**Admin. Note: You know what it is. Vote. Again. **
So via Wise Diva by way of Liz, I received an email that I found to be of the utmost interest-ance.
It was a link to an NPR audio essay entitled: S*x Without C*nd*ms Is The New Engagement Ring.
I think you can see where this is going. To wit:
Thursday, as part of Day to Day‘s series “What’s the New What,” Pendarvis Harshaw, a teen who grew up in Oakland offers his own provocative take on the California relationship dream. “Sex without [sleeping bags] is the new engagement ring,” he suggested in an on-air essay. Among his friends and acquaintances, ditching the [sleeping bags] for other forms of birth control like the pill, signifies taking monogamy to a new level; partners are required to trust each other completely at the risk of getting an STD. Given that few of his friends in their late teens are thinking much about marriage, this transforms a prophylactic into a relationship sign-post along the lines of an engagement ring.
If you can you really must listen to the audio essay but the gist is covered in that blurb. It’s the type of stuff that a teen would say. Definitively. Hell, I’m sure when I was a teen I said something along the lines of, “girl, we don’t need those condoms, we got love! I trust you and you trust me, so let’s trust one another and let nature be what it was supposed to be. After we’re done making possibly the dumbest decision of our lives let’s watch cartoons and talk about deep stuff like The Hills Run’s House Baldwin Hills communism.”
Interesting enough, in his essay, he alludes to the fact that these kids are highly informed of the potential dangers of STD’s and HIV, in particular, which is why the decision to go wrap-less is such an indicator of trust and commitment. Talk about an enigmatic ironic paradox. One individual even went so far as to say that, “having relations with no condom is like saying, ‘i love you’ without actually saying it.”
Forgive me father for I know not what I do (that’s not actually true), but I must quote Lil’ Wayne here:
“Safe sex is great sex
Better wear a latex
Cuz you dont want that late text
that “I think I’m late” text”
-”Lollipop (Remix)”
But somehow, in teenage logic, it makes sense that going raw, better yet, premeditatedly going raw is the same as offering up the supreme level of commitment. Teenage thought patters can definitely be shortsighted. Especially considering how none of these youngin’s have any desires for matrimony or the things that happen when you go raw children.
Of course, the comments on said post have been off the chizzain – you should check them out. Quite a few people think this is the most ignant thing they’ve ever heard in life. Can’t say i disagree though when taking it context the reasoning becomes quite clear and simple:
Lack of good parenting.
But perhaps I’m being shortsighted and his rationale makes sense to some people out there. Some people think it’s not ignant at all and, dare I say, makes sense. Consequently, I’d never leave these people with my children.
Good people of the VSB Bloggerhood, what say thee? Is this just another misguided youth from the streets that bore Stanley Burrell? Or is it possible that this young man is on to something and perhaps wise beyond his years?
-VSB P aka THE ARSONIST
