From: SueDNimn at aol.com <SueDNimn>
Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 01:42:29 EDT

I've been reading all of your emails with great interest. Where else
(besides the oval office) can I listen to Monica talking about oral sex?

As we discuss the many aspects of teen books, I have to wonder whether all the edgy literature is reflecting teen life, or shaping it.

Do the things teenagers read in edgy books affect their behavior? Some would argue that what we see on TV or read in books and magazines don't effect us. This obviously isn't true or advertisers wouldn't pay millions of dollars to advertise their wares. Plus teenagers and pre teens seem much more susceptible to the It's-really-cool-and-every-one-is-doing-it-peer-pressure of the media. For example, the teenagers I know shell out a lot of money for brand name clothing. Their parents are much less likely to be swayed into paying extra to wear someone else's name. For this reason, as a writer I feel the responsibility for what I write.

I too heard the study that one in five teenagers are sexually active before age 15, and I wonder what effect the media has had on this statistic. So much of the media portrays sex as though there were no consequences attached.

In a book I'm working on I have a minor character who becomes pregnant (a teenager) due to birth control that fails. I figured her doctor would tell her that she also needs to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases and thus started doing research on STDs. To tell you the truth I did much more research on the subject than I normally would because I couldn't believe the statistics. They were so high. I called two different hot lines trying to find out what percentage of sexually active people had an STD. They couldn't give me a number, but both told me that 75% of sexually active people had genital warts. 75%. And that's just one of the many diseases. How many people have herpes? Aids? Gonoriah? Syphilis? I forget the other STDs but there are more.

Are our teens immune from these statistics? Nope. Two-thirds of all STDs are in people younger than 23. Fifteen million new cases will be reported this year. And that's just the ones that are reported. No one knows how many will be transmitted since they're not all reported.

I still didn't believe the statistic and called my OB's office for his opinion. (I almost wrote viewpoint but perhaps that's not the best choice of words.) He told me that among his monogamous patients the STD rate is pretty much zero. His patients that aren't monogamous have about an 80% rate of STDs.

Is anyone else astounded by these numbers?

Monica asked where oral sex was in teen literature. I'm asking where discussions about STD's are in teen literature, because if we're going to write about sex it seems the responsible thing to do is also to inform our readers about the danger of STDs. I mean 80%?! It could be the difference between life and death for some of these kids.

Janette Rallison

All's Fair in Love, War, and High School Playing the Field
Received on Wed 21 May 2003 12:42:29 AM CDT