Contrary to popular belief, 52%
of teens are not sexually active.
58% of teenagers believe high school
teens should not engage in sexual
activity, even if precautions are
taken against pregnancy or STDs.
I believe that society should tell
teens to remain abstinent, at least
until they graduate from high school.
My fear of high school pregnancy
or STDs is the main reason I’m
abstinent. Media messages make early
sexual behavior appear normal to
teens and that "everybody's
doing it."
Teenagers now have the fastest-increasing
rate of HIV infection in the United
States. 25 percent of the 40,000
new HIV infections reported annually
occur among young people aged thirteen
to twenty-one.
I don't think boys have as much
pressure on them to have sex as
girls do. I've heard many boys say
that they have just as much pressure,
but girls don't usually leave their
boyfriends because he won't engage
in sexual acts with her. Females
are usually the ones to be pressured
into things, and if we don't do
what he wants then he will move
onto the next girl who will.
I choose to remain abstinent until
marriage because I think I would
lose respect for myself if I didn't.
There are also too many risks involved
with engaging in sexual activity
when you're an unmarried teen. I
don't judge people who have, but
I’m not going to let anybody
pressure me into something I don't
want to do.
I'm not a very religious person,
but I believe that premarital sex
is one of the worse sins a person
can commit. If the person loves
you back, he or she should be willing
to wait.
It's almost impossible to turn on
the television without glimpsing
or hearing a sexual innuendo on
a show. I think we should be able
to watch TV without having sexually
related subjects shoved down our
throats. I listen to rap music but
I don't watch music videos much
because almost of all of them have
people half naked dancing around.
I don't expect everything on TV
to be like "The Cosby Show"
but it would be nice if shows were
less sexually oriented because the
next generation of teens are coming
along. This might increase teen
abstinence percentages.
I think many people would probably
disagree with me. People who think
they need to have sex before marriage
aren’t being thinking very
clearly because they risk pregnancy,
STDs, and many other problems. It's
easier and less complicated to just
wait until you're married and you
know the person you're involved
with.
My mom said she didn't remember
that there were any pregnant girls
when she was in school. I think
that's because back then TV was
much more filtered than it is now.
Now the media makes it seem like
it's okay to do what you want and
that there are no consequences for
anything.
Even if there were programs on television
to educate teens on abstinence,
I don't think people would watch
them because our minds are already
too polluted and not many teens
are going to watch anything educational.
I don't know many teens who would
agree with me on this but I don't
care because how someone else feels
isn't going to change my decision
to remain abstinent. Several people
say that they were pressured into
having sex, but personally I think
no one can pressure you into that,
unless they raped you. But if you
were not taken advantage of, then
you can't blame anyone else.
I can't think of any of my cousins
or aunts who have had a baby out
of wedlock. That's the way things
are supposed to be but now it seems
like a miracle that no one had sex
before marriage. I don't know if
there's a class at our school about
remaining abstinent but I think
there should be one. I think its
more important and effects your
life much more than Gym.
I enjoyed writing this essay because
I finally got to express how I feel
about this subject. The things teenagers
see on television and the things
we hear are impressionable on our
developing minds. The decisions
we make at this early age have a
major effect on how we live the
rest of our lives.
|
