Services
Blog Category
RSS Feeds
All PostsResources
Porn & The Town Manager
July 24, 2009
Should a wife’s role in an adult film affect her husband’s employment? In Fort Myers Beach, FL, town manager Scott Janke was fired when the Town Council learned that his wife, Anabela, had done porn.
Janke accepts his firing, saying that a “private family matter” requires his attention anyway. But we shouldn’t be so accepting. Anabela Janke didn’t do anything illegal, and I’ll venture a guess that more than a few town residents have watched adult films, if not hers (titled, My Best Friend’s Mom, BTW).
Mayor Larry Kiker reportedly said, “It was a situation of where the town was put in in terms of how effective [sic] we can govern without distraction.” The council then voted 5-0 to fire Janke without cause, which enables him to receive severance pay.
Might Anabela’s film work have affected the Council’s work? Yes, if her film were aired during a Council meeting. The Council’s vote was ridiculous and unnecessary. I think Janke should have kept his job even if he himself had been in an adult film, as long as he kept his pants on during business hours. Let’s focus on real problems, folks. We’ve got plenty of those to address.
To see a news clip about the incident, click here.
New Sex Ed Resource for Teens
July 14, 2009
I’m very happy to recommend a new website for young people, seriouslysexuality.com. The site is hosted by SIECUS (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the US) to help visitors deal with issues ranging from sexual anatomy, pregnancy prevention, STD and HIV/AIDS prevention, love, relationships, communication, sexual abuse, and sexual orientation, and other topics.
The site is easy to browse and youth-friendly, with interactive features including:
* Polls that ask young people how they feel about issues related to sexuality and HIV/AIDS prevention, what they’ve learned in school and from friends, and what issues they want to learn more about.
* Quizzes test young people’s knowledge about sexuality both before and after they go through the site (as well as after each section) to see how much they’ve learned.
* X-Ray Machine allows young people to scroll over different parts of the male and female anatomy and see images, names, and functions for various body parts.
* “Choose Your Own Adventure” lets young people role play the part of someone making plans with a partner for a Saturday night. This player learns why some decisions and communication styles may work better than others.
“Greening” Your Condoms
July 12, 2009
“If 10,000 Biters use biodegradable condoms every time they make a little love, in a year we’ll avert enough polyurethane to fill 223 outdoor trash cans,” according to a website called Ideal Bite.
The July 10 post offers tips on eco-friendlier condoms. To read the post, click
here.
Condoms have the dual advantage of helping to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Both help green your sex life by lowering the birthrate and the need for medical interventions to treat STIs. Remember to dispose of condoms properly — in the garbage — to avoid wasting water and the money needed to have a plumber to clear pipes clogged by condoms. Foil condom wrappers can’t be recycled, but the boxes can be recycled in most areas with cardboard and paper recycling programs.
When Do Kids Learn What about Sex?
July 10, 2009
Parents often wonder when to teach children about different aspects of sexuality. An article from the latest volume of the American Journal of Sexuality Education has very interesting data comparing parents’ answers today to those provided 27 years ago.
According to journal editor Bill Taverner, M.A., the biggest areas of change are:
Genital differences – age 5.2 (today), age 3.6 (1982)
Sexual abuse – age 6.9 (today), age 10.8 (1982)
Childbirth – age 7.3 (today), age 4.7 (1982)
Human reproduction – age 7.5 (today), age 5.8 (1982)
Other topics were discussed by parents when their children were ages 9 to 11.5, with a year or less change from 1982.
It’s interesting that parents are talking about sexuality topics later today than they used to, with the exception of sexual abuse. It may be that increased media reports about sexual abuse have raised parents’ fears. But wouldn’t it be great if kids got a sense of their bodies as wonderfully beautiful, acceptable, and capable of great things — like good feelings and reproduction — before they learned how their bodies might be abused and hurt?
Parents Need Sex Ed, Too!
July 10, 2009
A woman is suing an Egyptian hotel, claiming her 13-year-old daughter became pregnant from swimming in a mixed-gender pool. Hmm.
I empathize with this mom’s interest in protecting her daughter’s reputation, and I understand why she might want to deny that her daughter had violated her familiar and/or religious prohibitions against pre-marital sex. However, if Mom were to take her blinders off for a minute, she might forgo the lawsuit and ask her daughter whether the sexual intercourse she engaged in was consensual. If the girl was pressured into having sex, she may benefit from talking with a rape counselor. She also needs to have her daughter tested for sexually transmitted infections.
“Wait,” one may ask, “Why did you jump to the conclusion that the girl had intercourse?” Because sperm dies instantly in chlorinated pool water. And if by some miracle the sperm could survive, it would have been scattered throughout the pool after a male ejaculated into the open water, and other females might have been impregnated, too.
The fact that this girl’s mom isn’t aware that a swim-by impregnation couldn’t have occurred indicates that she needs to learn about sexual reproduction and how it can be prevented. And she needs to share her new knowledge with her daughter to prevent a second unplanned pregnancy. She should also talk with her daughter about sexual decision making — 13 is a very young to be sexually active, and it puts the girl at increased risks for sexual coercion, sexually transmitted infections, and feelings of regret.