What is sex, really?
I’ve talked with parents who have told me, “Oh, my teenager isn’t having sex, I know because I ask them.”
One of the problems with parents asking this question and taking the answer at face value is that not everyone defines the word “sex” equally. Many teenagers understand sex the same way Bill Clinton did. There is even a strong contingent of teenagers who define sex so narrowly that it only includes vaginal/penile intercourse. Many parents understand sex to be a much broader term, and would almost certainly include any kind of oral or manual stimulation in their definition.
So if parents really want to know the answer to the question “Are you having sex?,” they will have to get much more specific. But it’s a rare parent who is willing to get much more specific than that. And, let’s be honest, it’s an even rarer teenager who would be willing to hear their parent utter the words “oral sex” and actually answer their question.
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:35 am
It’s not just adolescents that sometimes define “sex” very narrowly. It’s a handy thing to do any time you want to be able to deny you are sexually involved with someone. I have a friend who insists she is not having an affair, because she has not had intercourse outside her marriage. She is sexaullly involved with another man, but since they haven’t had intercourse, she considers that they haven’t had sex, and so she’s not having an affair.
March 2nd, 2007 at 4:49 am
One of the difficulties of humans is that we can use words in so many ways, communicating well or poorly, sometimes by design, sometimes by accident, sometimes by default. If, in the process of any question and answer period, terms are not defined, communication is likely to go awry.
March 5th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Nine years ago, we were teenagers. In eight years for you and twelve years for me, we will have teenagers. Do you think the issues of sexuality that today’s teenagers faced are similar to the issues we faced? Do you think they are similar to the issues our children will face?