Choice

Historically, we are in charge of our own life.

Along the way, mostly since the 60’s, others were sold as more in charge. The ideas of victims comes to mind. Girls and boys having unprotected sex are often presented as innocent victims. What a crock. All of us knew then and now that birth control pills and other such methods have nothing to do with bad type sexual diseases that may make us sterile, or even kill us eventually. Even all the wonderful drugs to protect us from our unprotected sexual behaviors don’t change the idea of being in charge of our life. It all seemed kind of innocent at the time earlier, but the ever increasing sexually transmitted diseases that may make us sterile or dying of a related disease have got peoples’ attention. Apparently, there is no free lunch. If it feels good, do it, is passé.

One often presented idea of who “others” are, are our drug companies. The usual complaints about them is their disinterested capitalistic pursuit of profit. Often the critics even say they have a better way to run the business, and its marketing plans. All this appeals to me until I wait to also hear about common sense, which I never hear. The old days of abstinence, or more likely, using condoms (rubbers in the old vernacular) worked. But I seldom hear discussion about this.

And some of the sexual diseases are far more threatening than even 40 years ago. Sterility is one thing, death is another. Advertisements with one male and one female talking about herpes, or its more powerful version, seem silly to me. If a girl gets it, she will probably get cervical cancer. This is a killer, or a hysterectomy sterilizer at best.

So what’s my point. It was more fun and less threatening to play with sex as young people in our past. Any astute young kid today will learn to use behavior that will protect themselves. It should be interesting to see if this comes across as Victorian. I for one think it will come across as more “progressive”. After all, boys and girls are the same, in the end. Call it choice.