Until they start messing with middle school boys' hormones without parental consent, this is sexism pure and simple.

Girls are getting the message younger and younger ... YOU play Russian roulette with your health. Your health is secondary to being sexually available for males ... at whatever age.

My question is this: why don't they try to install diaphrams or tie their tubes? Why the pill, of all things?

If they are really worried about getting pregnant, wouldn't a more permanent solution work? How about chastity belts (I like that one, its just amusing).

Why not vasectomize middle school boys? Much cheaper and easier operation ... can be done in an afternoon. Send them home with an icepack with instructions to tell the parents they were hit by an especially forceful dodge-ball.

I think this is a really interesting point - the 'sexist' aspect of this. Can you expound more on why you think it is?

Because they're messing with GIRLS' bodies, not boys bodies.

Always go for the easy target.

That's a very very good point. But, in the meantime (in the Patriarchy we live in, ugh)... I think the alternatives given here - like diaphragms - are an incredibly good way to approach this issue of girls trying to be 'safe' and also keeping their bodies safe. I've been struggling with the birth control pill idea all day long in conversation with Spiker - and the diaphragm idea (i.e. not leaving it up to the guy to agree to wear a condom (a sad reality in teen AND adult sexual relations is the whole 'I don't want to wear a condom' thing)) is a fabulous alternative.

I couldn't disagree more.

Why should guys not agreeing to wear a condom be facilitated?

All we're doing with this whole argument is making it crystal clear to young girls that their function is to be sexually accessible (no strings attached) for males.

Diaphrams for young girls? Why, once again, is it GIRLS' bodies that must be altered in some way to facilitate sex?

We've got some kind of Stockholm syndrome going on where we advocate against the best interest of girls just to make sex as thought free and consequence free as possible for males.

I agree with you about the timbre of the system. At the same time, IN THE MEANTIME, contraception being available to women is a good and empowering thing. It is providing women with some say in the kind of sexual life they have.

Additionally, your victimization of girls and women in sexual relations is a bit unnerving. Girls and young women like sex, too. It's not JUST a system of constant coercion. Yes, that can be part of it. But it is not the only thing that is going on.

I get frustrated with you throughout, because you rail against the entire system (which I agree is a shotty malfunctioning system) without seeming to want to advocate concrete solutions for the here-and-now realities of people who actually LIVE with the kinds of struggles we're talking about. I don't believe there's any solution for anyone in stopping allowing girls access to the Pill or diaphragms (or etc) just to say, "Hey, guys, why don't YOU take some responsibility." That seems to me to be antithetical to the idea that reproductive self-care can be (and often is) empowering for girls and women. It was empowering for women's sexuality during the sexual revolution, and I would argue that despite the constant pitfalls of our Patriarchal reality, continuing to ensure women's access to control over their reproductive health care is an empowering tool, not a sexist one.

" Why not vasectomize middle school boys? Much cheaper and easier operation"

The girls are the ones not wanting to get impregnated.

The boys don't really seem to care. It takes two to have sex. Obviously, if one cares and the other doesn't, its the one who cares responsibility.

"

Because they're messing with GIRLS' bodies, not boys bodies.

Always go for the easy target."

Really? So the fact that babies don't grow in the uterus as oppose to the scrotum isn't the reason?

"Why should guys not agreeing to wear a condom be facilitated?"

Condoms, when working, have a 99% chance of preventing whatever (STDs, Pregnancy, a good feeling of actually having real sex instead of having a living dildo in you). However, condoms on average break 60% of the time. I'm sure with middle schoolers, lacking all experience and attaining only cheap condoms would have much higher chance.

So really, what you do is harm a lot of people by pushing for condoms.

"IN THE MEANTIME, contraception being available to women is a good and empowering thing."

You mean, allows them to have sex with multiple partners without fear of pregnancy, right?

Empowerment is to give them the chance for them to get beyond a societal restriction. Pregnancy is not a social ill. Its natural. Without pregnancy, none of us would be around. Its rather sad that you would cast it in such a light.

There are no hormonal contraceptives for men so they can not "mess" with the boys hormones.

Ideally middle schoolers wouldn't be having sex, but if they are it is better for them to be on the pill than get pregnant.

"However, condoms on average break 60% of the time. "

Ah, another factoid pulled from san's asshole. Someone who has never had sex, used a condom and prefers pre-pubescent males.

Illumination on condoms and breakage, something san could have easily don s'h'itself before posting with false authority.

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How often do condoms break?

Condoms hardly ever break if they are stored and used correctly. Studies show that latex condoms break only about 0.4% (4 out of 1000) of the time during the first five uses, and polyurethane condoms break 4% (4 out of 100) of the time during the first five uses. Couples using polyurethane condoms are 9 times more likely to experience breakage than those using latex condoms. When condoms break, it is usually because space for semen was not left at the tip of the condom, the condoms are out-of-date, they have been exposed to heat or sunlight, or they have been torn by teeth or fingernails. Also, using oil-based lubricants, rather than water-based, weakens latex, causing condoms to break. So if you store and use condoms properly, it is very unlikely that your condom will break.

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How often do condoms break?
Of the three different condom types, latex condoms are the most durable. However, anywhere from 2% to 6% of condoms will fall off or break during sex.

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San:

... However, condoms on average break 60% of the time....

Is that your personal experience, or based on a study you read.

I don't believe I have ever broken one, myself.