The authors also speculate that girls' increasing influence over the conditions of sexual intercourse has contributed to an insistence on safer sex and increased use of more effective methods of birth control.Emphasis added.
"Teen-agers are getting the message about safety," Schwartz said. "We are delighted that there are fewer teen-age moms and dads and that the rates of abortions and STDs are dropping."
However, she said most Americans are still in massive denial when it comes to conceding there is teen sexuality and being able to talk about it.
"I think we are grossed out at the idea of our kids being sexual, particularly adolescent sexuality," Schwartz said. "We have a visceral reaction to our daughters, in particular, being sexual beings the way we are. Fathers don\ufffdt want their daughters treated the way they treated girls in high school. With boys there is less ambivalence. Parents are more worried about a son being trapped in an early marriage.
{sigh} Guess the idea of teaching your *son* how to become a thoughtful and considerate 'lover'-trainee - still doesn't enter pretty little heads. So fathers respond to the guilt of knowing what assholes they behaved like - by hovering about the daughter? Both! view 'Susie' as a predatory creature intent upon stealing little 'Billy' away from them prematurely?
Puritanism - the nuclear weapon against ever reaching sexual maturity! ..let alone: passing it on.
Ashton
Pshaw.