My interest in the "sexting" epidemic was sparked when I heard of young girls in the neighborhood getting in trouble for it. My reaction to "sexting?" What the hell! The stuff that goes on with kids these days makes me scared to ever have a child. What is driving these girls to do this? Is it just their insecurities or is there an underlying issue here? For those of you who don't know exactly what "sexting" is... it's short for "sexy texting." This can be done either by risky pictures or sending promiscuous text messages. I have heard of 11 or 12 year old girls getting grounded and having their phones taken away because of sending inappropriate messages...that is WAY too young in my opinion. Is it the standards that us girls have to deal with that's driving people to "sext" or is it the readily available access to technology that is the issue? Would these girls or boys act as promiscuous when face to face?
Oh, that's so sad.
I'm going to say that sexting IS likely to make girls and boys act more promiscuous when face to face. I mean, why wouldn't they, when they've opened this door to conversation about it. I often hear sexual relationships being discussed as impossible to come back from...that once a couple has sex, it changes everything and they can't go back to a time before they took this step. I wonder if sexting is like that.
Our society is so sexualized, porn is so readily available...I wonder if because of that girls try to get the attention of boys on THEM by being sexual themselves.
While 11 and 12 seems very young to begin expressing one's sexuality, children's bodies (and girls especially!) are developing faster and earlier than previous generations. Many girls start menstruating at that age, which means their bodies are being pumped full of hormones and biological urges to procreate. It is no surprise that these girls would feel curious about sex and want to explore it. This subject came up in a conversation I was having some time ago, and my friend argued that our biology is transforming too quickly for our morals and social values to catch up. I am not suggesting that sixth graders should be having sex, but I think it is more harmful to dismiss their impulses and curiosity as if it is wrong or unnatural. Young people need honest and open discussions about sex with understanding, supportive adults. Our society already has such awful anxieties and guilt complexes about sexuality, and puritanical denial will only perpetuate them.
I'm not convinced that sexting is as dangerous as it's made out to be. A text message is not the same as a physical sexual encounter. Just to clarify, I am specifically referring to verbal text messages, not picture messages, which are a different can of worms altogether. I'm still working through my ideas about this, but I believe that it is somehow less real. Texting is an exchange that is utterly dependent upon a technological instrument and without this crutch no encounter would - or could! - take place. Also, a text message is extremely brief; the character limit restricts anything beyond a sentence or two. The actual content is incredibly small, but the emotional and intellectual impact is huge because your imagination extrapolates upon it. Sexting happens primarily in the mind. It's akin to fantasizing, but the object of your fantasy is actually able to interact with you. Having your partner removed from you in this way makes sexual contact much less immediate - and less terrifying! - than a physical encounter, thus providing a relatively safe way for a beginner to experiment with their sexuality. I don't know if this is good or bad exactly, though certainly problematic. Sexting disconnects sexuality from the physical body, which is dangerous because the act of sex ultimately HAS to occur in the body. And when someone doesn't know their body, they don't know what it is feeling or how to enjoy it or, more important, how to say no when something is happening that they do NOT enjoy.
While 11 and 12 seems very young to begin expressing one's sexuality, children's bodies (and girls especially!) are developing faster and earlier than previous generations. Many girls start menstruating at that age, which means their bodies are being pumped full of hormones and biological urges to procreate. It is no surprise that these girls would feel curious about sex and want to explore it. This subject came up in a conversation I was having some time ago, and my friend argued that our biology is transforming too quickly for our morals and social values to catch up. I am not suggesting that sixth graders should be having sex, but I think it is more harmful to dismiss their impulses and curiosity as if it is wrong or unnatural. Young people need honest and open discussions about sex with understanding, supportive adults. Our society already has such awful anxieties and guilt complexes about sexuality, and puritanical denial will only perpetuate them.
I'm not convinced that sexting is as dangerous as it's made out to be. A text message is not the same as a physical sexual encounter. Just to clarify, I am specifically referring to verbal text messages, not picture messages, which are a different can of worms altogether. I'm still working through my ideas about this, but I believe that it is somehow less real. Texting is an exchange that is utterly dependent upon a technological instrument and without this crutch no encounter would - or could! - take place. Also, a text message is extremely brief; the character limit restricts anything beyond a sentence or two. The actual content is incredibly small, but the emotional and intellectual impact is huge because your imagination extrapolates upon it. Sexting happens primarily in the mind. It's akin to fantasizing, but the object of your fantasy is actually able to interact with you. Having your partner removed from you in this way makes sexual contact much less immediate - and less terrifying! - than a physical encounter, thus providing a relatively safe way for a beginner to experiment with their sexuality. I don't know if this is good or bad exactly, though certainly problematic. Sexting disconnects sexuality from the physical body, which is dangerous because the act of sex ultimately HAS to occur in the body. And when someone doesn't know their body, they don't know what it is feeling or how to enjoy it or, more important, how to say no when something is happening that they do NOT enjoy.