Sex

Sex. It is word that carries a stigma no matter what its context in conversation. Regardless of whether or not it is being used to describe gender, the actual reproductive act or even the Latin word for six, it still carries a connotation that will make individuals pause whenever it is uttered. However, if you change these abstract Ð'ÐŽÐ'oindividualsÐ'ÐŽÐ'± into members of my generation, the stigma becomes even greater, and the word achieves an even more heightened sense of mania, a mania that is associated primarily with the actual act. In addition, the word takes on even more epic proportions when it is compounded by its almost immediate association with words of a far more serious ilk: premature pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and, finally, the very worst, AIDS. It is this very connotation that has elevated the matter to dire importance for my generation, one where mounting promiscuity is only fueled by an onslaught of social immorality and disregard as well as indecision on how to cope with such an uncontrollable problem. Teens seek pleasure, sex is pleasure, and neither society nor their hormones show us any pity in resisting such desires.

For my generation, cleverly described on T-shirts as Ð'ÐŽÐ'oproducts of the 80sÐ'ÐŽÐ'±, sex has carried the allure of the forbidden. Due to the advent of AIDS in the very decade of our birth, we have grown up in a world where the very act that perpetuates life has the paradoxical capability of ending it as well. Naturally, that which we should not do is exactly what we want, and the matter is muddied even more by the additional paradox of societyÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їs message that sex is a commodity just as important as water supported by nearly all forms of advertising in magazines and television. Our generation is bombarded by images of responsibility-free, casual sex on television and struggle with socially imposed, gender related preconceptions of sexual roles. Boys are expected to be sexually experienced, while girls are fraught by the virgin/whore contradiction where it is very easy to fall into the later category than the former. Furthermore, the government steps up to the plate with their own rendition of the sex cacophony by presenting teens in schools with conflicting messages of both abstinence and safe sex, seemingly alternating between the two from year to year. The result: a very confused, yet still very sexually active teen population with the testament of shocking statistics. Examples include that 63%