"To the left, you will see the Student Union, representing one of the most vibrant and diverse student bodies in the country. On the right, you will see, uh, a collection of tents organized by Trojan Condom, an aspect of UMass Amherst's comprehensive safe sex education program."
I could just imagine what tour guides were thinking of saying as I saw them lead prospective UMass students around campus last Wednesday. This was on the same day that the popular condom company, Trojan Condom, parked an 18-wheeler in the middle of the library lawn, with its huge company logo capable of being seen from far away. Trojan Condom set up tents on the grass, where bananas representing penises and condoms were in plain sight of passers-by, including tour groups.
This display, authorized by UMass Health Services and the administration, was deeply offensive. Sex is a topic best left to be discussed in private environments, such as between children and parents, patients and doctors, and clergymen and church-goers.
Why? First and foremost, sex is a serious act with serious consequences for those who do it irresponsibly and for those future human beings who will be born as a result from this irresponsibility. It goes without saying that the possible consequences not only include contracting venereal diseases, but they also include being forced to quit school in order to support a child and having to raise a baby in a fatherless household.
Given these realities, the question begs - does modern-day safe sex education, including public school teaching of contraceptive usage, university promotion of public condom displays and the general portrayal of sex in a light-hearted manner, actually work? That is, have out of wedlock births and STDs decreased due to safe sex education? In general, do teenagers and college students make more responsible sexual decisions after being exposed to comprehensive sex education?
I have issued the challenge in the past to University Health Services and VOX, Students For Choice on campus, to reveal data demonstrating that modern day safe sex-ed has a direct impact on the reduction of STDs and out of wedlock births.
I am still waiting to hear definitive, empirical results proving this to be true.
However, empirical results from 1950-1960 show something completely contrary to the conventional wisdom that safe sex education actually produces safer sex. The rate of venereal diseases and teenage pregnancies had been going down for years before the introduction of modern day sex education during the Sexual Revolution in the mid-to-late 1960s. For instance, syphilis infections in 1960 were half of what they were in 1950.
Following the implementation of modern safe sex education, STDs and out of wedlock births increased rapidly. Do not be fooled by people who say that this correlation does not equal causation. The message encouraged by this form of sex education - sex is fun, sex is casual, sex is fine as long as you use contraceptives, which will be readily provided to you - directly contributed to the increased rate of venereal diseases and teenage pregnancies.
This is where the biggest problem manifests itself. Members from VOX, the Not So Ready For Bedtime Players, Health Services and the UMass Administration have no incentive to seriously reconsider the effectiveness of modern safe sex education because they do not feel the direct consequences of sexually undisciplined cultures in a bubble like UMass.
Until they have lived in an inner city and experienced first-hand what happens when a culture sees sex as casual, pleasurable and fun - the very same message propagated by such groups - they will never truly realize the detrimental effects of the modern-day safe sex mindset and culture.
It's a mindset and culture that results in two-thirds of black children being born out of wedlock. It's a mindset and culture which prioritizes hedonism over education. It's a mindset and culture which prevents children from being nurtured in two-parent households.
If these groups really want to promote safe sex education, they should tutor teenage mothers in Holyoke and Boston. They should help children born out of wedlock in applying for college. By doing this, they would allow the very people who claim to promote safe sex to see the damaging consequences of perceiving sex as a pleasurable act in a light-hearted manner, as well as the incentive structures of government welfare programs which encourage such promiscuity. This will make the ramifications of sexual irresponsibility much more receptive to college students than banana skits and Trojan Condom tents.
Until safe sex promoters change their practices to be more in-line with this sort of education, they will be harming a group of powerless people who suffer the most from modern day sex education - born and unborn children alike.
Greg Collins is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at gcollins@student.umass.edu.
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