America's War on Sex

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In today’s society, sex is shown everywhere and throughout media all across the nation. With the increasing use of technology and new forms of communication, sex and lust seem to always be a motivating factor for the opposite gender. When looking at studies, it is pretty clear that our war on sex is not exactly working in some contexts. Lets take for example the whole abstinence only- sex education that is being pushed by most conservatives. In this case you can even look at the relevance between Sarah Palin, a conservative who pushed for this agenda, and her own daughter who completely went against this by getting pregnant. This just goes to show that what reality can do to them can sidetrack even the people who are completely against an idea. In fact, several studies have shown that teaching kids safe sex education doesn’t cause them to go and have sex. Surprisingly if you look at other countries that prefer to have a more open sex education, they have much lower rates of STD’s in their region and also lower teen pregnancies.(1) Sarah Hinman makes a great point by comparing the version of the popular TV show “Skins” in Britain to the same show in the United States. If you watch the British version of the show, you will immediately notice that the sex scenes are more explicit, showing nudity and much more affection. In contrast, when looking at the United States version of the show, you will see that the nudity is covered up and less of the scene is shown. Although the sex scene is less explicit, other aspects of the show remain the same, such as the use of drugs. When I look at something like this, it really shows that the United States doesn’t really see the art of the body in the same way as Europeans do. This became much more clear to me especially after going to Italy during high school. Immediately the first thing I noticed was the amount of nude art and sexual themes. The only difference is that the people don’t look at it in disgust. People look at it as a beautiful thing and as art. I think this relates directly to the show difference that is shown. The conclusion is that the Europeans view sexuality in a much more accepting and intellectual way. They also view it as art, which is something that I wish we, as Americans would do more. (2) Sources: 1) HinmanT, Sarah. "America's War on Sex Rages on." The Maine Campus RSS. The Maine Campus, n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2014. 2) Nichols, Tim. "America's War on Sex Rages on." The Maine Campus RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.