A report released on May 7th publicized a study conducted by a Harvard researcher who found that those who make virginity pledges either default on them a year later or lie about their sexual experiences and/or virginity (or non-virginity) or claim: Virginity pledge? What virginity pledge?! Thus the 2.5 million adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 who reportedly signed the pledges are actually not reliable sources. You can read about it on the LA Times website http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-virginity7may07,1,1382456.story?coll=la-news-a_section&ctrack=1&cset=true .
If you don't know what a virginity pledge is, then you've either been out of high school since the 80s or you don't live in America, because I remember even before I became a freshman that we were all rounded up and stuck in an auditorium to listen to a self-proclaimed 29-year-old virgin talk about abstinence, STDs, the "scary things that happen to young lovers," etc etc. And you know what I was doing? I believe that I was copying my math homework off of my friend's notebook, or I was talking and being shushed or I was silencing my hungry stomach because it was a quarter to lunchtime and this stupid girl was going on and on about not having sex.
Of course, I signed the pledge that were handed out like pills at a mental ward. Hello, I would have looked like a whore otherwise! What kid of 14 is not going to sign it? Virginity pledges are mass-produced contracts that kids sign just to make their parents or elders happy. It's not to say that some don't keep to it, but it's just a piece of paper to others. It's just something that held them up before they went to lunch, and crowding together will only make them feel more ostracized for not doing what is expected of them. The rewards of sexual gratification are...well, you know, and yea, dangers like STDs, unwanted pregnancy, and burn book dedications are pretty bad--but until there is a contest like Virgin or No Virgin for the winner of who can stay abstinent the longest--Kids will continue to have sex. If a teenager wants to do it, they're going to do it.
There is nothing stopping that force because sex has always been a taboo topic. It's something that parents don't want to talk about or what society pushes upon you in the form of clinical abstinence talks and ignorant sex ed classes. The real problem is teaching the benefits of abstaining while kids go home to watch MTV and One Tree Hill and The O.C., shows that explicitly show sexual relationships between teenagers and even teenagers and real adults (duh, Cooper and Rachel!). The harmful elements of these relationships are never really lamented upon. TV shows tell stories of teenage pregnancies who have the kids and go on to lead great lives of parenthood and rethinking their promiscuity--rarely, they get an abortion and go back to having sex like so many people who I know. The "reality" presented to teenagers through television and movies is really skewed, and it's not until they get older and realize that hey, people don't have keggers in school hallways and magically Prom Queen after dating the most popular guy in school--that they realize sex is overrated with people you don't care about.
I really think if I would have gotten the sex talk early on in life, then I would have known what to think, instead of being pushed to just think "I can't." That obviously doesn't work with teenagers, because like myself and so many others, we know that we can, if we want to. I was never properly informed about what to expect from sex, what really happens to a relationship when it's brought to that level, and though my mom blocked me for years watching shows like Dawson's Creek and Buffy, it only made me want to watch it more. It would have been more effective to let me watch it and explain things to me, let me make up my own mind, otherwise, I think it just creates a sexual vacuum of curiosity and wonder.
So, in order for a virginity pledge to be effective, the sex talks need to start early, and they need to be informed. They also shouldn't try to preach to 100 teenagers at once. It's like watching a show with your friends: you make fun of it more than you actually watch it, unless it's CSI.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
This made me laugh. It's a very interesting pledge... there are kids who stick to their virginity/abistenence pledge though. I have... -giggles- Anyways, I do agree that it's not going to stop anything. It's merely a piece of paper, not a chastity belt.
~The Vixen: Alyssa~
I didn't abstain because I signed the pledge though. I just didn't have sex because no one was really special, and I think most teenagers have trouble deciphering between who is special and who is just totally hot. It's especially hard because teenage boys and girls think that it's just a game.
Strangely, this reminds me of the Anti-Sex League in Orwell's 1984. :D
YES! And look what happened to those people! We'll all become mindless drones turning to prostitutes!
Today words are not what they used to be. It's just a piece of paper. Before when you gave your word, you kept it.
Well, I just think that they try to brainwash kids instead of educating them. If they educate and then show them the real problems with having sex too early--they would have better results.