Abstinence, Biology and Bozo on 'View'

Photo of Colleen Raezler.
  • Bookmark and Share


Bristol Palin's comments about abstinence sparked a lively discussion about sex education on the Feb. 17 broadcast of ABC's "The View" in which Whoopi Goldberg insisted she would be okay if Bozo the Clown gave teens the information they needed about sex.  

Palin, a new teenaged mom and daughter of Alaska governor Sarah Palin, stated during her Feb. 16 interview with Fox's Greta van Susteren that sexual abstinence "is not realistic at all."

Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd defended abstinence as a very good thing to teach teenagers. Hasselbeck stated she didn't "think there's anything wrong with teaching an ideal to your child. It is ideal to be really nice to somebody, it is ideal to not drive drunk, it is ideal to wear your seat belt, it is ideal to not have sex until you're in a committed relationship. Why not?"

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

Goldberg shot back with, "I think that the biggest, at least to me, the biggest issue was that for a very long time, no one wanted to hear when you said, listen, teenagers, you cannot tell them, just don't do this, this is what you need to protect you."

But sometimes teens do listen, as shown by anti-smoking campaigns. Carol Platt Liebau noted in her book, Prude, that "like teen sex today, smoking was seemingly ubiquitous - not only tolerated but almost celebrated. Even so, all that changed, and relatively quickly, too. Smoking is now banned in public areas ranging from airports to restaurants all across the United States."

A health-conscious adult wouldn't suggest that teens shouldn't smoke, but if they do, to smoke cigarettes with less tar content. Yet sex educators continually say, "Teens should shoot for abstinence, but here's how to make sex less risky if that doesn't work."

Later in the discussion Hasselbeck asked Goldberg if she wanted schools teaching sex ed to kids. Goldberg insisted, "I want the kids to have the information. If Bozo the Clown is going to give them the information, that keeps them one step beyond getting pregnant, I'd rather have Bozo do it."

Soon after, Behar noted that sex educators are really teaching "biology."

 It's not surprising that Goldberg claimed it doesn't matter who teaches kids about sex. Lifesitenews.com reported in 2008 that Goldberg serves on Planned Parenthood's Board of Advocates. (Calls to Planned Parenthood revealed that a list of the Board of Advocates is not available to the public.) Planned Parenthood's Web site states, "Parents know that the best foundation for their children's success is a good education. When it comes to sexual health, Planned Parenthood provides what parents want for their children - medically accurate, comprehensive, and age-appropriate information to guide them through a lifetime of choices."

A search of Planned Parenthood's suggested curriculum and classroom activities, however, revealed that the organization offers much more than comprehensive information - it's an effort to push sex on kids.

Case in point: the "Desensitizing" classroom activity, suggested for children from middle school up, in which students stick a note with a sexual term written on it on their foreheads without looking at it. Students then ask their partners yes or no questions about sexual terms to guess which term is on their forehead. Afterwards, students discuss how they felt playing the game. According to Planned Parenthood, the objective is "to increase participants' comfort level with sexuality terminology in general, or with terminology related to a specific topic" and the recommended audience is "middle/high school students, or adults." 

"Two World Views - Fixed and Relativist," also featured in the "Classroom Activities" section, is a handout that outlines two world views. It is designed to help "participants understand their resistance to the open discussion of sexuality" and is suggested for adults.

Statements under the "Fixed or Absolutist World View" include such things as "The main goal of sex is marriage and reproduction" and "Strict gender roles in relationships with male active and superior."

Statements under the Process or Relativist World View" include "Sexuality is a natural and positive life force with both sensual and spiritual aspects" and "Flexible, egalitarian gender roles."

That's a little bit more than "biology."

—Colleen Raezler is a research assistant at the Culture and Media Institute


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Oy!!

     Goldberg's and Behar's mothers should have practiced abstinence many years ago. 

"Not to be a republican at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head." - Francois Guisot

The View on Sex Education

For what's perceived as a women's program,  the "ladies" of The View seem to agree with the idea that women are nothing more than sex objects. Why else would you suggest that the most important part of sex education is how to avoid getting pregnant? Young women especially, need to be told that they have worth beyond their bodies. And that it's okay to say "No". For the record, I don't support the mission of Planned Parenthood. But I do think that any form of sex education must include a focus on abstinence.

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of the tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. - Ayn Rand

I think you are absolutely

I think you are absolutely correct.

Not only do women like these on "The View" have no qualms about assisting in the objectification and sexualization of women, they often do so to the detriment of women's health.  Chemical contraceptives (the pill) are linked to heart trouble and cancer and might contribute to infertility (i.e., if a woman's on the pill for a while then tries to get pregnant and...can't).  The pill is also damaging to the environment and doesn't protect against STDs.

On top of it, they support abortion, which has great physical and emotional/mental consequences for the woman.

And in both instances, men can use women for sexual pleasure and leave them when they either can't have children, have health issues, or get pregnant and have an abortion.

Great way to be feminists, ladies...

Abstinence is the ideal and the only surefire way to avoid unplanned pregnancies and STDs. Yes, it seems difficult but our culture is so obsessed with instant gratification that we've made sex as casual an activity as shaking hands.

And I don't see any great happiness or liberation coming from promiscuity.  In fact, people are pretty darned miserable and pre-marital sex is a good way to set one's self up not only for single parenthood or an abortion or STD, but for future divorce and other emotional problems (again, especially for women).

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam

Ironic isn't it

When I was growing up the "Feminist" movement was against men "behaving badly" ie; being promiscuous, not caring about the women, only being out for their own pleasure, etc...

Now, women , who are supposed to be enlightened feminists are against the conservatives who uphold the above ideal and are themselves engaged in the bad behaviours and celebrate it. 

It IS ironic

It IS ironic.

It's very similar to something I posted on a different thread last night.  The feminists spent so much time hating the men for treating women as a sex object, and wanting their own sexual identity, they they actually have become those "men" and now treat their own children as nothing more than a sex object.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities
of Citizens in the several States.

The US Constitution

Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court

I think the best form of

I think the best form of birth control is to look like Goldberg or Behar. 

"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me

A strawman argument

The handout they have, with the "flexible" view of sexuality vs. the "strict" view is a classic example of a strawman argument.

First define your opposition as "rigid" and "conformist"  two adjectives designed to give younger people a negative view of the position.

Next, make the view you want people to oppose as unappealing as possible.  For instance, a supposed "fixed" view is that opposed to the idea that sex can be enjoyed.  I think the thing that terrifies any liberal is the idea that a conservative can be opposed to premarital sex and yet fully enjoy married sex.  As if the two ideas are mutually exclusive.

Finally, undermine the concept of roles in a relationship.

Funny part is, this "game" they have sounds EXACTLY like the arguments that we had in the 70s of which I was on the other side of at the time.    I doubt the idea is to respect in any way those with a more strict view on sex.

 

Right on

I think the thing that terrifies any liberal is the idea that a conservative can be opposed to premarital sex and yet fully enjoy married sex.

Because, ultimately, liberals don't enjoy sex because they deny its purpose and role in human relationships and treat it as a recreational hobby.

Which is why promiscuity is heralded as the ultimate mark of an enlightened, modern person and chastity (which means showing sexual restraint, not perpetual virginity) is backward and twisted. They are pursuing sexual gratification that alludes them because they don't know that sex has a purpose and a place: inside a life-giving, life-long, loving traditional marriage.

Another way to think of it is to recall the undead, cursed pirates from "Pirates of the Caribbean"...in their lust for gold and riches, they were cursed to the point where eating, drinking, sexual encounters held no pleasure for them.

It's the same thing with sex.  As I've said, intercourse is now as casual and commonplace as handshakes yet people are still miserable.

That misery comes not from those of us who believe in abstinence until marriage, but the folks who abuse and misuse their sexuality and turn a gift into a vice.

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam

Roman Emulation

"Which is why promiscuity is heralded as the ultimate mark of an
enlightened, modern person and chastity (which means showing sexual
restraint, not perpetual virginity) is backward and twisted.
"

That just how the Romans treated sexuality as well as other aspect of human behavior. It seems as if the Liberals are trying to emulate the Romans, and their unlimited, uninhibited behavior, in every aspect of their lives.

Emulating Roman society is a VERY dangerous lesson to be teaching our children. That "free" society took their civil freedoms and use it to enslave others, embark on massive wars of colonization, held vast "civic" spectacles of death and destruction, and allow the citizen to partake in behavior that most people would find morally repugnant.  But that destructive behavior was allowed, and even encouraged, all due to the Roman's believe that human behavior is best left uninhibited an subject only to the rule of the individual. And, lastly, we all know what eventually happened to the Romans, all because of their uninhibited behavior, don't we?

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities
of Citizens in the several States.

The US Constitution

Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court

Well Said Cobraman and MC83

I have often thought we are rapidly heading towards a society eerily similar to that of Roman times. 

We have "gladiators" already, men all but killing themselves in the ring.  It won't be long before we get that far, I am sure there has to be a form of it underground.

Hollywood is already softening up the public for sex with children with two recent movies.

The sexuality condemned in Romans 1 in the Bible is already here and celebrated.

It won't be long before those who stand against the tide, ie Christians, are once again burned publicly and fed to the lions.

One thing I have realized is that the modern liberal is a study in cognitive dissonance.  As I mention above about sexuality, it also seeps into all areas as they complain and moan and wail about how "evil" conservatives are without examining themselves and realize that they have become what they hate. 

As you mentioned MC83, it's satisfaction, that the Stones couldn't get and neither can the modern liberal, since they don't understand true human nature. 

Don't forget "Fight Club"

"Hollywood is already softening up the public for sex with children with two recent movies."

Don't forget movies like "Fight Club," a gladiatorial depiction offer by, you guess it, Hollywood! Hollywood LOVES Romanesque themes, as to the idiots who watch them.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities
of Citizens in the several States.

The US Constitution

Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court

What does Fight Club have to

What does Fight Club have to do with this story? 

~First rule of Fight Club

NEVER TALK about Fight Club!

In order to be pro-choice, one must first be born. Ah, the irony.

I love the rant Dennis Miller

 does about Harry Reid, and uses that phrase. What does this have to do with the thread? Nothing. I am too freaked out from listened to duh1 speaking in Canada to think about anything. He has got to be the most depressing human being! Especially for someone who was supposed to be all hopey and changey and rainbows. He is just throwing around phrases like Cap n Trade in the most blase' manner. Yipes! Carbon Credits?? Welcome back, Algore, you've returned to the big time.

 

All a Democrat needs is the upper-story window of public attention and the chamber pot of rhetoric. How else to explain the rise of Joe Biden?  P.J. O' Rourke

Why not?

Why not? Because as you well know, liberals have NO control over anything to do with their bodies. If they have any itch, the HAVE to scratch it repeatedly. Sex urge? Just do it. It's 'natural' and you should not try to control natural urges (does that get me off the hook when my natural urge to pull all the hair out of whoopee's head turns to action?). Drugs? Just do it. Voter fraud? Do it as long as its for a lib.

When you have no consequences for your actions because you've turned over control of your life to Big Brother, you have a built-in excuse.

Liberals - supporting and funding the extermination of inner city babies since 1973.

I once met Bozo the Clown,

I once met Bozo the Clown, and trust me, he would NOT make a good front man for the Sex-Ed thing.

Quick Thoughts

  • Since when did Bristol Palin become an expert on teen sexuality? Of course, no self-respecting parent would consider her one, but the media is now spreading her opinion as authoritative. She has become the "voice of teenagers," simply because what she says promotes the liberal attitude,
  • Suppose we used the same logic for drugs? Imagine if they interviewed a teenage pothead who claimed that it was unrealistic to expect kids to avoid drugs, and so the next best thing is to at least teach kids to use drugs responsibly.
    • BUT, you might argue, drugs are bad for you, and sex is natural and healthy.
    • True, but we believe that sex is a good thing only when it's integral to a relationship, and traditionally, only when it's integral to a marriage.
      • BUT, you might argue, that imposes a morality on sex. Answer: ... what's wrong with that?
      • BUT, you might argue, why can't we just have sex for fun? Why do we have to get all moral about it? Answer: Because, as adults, we know that sex is intimate, deeply personal, and deeply vulnerable. Never mind the risk of pregnancy, the power of an intimate, vulnerable relationship is dangerous, and disastrous if used casually for fun. And even if it's just fun for you, how can you dictate that it's just fun for your partner?
        • BUT, you might argue, what if it's fun for the both of us? Answer: Then you're just using each other. You're just using your partner as a prop, as little more than a sex toy, and that is, by definition, dehumanizing. Sex is one of the most human things we do - we don't like seeing it dehumanized.
  • This does strike me as another example of the fallacy of false choices. Calling for abstinence doesn't prevent anyone from receiving information. Nor does providing information prevent anyone from teaching abstinence. We object, however, to any programs that discourage abstinence by teaching that having sex is a good thing no matter what.

I have said this also KC

Go give kids crash helmets and stock cars so they can drive drunk safely.

 

The drugs one is good too.  Clean needles, Pure coke, not cut with preservatives, etc... healthy drugs!!! 

Wait ten years

I saw the first part of that interview and I noticed that Bristol, several times, told others to "wait tens years" before having a child.   She suggested that they wait until after the are married, have a home, and a career, as she now knows WHY waiting is such a good idea.  That doesn't sound very Liberal now, does it? As a matter of fact, it sounds down right Conservative!

Bristol is telling teens to WAIT, and she's speaking with the voice of experience.

On Edit:  Before someone can claim she was talking about abortion, she also said the there are several forms of contraceptives that can be used.But her message to teens was to wait ten years before having a sexual relationship.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities
of Citizens in the several States.

The US Constitution

Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court

She's telling them to wait.

She's telling them to wait. She didn't, but she thinks others should. Hm.

Human dignity

"Liberal" feminists don't know what they want. They are against sexual harassment, but were silent with Bill Clinton. They want women to be seen as other than sex objects, yet want young ladies to whore around, as long as they do it safely. They want privacy in the bedroom, yet have made sex so public you can't turn on the t.v. without seeing some half-naked person or hearing an illusion to sexual behavior. They have actually put more women at risk by lowering the standards of human dignity. Respect and reticense have been removed from the public sphere --- thanks to  modern "liberalism" and relativism. Sad.

BTW, there was a time, not too long ago, that millions of young Americans practiced abstinence. My goodness, how did they do it?

 

NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"

back then...

there were consequences for bad choices.

Katainkent

Great point! Just this week, Barry and company announced a bailout for mortgage cheats and a baseball guy got on camera to say he's sorry for taking steroids. He'll get a standing O with his next at bat and have to cry all the way to the bank.

NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"

Would the same login apply to robbing banks?

Robbing banks is wrong...we tell people not to do it...but people still rob banks....so telling people not to rob banks doesn't work....this means we should teach people how to put on their mask when robbing banks....right?

robbing banks is illegal

So is smoking tobacco if you are under 18. No one is arguing that abstinence is the best method of BC, but nothing wrong with being educated about condoms.

If they are to give into their hormones, I will take 98 percent protection against pregnancy than none at all.

He had my vote

Abstinence, Biology and Bozo on 'View'

Sex Education does not work.  In 2002 there was a study in England that proved beyond doubt that sex education had little impact on reducing pregnancy and sexual disease.  (I believe that since that time there has been studies in North America, but I am not sure of that.) Still,  there is sex education in England and the rest of Great Britain because it is the political thing to do.  You really do not want to upset the likes of Whoppy  whose knowledge of morals is based on doing  movies about a  fake nun.   

What is sad is that Americans are getting their education from the likes of hosts  on View.  Instead of taking a basic class in logic or any class in higher thinking skills the American people have  taken the path of least resistance.  This has led to not only muddled thinking but to the present political state in which politicians can make fools of the people every couple of years.  We get what we deserve and we pay for whatever the View dishes out.  Abstinence is the way.  Try not watching television or other media which promotes lust.  Do not get into situations which will lead to promiscuity.  Make a deal with yourself that you will behave in a proper manner before you go on a date.  Be true to yourself.  Do not be with a guy or a girl by yourself, but be always with others.  If you are by yourself then see to it that you are in your own home where parents are in the next room.  Men respect women as if they are your sisters.  Women respect your bodies and keep them.  Parents need to be parents again and society needs to allow them to be so instead of treating them like idiots. Parents are not Simpsons.  Discipline is not a dirty word.  No is one of the most powerful words in the English language.  Assertiveness classes for those less inclined......

There are certain things in life which one can do and which one can get away with.  I can get away with eating one too many mangoes.  But,  I cannot get away with such matters when it comes to issues such as sex and murder, etc.  Yes,  I have lumped the two together because, contrary to Whoopy, who has the wrong comparison,  one is playing with much worse fire when it comes to sex.  Yes,  smoking is dangerous but do not compare it to pre marital sex please.  (Did I write that sex education has been proven not to work?)  Russian roulette is quite dangerous and that is what pre marital sex is.   We have become a band aid society.  Let us start becoming pro active so that we do not need to plug holes.  Let us see to it that we can move forward as healthy people and not as a sick nation always trying to satisfy basic animal instincts.  Whoopy  wants to keep our children  in chains for her own use but true freedom is in rising above animal nature.  

I can't understand what

I can't understand what Whoopie was arguing about.  Kids get all the information about birth control they need at school.  three years ago I took my then 13 year old daughter to the doctor for a physical.  She was quizzed by the doctor about condoms and knew more than I did.  Why do liberals fight teaching our kids that NOT having sex is even more effective?  I'd be willing to bet Bristol Palin had the information she needed, but being a teenager she acted impulsively.

It's like those idiot parents who let underage kids drink at home because they'd do it anyway and at least at home they're "safe".  Whatever my child would do "anyway" she better not do because I don't believe in her right to privacy and I believe in punishment.

Make kids do what's right now, or they won't when they're older. 

 

 

the "view

Jessie R. Hamby      YapYapYapYap Yap. Like a bunch of beagles after a rabbit.