I Just Can't Abstain: South Carolina Leading America (Again) - And Other Thoughts on Contemporary Sexual Ethics

I would have sworn that the last time South Carolina did anything progressive and innovative was secede from the Union. Turns out I'm wrong.

As this article, by Amy Sullivan, in Time shows (to which I was directed by Slate's excellent blog FWBW XX Factor),

"South Carolina is the only state in the country that mandates a certain number of hours that schools must devote to sexuality education. In 2004, Jewels' school district in Anderson County decided to do even more. The district partnered with a local teen-pregnancy-prevention organization to implement an innovative relationship and sex-education curriculum that runs through all three years of middle school and into high school, as well as an after-school program for at-risk kids."

Sullivan goes on:

"We now have a pretty good sense of which sex-education approaches work. Substantial research--including a 2007 Bush Administration report--has concluded that comprehensive programs are most effective at changing teen sexual behaviors. They are also largely uncontroversial outside Washington. Vast majorities of parents favor teaching comprehensive sex education."

What the article makes implicitly clear is that the problem of teen pregnancy is (still) mostly limited to impoverished communities (excepting the statistical anomaly who is Juno McGuff and her ilk).

Which means that, in other communities, the issue of a contemporary sexual ethic - perhaps rooted in religious traditions, perhaps just rooted in good old-fashioned liberal humanism - and not the issue of STDs and teen pregnancy, should be at the forefront of sexual education programs. The key here, of course, is targeting, and of finding a way to develop intensive programs (perhaps like the South Carolina program Sullivan describes) that hit on both areas for both audiences but that actually incorporate the needs of the students and community within the curriculum. Such is the travesty of the so-called "Moral Majority's" approach to sexuality (and I'll resist the urge to do more than mention the names of Ted Haggard and Bristol Palin) and the failure of the political and religious left to devote the energy to such a project.

I still don't know what a contemporary livable sexual ethic would actually look like, but I'm committed to continue working on it. It's not clear to me that Jennie Rosenfeld's [scroll down to the bottom of Jenni's link] work with Tzelem (with which I am unfortunately not as familiar as I'd like) will actually be helpful - institutional Modern Orthodoxy still has way way way too many taboos and it seems as if her work is focused more on doing rudimentary education than actually charting out a framework within which those who opt out of שמירת נגיעה and "flipping out" could live for their pre-married (and, possibly, married) lives. The Reform movement has a curriculum which I also haven't looked at yet but which might be promising. And the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing and Debra W. Haffner's work in particular, looks highly promising (thanks to Annie Lewis for initially directing me there).

The diversity and complexity of issues involved in creating a livable sexual ethics are mind-boggling. They include all sorts of gender questions, including gender dynamics in workplaces, professional marketplaces, and the home; issues of sexual practice and emotional maturity; sexual outcomes; relationship outcomes; cultures surrounding sexuality; and more.

Hopefully I'll be able to have the time someday to do more research, brainstorming, and writing on this topic that deserves much more attention.