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<\/a><\/p>\nThursday, May 21, 2015<\/p>\n
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Beyond the Basics:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Why Black Girls<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Need<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Comprehensive <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Sex Education<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Photo SHUTTERSTOCK <\/p>\n by Raisa Habersham<\/span><\/strong> <\/p>\n This means that in many states, students are not receiving adequate information about sexual health beyond abstinence-based curriculum. Ironically, the abstinence-only approach wasn\u2019t enough to prevent a recent\u00a0<\/b>chlamydia outbreak in a Texas school<\/b>,<\/a>\u00a0whose sex education <\/p>\n It also isn\u2019t enough to combat\u00a0high teen pregnancy rates<\/b><\/a>. Teens receiving comprehensive sex education <\/p>\n Rather than equipping black female <\/p>\n According to researcher and author Jessica Fields, predominantly working-class blacks had less say in sex education The political firestorm that surrounded the predominantly black school\u2019s sex education <\/p>\n The idea that young black female <\/p>\n Disarming black girls with poor sexual health information is particularly detrimental. While pregnancy rates for black teens have decreased by 37 percent in 2013, there are still high pregnancy rates among them compared to teens of other races. According to the\u00a0Office of Adolescent Health<\/b><\/a>, there were 39 babies born to black mothers out of every 1000 adolescents who gave birth in the same year.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Beyond pregnancy prevention, black girls also face conflicting messages on sexuality as a whole. They are told it\u2019s not OK to be sexual beings unless it\u2019s for the corporate, fetishized benefit of white Americans, or black heterosexual men\u2019s preconceived notions of black female <\/p>\n They are told it\u2019s simply not OK to be them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sex education <\/p>\n Hiding potentially life-saving information from them only perpetuates the idea that black teen girls are invaluable unless used for someone else\u2019s benefit.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Emphasizing sex education <\/p>\n Ultimately, equipping Black girls and young women with sexual health knowledge allows us to take true ownership of our bodies and sexual agency.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n
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\n<\/b>Black girls are born and raised with the hope that they will become black women who make a difference. To ensure this, they must receive proper\u00a0EDUCATION<\/a>, resources, and support to help guide their decision-making. This, however, does not always include them learning about their sexual health.<\/span>
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\nAccording to a study<\/a> conducted by the\u00a0Guttmacher Institute<\/b><\/a>, teens of color are less likely to receive formal sex\u00a0EDUCATION<\/a>, with 19 percent of them being young Black women. Only\u00a022 states mandate sex<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>EDUCATION<\/a>, and of those, 20 of them require HIV specific education<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a> curriculum is intended to discourage premarital sex.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a> are 60 percent less likely to become pregnant or cause a pregnancy. This is most likely because comprehensive sex\u00a0EDUCATION PROGRAMS<\/a>\u00a0cover abstinence from sexual activity<\/a> as the best method for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, but they also provide in-depth information on contraception and other safer sex methods.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a> teens with the tools necessary to engage in safer sex and prevent unwanted pregnancies, they\u2019ll most likely receive the abstinence-only sex education<\/a> typically given to\u00a0minority teens<\/b><\/a>\u00a0from low income families.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a> courses than their white middle-class counterparts. This was even further noted<\/a> by\u00a0reviewer Gary Perry<\/b><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a> curriculum is an example of how abstinence-only education<\/a> advocates were able to adopt racist, sexist, classist, and overall paternalistic rhetoric to argue that the \u201ccrisis\u201d of \u201cbabies having babies\u201d (which is coded speech to refer to the predominantly black female<\/a> student population) demanded that a stringent abstinence-only education<\/a> curriculum be implemented in the predominantly black, lower-income school.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/a> teens don\u2019t need sex ed, and thus, aren\u2019t provided with accurate sexual health education<\/a> is merely a tool used to further the sexual stereotypes they face and will continue<\/a> to face into adulthood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a> sexuality. Additionally, they are told they must be everything to everybody\u2014including caretaker, chef, supermom\u2014all of which align with clich\u00e9d heterosexual ideologies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a> doesn\u2019t just prevent pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases, it enables black women to make important decisions about their bodies and sexual and reproductive health, because they have been equipped with safer sex knowledge and healthy body image practices beyond what is presented to them by mainstream media.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a> among adolescents not only reinforces why Black women matter in a society that works effortlessly to deny<\/a> us simple rights, but instills in us the self-esteem we need to combat the media\u2019s and society\u2019s depictions of our sexuality.<\/span><\/p>\n