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It's hard to argue that "an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away", but is it something we should tell our kids? Well that's what the National Health Service in the UK is doing according to the Times Online. What vexes me is why tell kids this and not adults? Moreover, why can't the U.S surgeon general say that to adults in America?
Well, back to the Brits first.
Everything about this campaign to promote delayed sexual activity in kids is questionable but one has to applaud the British government for at least trying to take the stigma out of nookie, something they've been working at since at least 2007, when a national conference about "pleasure principals" was held. Still, consider that the title of the document reportedly given to kids is called "Pleasure". Pleasure. An item of literature given to kids is called "Pleasure" and its about sex? Yikes.
Consider the rationale for all this: Steve Slack, who's the director of the Centre for HIV and Sexual Health at NHS Sheffield has advocated that far from causing youth to actually become sexually active, it could cause them to delay having sex until they are sure they will enjoy the experience.
What!?
How the heck is a kid going to avoid having sex because he or she may feel they will not enjoy it? That's ridiculous and implies the kid's already sexually experienced enough to have had a good roll in the hay! Plus, I think about my friends who are school teachers, two of which told me about incidents where they caught their 14-year-old students doing sex acts so bizarre it would shock you. And given the cultural similarities between America and Britain, I'm sure English instructors have similar stories too.
Its true that sex and orgasms are good for you, as are hugs and great relationships. It's good for your cardiovascular system. But all of these benefits are commonly aimed at adults who may have high blood pressure and other problems, not kids, who normally don't. That's why I say the effort's misplaced; adults should be the target market, not kids. I think about the San Francisco Bay Area and how uptight so many people here are - it's obvious a good daily orgasm's missing from their lives.
Sex makes adults happy!
Just yesterday a woman friend I talked to at a birthday gathering at the Balboa Cafe in San Francisco - a place commonly known as a singles hangout - told me that celibacy among women in the city was so common that it's not hard to find anyone who had not "had it" in over a year. I couldn't believe it, but anecdotally it seems to be true. Given the pleasures of and benefits of sex, what does it say about a regional society which seems almost devoid of it? It says that society is perpetually stressed-out, uptight, mean, rude, and always angry about something. And with that kind of person you're not going to get one who enjoys spontaneous conversation unless they've had a few cocktails or are like me and love to engage people to begin with. A fear of talking is not good at all, but I contend that describes the San Francisco Bay Area today. Indeed, the only group of people for which this isn't true seem to be Gays, if the free-loving, expressive environment of Gay Pride weekend is any indication.
But what about us straight adult people in the Bay Area?
I think the UK's "sex ed" program should be terminated there and aimed at adults over here in America and especially The Bay Area as a kind of experiment. I firmly believe all the violence I've seen - bouncers versus patrons and loser guys beating up homeless people - would not have happened at all if we had a better and freer attitude about sex and about each other.
This part of the world, this Bay Area, has become too neurotic for its own good and that's hazardous to one's health. Indeed, the Bay Area seems to reward neurotic behavior, causing the region to degenerate into a group of people afraid to get to know to each other on public transit systems, or in cafes, or on the street, just saying "hello." Attempts at making social connections have been relegated to Craigslist, where "missed connections" are many and rather silly. Funny, because all the person who had the "missed connection" had to do was say "hello" to the person they were interested in. You can't have sex, let alone great sex, if you fear to communicate with anyone.
Pleasure for kids? Way too early for them. Pleasure for adults in the San Francisco Bay Area? Long overdue.
