abstinence only education is so bad for a billion reasons already thoroughly outlined by everyone with the most basic curiosity in how literally any aspect of human sexuality works, but the thing I keep thinking about lately is how effective it is at reinforcing the ideology that sex is inherently for reproduction and that any erotic behavior that doesn’t include potential for reproduction somehow is not sex.
like the line “there is no 100% effective pregnancy prevention except sexual abstinence” was repeated probably dozens of times in every health class I ever had.
I wish I could go back in time & walk into those rooms as an adult dyke and be like, interesting. What about fucking someone with a silicone strap? what about two people frotting or tribbing? what about eating pussy or ass or sucking dick or clit? what about a man without semen fucking a woman without ovaries? what about docking? what about jacking each other off while making out? what about sucking strap? what about scratching a butch’s back with long nails?
The argument falls apart as soon as you’re even mildly aware that reproduction can only happen under very specific & limited forms of sex. which of course is why they have to define all other sexual activity as sodomy that’s evil and perverted to do. it’s all such a fucking joke
Which is also how kids end up with STDs and being so shocked about it because they weren't even "having sex"! They were just "messing around", which should be safe, right?
If you only teach them to abstain from penetrative intercourse and don't even mention all the Other Stuff or how to be safe about it, that's a massive knowledge gap. Which can leave kids vulnerable to injury, illness, and distress that could easily have been avoided with proper education.
