thoma@reed.UUCP (Ann Muir Thomas) (08/22/85)
It's good to see the same battle I am waging in private going on in public, so to speak. I generally (though not entirely) agree with Charles position on the nature of teenagers, maybe because I am just barely out of the teens myself. (Gary, HOW OLD ARE YOU? You seem to be sidestepping this question of Charles' in order to spout more rhetoric about "the way things should be" at him. Charles (and I) is trying to present "the way things ARE.") To all of you who are so violently opposed to teen sex etc., if your (hypothetical) child told you that he/she was sexually active, what would you do? And better yet, what do you think of parents who tell their children that it is OK to have sex, if one feels ready, and procedd to provide information about sex, birth control, etc.? Do you think such parents are WRONG? My mother provided information about birth control to several of my girlfriends in high school. She always asked them how their parents felt about pre-marital sex, and the usual response was "They don't want to talk about it. They don't want to know." Mom felt no guilt at telling these girls where to get birth control; she figured that they were going to have sex anyway, and it would be a lot better for everyone concerned if they used birth control. There was one girl whose parents were violently opposed to pre-marital sex, and Mom told her that she ought to think hard before becoming sexually active against her parents' wishes, but she also said "they don't own your body." I guess I got my Mom's values. I don't see anything wrong with pre- marital sex, although it requires a good deal of thought beforehand. I am also pro-choice. Ann ...tektronix!reed!thoma