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Cue the Wingnuts, or Smells Like Teen Spirit

Kids in our sexually permissive environment are having more oral sex according to a new study -- among teens 15 to 19, 55% of males and 54% of females say they have engaged in this particular activity. It's the permissive liberalism that pervades our culture, no doubt. Time for more prayer in schools. Oh and Bill Clinton can go to hell.

There, that's my good deed for the day, deep thinkers like Malkin and Cap'n Ed can just link to me and go back to freelance bigotry.

For those who like to read more than the first paragraph before forming their opinions, a little further down in the article, they offer a different and quite plausible alternative explanation for their findings:

Brindis cautioned that some of the apparent increases may simply represent an increased comfort level in discussing sexual behavior rather than an increase in activity.

Some may now "be disclosing information that had probably occurred for decades," she said.

Economist M.V. Lee Badgett, a visiting scholar at UCLA and research director of the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies, echoed that sentiment. "The world has changed in 10 years," she said.

Badgett noted that the 1990 census showed 150,000 households of same-sex couples in the nation, but 600,000 were reported in 2000. In both cases, she said, the differences "are much more likely to be due to a willingness to report than to an increase in numbers."

And before they all raise their glasses in a salute to "abstinence only:"

The emphasis over the last five years on promoting abstinence from sex has led to widespread neglect of discussions about the safety of various sexual practices, Wagoner said.

"One of the most shocking statistics now is that the incidence of teen gonorrhea in the United States is 70 times that in the Netherlands and France," he said. "We are paying a big price for shutting down discussion."

Yes, this is going to come as a shock to the Power Tools, but teenagers have been engaging in oral sex for a long time, they are just less likely to lie about it now. Since shame is a big part of the right-wing social agenda, any decrease is likely to send the knuckle draggers into DefCon 3.

But I am sure the dashing trio and their "hey, what about me" world view will no doubt be furious about the narrow scope of the survey anyway. Sorry, guys. No category for those who fellate themselves.

posted by Jane Hamsher @ 9/16/2005 02:03:00 PM