Commentary : Scary Times on the Sexual Front
For the past 14 years, I have ended each semester of introduction to biological anthropology with a discussion of demographic considerations. The lecture has always included a survey of the existing technological devices for family planning accompanied by some discussion of their relative virtues or drawbacks in our American society as well as contrasting values in poorer Third World countries.
This is a lecture that inevitably rivets each student’s attention. Finally the course is focusing on a crucial aspect of their lives; academia and reality merge at last. We are on a turf each student has had to deal with or is in the process of present confrontation.
The lack of knowledge accompanied by gross misinformation is distressing. Who would believe there are still people who believe that Dr. Pepper constitutes a reliable spermacidal douche? What are the arguments pro and con of the pill, the intrauterine device, the diaphragm, the sponge, the cap. When will “the injection” be available in the United States? When will there be a male pill?
Every year, the thought crosses my mind, if I had been able to command such rapt, forward-leaning attention throughout the entire semester, the grade distribution would have been quite differ ent.
But this year, for the first time, I didn’t feel comfortable presenting this lecture. This year I did not even pick up all the paraphernalia from the Student Health Services. This year everything is changed.
Unwanted pregnancies have shifted to a secondary position on the scale of concerns. This year sexual activity has acquired a new, completely unfamiliar aura. We are now in the acquired immune deficiency syndrome decade, and life for my young students will never be the same.
Today only two viable options are open: chastity (never a very likely or happy choice in human history) or the condom. In spite of the manufacturers’ attempts to reduce the general aversion to the hated condom--offering rainbow coloration and other merchandising gimmicks--the general response is: “Ugh.” But that is it. There is where we are today, a totally new, totally different time, one that the preceding generation has not prepared this one for.
I am sorry for these students whom I dearly love. They are terribly frightened and so vulnerable, caught in a terrifying mesh, not of their own making and new in the experience of living generations.
I remember vividly when I was ending my teens during World War II. We were presented with completely different alternatives. The problems or potential problems were confronted primarily by the females. If we had sex, inevitably we would become pregnant. The two were virtually synonymous.
Abortions then were illegal, expensive and/or dangerous. Whispered conferences around lockers concerned the girl who had gotten “caught.” Would she marry? Or more often, would he marry her? Almost always they did marry, and that settled that, at least for a few years.
The old venereal diseases threatened vaguely from somewhere off-stage. For the most part, they concerned different folks “out there.” Furthermore, with easy accessibility to penicillin, syphilis and gonorrhea were expected to disappear; herpes was still thought of as a cold sore, and chlamydia was a virtual unknown.
For the generation of my children, the world was so different as to throw us into total confusion.
“Relationship” became the norm where we had previously tended to talk about an awesome Love. Sexual interactions became more adventures than commitments, and my age mates watched with amazement--and not a little envy.
It was a unique time, a generation able to indulge in freedoms, experimentation, relationships and inconsequential interpersonal interactions probably unknown since civilizations began. Perhaps a faint warning bell was sounding in the distance when herpes got out of control, but new treatments were promising and a real cure in the offing.
This year, at least from where I watch in California, it is all over. AIDS has moved from the gay and drug scene to confront everyone. For all of the student generation, fear hovers like an evil, tangible presence over every existing or potential relationship.
How inept it sounds to fall back once again to the old condoms. I keep hearing, “When we can put people on the moon, why can’t we come up with something, anything better?” Yet the technology of the 17th Century is the best we can offer today. The free, easy interactions are now gone; new partners are potential sources of doom. Everyone is suspect; old relationships sour with fear and mistrust.
We confront a time that historians and anthropologists will study avidly in years to come. The social-cultural ramifications will be incredibly profound. I wish they looked better. My students’ generation is not one to envy.
