I know, I know, provocative stories and breathless headlines about rainbow parties and middle school broom closet liasons almost always win out over staid research.  Even so, those interested in a heaping helping of sober should read a new analysis from Guttmacher about intimate teen sexual behavior. 

Primary finding?  When it comes to teens and oral/anal sex, things may not be as bad as many had feared but probably not as good as many had hoped. At the very least, the notion that a significant proportion of  virgin teens are out and about in the land protecting their virginity by substituting oral sex for intercourse seems to be a far-fetched notion.  Instead, not surprisingly, these activities tend to---as the social scientists might say---co-occur.

Back in September 2005, the National Campaign released a similar analysis of the icky stuff, check it out here.

Gentle reminder time friends. 

Although the official 2008 National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy has come and gone  (by the way, anyone have any ideas for a pithier title?), remember that May is Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month (again, title ideas anyone?) and the snappy National Day online quiz will be up and operating throughout the month. 

Please alert family, friends, neighbors, and enemies.  Take the quiz, you'll be glad you did.

For more information and to see what others around the country are doing to support the National Day, visit our National Day page the TheNationalCampaign.org. 

 My brother teaches at an inner-city middle school and his 8th graders are currently in the throes of their "reproductive system" unit.  One thing the students are doing is caring for baby dolls or flour sack babies in order to simulate parenthood - they have to carry them, feed them, nap them, and "basically parent them for an entire week."  He says it's really gratifying (and cute!) to see these normally tough kids become protective and parental.  "They're taking it so seriously!  They're all bugging out about how much work it is to take care of a baby." 

He also told me that one teacher showed the old Molly Ringwald movie For Keeps - about a teen couple that has a baby and how their lives change drastically as a result.  He reports that the kids "are more freaked out about what life looked like in the 80s than they are about the idea of becoming teen parents."  Ha!  Note to 8th graders:  Big hair isn't forever.  A baby is.

So, the New York Times has discovered virginity.  In the Sunday magazine article by Randall Patterson, we read about "ivy league virginity" (not to be confused with virginity among less well bred plants).  Question: would this article have been written about a virginity club at LSU or Ohio State?  Or is the core idea of this piece that people at Harvard should be too worldly wise--too smart!!!--to even consider restraint?  

Mind you, abstaining until marriage seems to be beyond rare; fewer than 5 percent of brides are virgins on their wedding day (silence reigns on the grooms, of course--nudge nudge, wink wink).  But is it really newsworthy  that a few young adults at Harvard and other exalted schools see room for taking sex and love a bit more seriously than so much of our culture suggests?  The "wait til marriage" message might be hard for some to stomach, of course, especially given the rising age of marriage and the increase in co-habitation.  But there is a moderate middle in all this.

The real club that I think we need is one that gives voice to a commonsense, centrist view -- that sex has risks and meaning along with real potential for intimacy, and that it belongs in committed relationships not one night stands.  What shall we call this new club at Harvard?  Any nominations?  And once it is formed, will the NYT write about it?