The question took me aback, and made me reflect on my personal experiences with a medley of girls, in comparison to my now ex-girlfriend, who I loved. The notion never crossed my mind that sex can be two completely different things with two different people, though I was obviously familiar with that fact in a way that I never bothered to verbalize.

Intellectually, I feel conflicted. If, on mother’s day, I give every person I see on the street a dozen roses, and my mother sees me give all of these roses out, I’m sure she would not appreciate the flowers as much when I finally handed them to her. Contrarily, my grandmother gives me sloppy kisses on my lips (I chalk it up to poor depth perception)- the same sort of kiss would mean something entirely different to me if it were delivered by a girl who I was attracted to, and yet, something different from even that if it were delivered by I girl who I loved.

As with most things sexual, I tend to spend a lot of time analyzing, and then a lot of time trying to forget, because, ultimately, you hit a wall. There is no field guide to understanding problems of this nature, and ultimately, you have to just go with your gut and do whatever feels right to you.

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