Read on to learn how Planned Parenthood's Teenwire Web site encourages underage teens to go to an online portal where they can buy sadomasochistic sex toys and porn videos:
South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds took a bold and courageous stand last week, and he caught hell for it. Acting on the request of Bishop Robert Carlson of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, Rounds ordered that Planned Parenthood's "everybody's doing it" sex-ed site Teenwire be removed from the South Dakota State Library's Web site for teens.
Planned Parenthood and its supporters rushed to accuse Rounds of depriving teenagers of valuable information. In fact, all one has to do is visit Teenwire to see that an overwhelming amount of its content has little to do with educating teens on how to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases—and everything to do with sexualizing them.
One can understand why, for example, Bishop Carlson, Governor Rounds, and responsible parents would not want teenagers to view Teenwire's many articles on pornography. According to Teenwire's "experts," pornography is good. Witness the experts' reply to a teen who asked if viewing pornography might damage his school performance:Many people enjoy using pornography or erotica as a part of their sex play — alone or with a partner.
There's no correlation between using pornography and getting bad grades in school. However, when any repeated behavior affects a person's ability to meet his or her responsibilities, it's called compulsive and that person may need help to cut down on that particular behavior — whether it's washing your hands over and over, checking to make sure you've locked the door hundreds of times, or checking to see if the burners are still on.
There is no indication that using pornography causes problems as long as it does not interfere with other aspects of a person's life.
That's rich. Viewing pornography is comparable to "checking to see if the burners are still on." Say what you will, Teenwire has a soul of metaphor.
But there is indeed something wrong with pornography, and a kid has to only click on Teenwire's "In Focus" section to learn what it is. The article "Porn Vs. Reality" explains, "Most people who have real sex don't look anything like people who have sex in porn, especially the women."
Yes, it's true. Teenwire is truly concerned about young girls' self-esteem—so much so that it goes out of its way to assure them that they don't have to look like porn stars.
I wish I were making this up. What universe are we in, anyway, where a kid could go to a public library's Web site and be connected to such trash?
Stay with me. It gets worse. Much worse.
Teenwire's "Porn Vs. Reality" piece is based on an interview with "Claire Cavanah, co-owner of New York- and Seattle-based sex-toy shops, Toys In Babeland."
That's right. Kids as young as 13 are encouraged to learn about pornography from the proprietresss of a sex-toy shop.
And when they're done, they can buy sadomasochistic sex toys and pornography from that very shop—via Teenwire.
At the bottom of the "Porn Vs. Reality" article is a link: "For more info, check out: Scarleteen: Sex Education for the Real World. Click on that link on the page and it will open up in a new window.
Normally, Teenwire's links to external sites first open up with a disclaimer, saying that Teenwire is not responsible for outside sites' content. Not this link. It just opens right up. Apparently, Teenwire is quite proud of this site's content.
The article that Teenwire links to is titled, "Looking, Lusting, and Learning: A Straightforward Look at Pornography," and it is on the sex-ed site Scarleteen. It's written by Hanne Blank, whose own Web site boasts that she is the author or editor of such seminal works as Shameless: Women's Intimate Erotica and Best Transgender Erotica. Scarleteen editor Heather Corinna has a similarly porn-friendly résumé; she's a queer writer, editor, photographer, artist, educator, and web publisher. She is the founder and editor of Scarlet Letters, Femmerotic and Scarleteen. She is considered a pioneer of both the Internet and online sexuality and sex-positive erotic art, having brought inclusive, informative and creative sexual content to the web since 1997.
So right away, Teenwire's sending its readers into the open arms of pornographers eager to encourage them to see themselves and others as soulless sex objects to use and be used.
That's no hyperbole. The article to which Teenwire directs its readers, Blank's paean to porn, reads like Relativism 101: "Sometimes, pornography can be a substitute for having a partner with whom you can be sexual. Most people go through periods in their lives when they do not have a sexual partner - that’s totally normal. But very few people really like feeling sexually frustrated, so often when people don’t have anyone in their lives with whom they can be sexual in person, they opt to use pornography to help arouse them and engage themselves sexually."
In other words, there's no good reason to use sexual restraint, no concept of people's being more than collections of errogenous zones. Teens are told in essence, "You are a sexual being, and your sexuality is your being. End of story. Go f--- yourselves."
But give the aptly-named Blank some credit for uncovering one problem with pornography—though she's quick to add that it only exists in people's minds:The biggest problem that people often have with using pornography is that they sometimes start to expect their own actual sex lives to be just like the pornography they use and enjoy. This is really pretty ridiculous and unreasonable! Pornography is idealistic, not realistic. Porn tends to show what people fantasize about, not what actually does happen in most people’s sex lives.
It's the Teenwire message, rephrased: Don't feel bad if you don't look like a porn star.
By this point, if Teenwire and Scarleteen have done their job, readers who have will be itching to see some actual pornography, confident that they can view it without any ill effects and without comparing their own bodies to those of the performers. And Scarleteen is there for them. All the teen reader—or any reader who's allowed to use Mom's credit card—has to do is click on the "Scarleteen Shop" to the left of the article. That will immediately take them to the site's store, which offers links to its shopping partners, including—
That's right. Toys in Babeland.
Let me repeat this, and it's something you can discover yourself by going to Teenwire's "Porn Vs. Reality" article and clicking the series of links I've described. A Teenwire reader only has to click on a recommended link, and then click one more time—on a "Scarleteen Shop" link—to purchase all manner of sadomasochistic paraphernalia, vaginal and anal sex toys, and pornographic videos.
And here's the kicker: They don't have to give their age.
From Scarleteen's shopping instructions:We...have chosen merchants who support our mission, who accept a variety of payment methods, who do not put age limitations on the products linked to, and who ship expediently and reliably...The merchants we use all ship in plain packages, discreetly...If you have any further questions, or need help, or want to make suggestions, just drop us a line, and we'll be on it like lubricant on latex in no time flat.
There is no way that Teenwire could be unaware that it links to a Web site that enables teenagers to purchase sadomasochistic sex toys and pornography. The Scarleteen link has been up on its Web site for nearly two years, and Scarleteen's shop is an integral part of its "mission."
The people who support Planned Parenthood should stop breathing fire over teen's supposed rights to abortion and birth control and take a look at what Margaret Sanger's organization is actually teaching teenagers. I can't believe any responsible parent, or anyone who cares about America's youth, could see how Planned Parenthood treats kids as pawns and not be enraged.
