Here’s a link to an article about a recent study on teen sex. Seems that declining rates of teen sexual activity and rising rates of condom use have both leveled off. So while it used to be that fewer teenagers were having sex (however the survey defined that) and more were using condoms, we cannot [...]
For the last week or so there have been a whole series of stories about a police raid on a community of polygamists in Texas. The most recent story from the New York Times is here, but there’s a ton of coverage anywhere. The police have focused on allegations of child abuse which are apparently [...]
This is one of those “sign of the times” sort of stories. Here’s a story about a couple of young women in Alabama who, after the intercession of a state court judge, attended their high school prom as a couple. I cannot even tell you how amazing it is to me that these young women [...]
An interesting article from Newsweek. What to make of the subject of the story. Is this an instance of youth showing the way to gender equity? The author suggests not, but why? Is it, as one of the subjects suggests, a safe way to experiment and/or just have fun? Again, why? The only thing [...]
Two stories about a new study on rates of sexually transmitted disease infections among female teenagers. (The NYT refers to the subjects as “teenage women” while MSNBC calls them “teenage girls.” 
Putting the linguistic fine points aside, the results are troubling, to say the least. Rates of infection [...]
April 25 is the National Day of Silence. As you can see, this is a national effort to focus attention on discrimination and harassment faced by lesbian/gay/transgender students. (This year’s Day of Silence focuses especially on the murder of Lawrence King.) As I understand it, students observing the [...]
Here’s an article about a problem that crops up from time to time. (The Genarlow Wilson case is a more widely known instance of a similar problem.) Consensual sex between two relatively young people isn’t anything new. And it is interesting to think about the cultural/historical forces that have lead [...]
Here’s a fascinating little story. Advertising has become increasingly sexualized and there are all sorts of pressures to push the envelope. Note too that this involves images of men as well as women, which might give new dimensions to some questions.
Many of you may recall a fairly high profile case within the last year involving a young man from Georgia who was sentenced to a long prison sentence after engaging in consensual oral sex with a 15 year old girl. You could get an overview from the Wikipedia entry which will in turn lead you [...]
A couple of quick links. Here’s a NYT editorial on rising AIDS rates among younger gay men. And here is a recent op-ed about teen pregnancy.
The latter essay opens a whole complicated area we might consider in class. Surely for each of us there are some legitimate concerns about adolescent sexual practices as well [...]
