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20 October, 2005 - 9:27 a.m.
sometimes, a woman's got to rant.

I found an article that I want to rant about, almost line by line. Oral sex still debated. Is it sex or is it not sex. Well, it says oral SEX. That should tell you something.

--"For most teens, the only form of sex is penetration, and anything else doesn't count. You can have oral sex and be a virgin."-- Except that there is penetration, sort of. If the dick goes in your mouth, that's penetration. If you suck on the vulva or the clitoris, it's sort of in your mouth, and therefore penetration. If it goes in your butt, it's penetration. If you mean specifically Anal or Vaginal penitration, then you need to specify.

--"That's the 'technical virginity' thing that's going on," says Stephanie Sanders, associate director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction at Indiana University.-- If you're so nitpicky that you have to argue over semantics and technicalities, just get over it. You are not a virgin. If there's any debate at all, you aren't a virgin. "ok, his penis touched my vagina, but it didn't go in... ok. how about if he stuck his fingers inside me? what if...?"

--"Sex occurs when one person touches another person's genitals and causes that person to get sexually excited," the book states. "A girl or boy who's had oral sex doesn't feel or think like a virgin anymore, because he or she has had a form of sex."-- Ok, so manually masturbating someone is sex? ok. I can deal with that. What about accidentally brushing up against someone in a crowded area, such as a subway or a concert? Is that sex? What about giving a very sick person (who can still get excited) a sponge bath in a hospice room? Is that sex?

--She says a medical panel for the institute determined that oral sex is sex because it places young people at risk for sexually transmitted diseases and infections-- That... I will agree with that. It's specific and it can be backed up with data.

The rest of that sentence, --"puts them at risk for long-term emotional harm and opens the door for other sexual activity."-- I could argue with. What about adolescence Doesn't put us at risk for long-term emotional harm?

--"If you look at the information that they have, you might find it difficult to cite a basis for that, other than someone's opinion," says adolescent-medicine specialist Fortenberry.-- Only the statement doesn't specify whether Fortenberry is referring to oral transmission of STDs, which can be verified, or the other two statements involved.

--But abstinence-only education may inadvertently reinforce the belief that oral sex isn't real sex, says John DeLamater, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin and editor of the Journal of Sex Research, a scholarly journal published by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality.-- And he's so right. That's one of my main beefs with abstinance-only education. I love that journal, too. Many Many of my research articles for classes have come from there.

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