Brendan O’Connor cites a new study about the vaccine against the STI that can cause cervical and penile cancer.
Originally appeared at HyperVocal
Parents, rest assured: Your daughters can be safely vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV) — the leading cause of cervical cancer — without being turned into irresponsible sexpots. Imagine that!
In 2011, a paper in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infection found that 16 percent of parents in areas of North Carolina felt that teenage girls who were vaccinated might be more likely to have sex, or that the vaccination could even give them a “license to have sex.”
The jury is still out on whether getting vaccinated against tetanus gives you a license to step on a rusty nail.
Look, people: In the vast majority of cases, your daughters are going to start having sex. Some sooner, some later. Some much later. Some much, much later. But eventually, they’ll get around to it. And what if the first person they have sex with is a carrier? That would be dumb and tragic and avoidable.
And guess what, dudes: Men are also carriers of HPV. In addition to anal cancers and genital warts, the virus can also give you penis cancer. Let me repeat that: penis cancer. Penis. Cancer. If you’re not a carrier already (get tested!) it’s not too late to get vaccinated, and let your lady-lovers know that their cervixes are safe with you.
Don’t forget to swing by the sex DMV and get registered for your sex license while you’re at it.
Image courtesy of Flickr/seanmcmenemy
About Brendan O Connor
If safety precautions really do make people behave more recklessly, then we should get rid of seatbelts. Seatbelts are encouraging people to drive faster. Make helmets available to drivers and they’ll just go totally nuts.
In fact, we should combine sex education and driver’s education for our young people. Abstinence-only education for both classes. They should abstain from driving until they can commit to one and only one vehicle. Teaching them how to avoid accidents is just teaching them to drive recklessly.
HPV- Does not Mean Her Promiscuous Vagina?????
Did I misread this, ONLY 16% of paretns said their children MIGHT have sex. If so, not sure what exactly the purpose of this snarky article is. 16% isn’t very many parents and remember folks, if someone is doing a ‘study’ like this, there is a good chance they are ‘looking’ for a particular answer.
School turns teenage girls into sluts.
Drugs, smoking, fornication, bullying, cheating… schools has become nest for immorality instead of education.
Oops, getting out of topic.
Sorry for not being so excited about the news but I feel that there is really nothing to get ecstatic about. This just don’t matter much because the vaccine would used by the future sluts. 16% isn’t a mind blowing statistic either.
As for the tetanus-nail thing; stepping on nails hurt like hell, having sex isn’t. Not a good analogy.
“Scientists Confirm HPV Vaccine Won’t Turn Teens Into Sluts”
So, we’ve still gotta stick with roofies, huh? Darn.
Hey Brendon, how about not re-enforcing and advocating female shaming language for women by using words like “slut” to talk about women or girls that might become sexually promiscious?
How about we stop calling women names like that all together instead of casually saying it like it’s okay to willy-nilly call females “sluts” anytime mention of them having a lot of sex comes up?
And shame on you GMP for allowing that to be throw into the title so carelessly when I have never seen GMP so casually throw around name calling for men like I do when the whole “slut” word comes up.
Hey Erin. Thanks for your comment.
I’m going to have to disagree with the assumption implicit in your charge that any use of the word “slut,” or other words like it, automatically (i.e. regardless of context) re-enforces and advocates the shaming of female sexuality. I used that term quite pointedly in the headline as a way of demonstrating what is, in my opinion, the dangerous absurdity of the logic that would prevent girls from being vaccinated against HPV in an attempt to suppress their assumedly (according to the logic of the argument) rampant sexual appetites.
I guess you’re just going to have to take my word for it here, but I would not use such a term “carelessly.” Quite the opposite. My use was quite careful. You may disagree with my approach, but I hope you’ll acknowledge that our concerns are the same. I simply don’t agree that banning the use of a particularly loaded word in this conversation is going to accomplish anything good; as a matter of fact, I think that could even be somewhat counter-productive.
If the introduction of oral contraceptives 50 years ago had an impact on sexual behavior because of the removal of the fear of one of the (potential) consequences of engaging in heterosexual intercourse, why would reducing the possibility of another consequence of sex not have an effect?
The question for me is, so what if it DID encourage her to explore her sexuality? Why would that be the end of the world?
Honoring virginity is celebrating ignorance at the expense of knowledge.
I tend to think it’s puberty that makes people slutty, not vaccines, but whatever.
It’s puberty that makes people sexual. Not “slutty”. No matter how many times we try to use “slutty” pinned with men, it’s never going to loose the degrading message it holds for women.
How about we give young girls lots of information about sex and neither encourage her to “explore” oer sexuality before she is ready or tell her something is wrong with her if she isn’t a virgin. I think most parents would want their chlid to at least wait for someone they had a real connection with. And parents could talk about their first times and if they wished they waited or not. But I don’t think we should be encouraging young people to “explore” their sexuality anymore than we should be telling them to be virgins. We should leave that choice to them. Not every kid/teenager is ready to “explore” their sexuality at the same age anyway.
@JRD- like the reasoning, you are probably right on some level- except, perhaps, who as a youth looks down the tunnel at cancer?
@ Erin et al- maybe I’m old but in my book their is a lot of baggage attached to “promiscuous”.
@ Erin & WellOK- respectfully I suggest it is humanity, before puberty, that makes people sexual.
@ Alternate- I opine that it is not ” schools have become….” But schools are finally admitting….
Me; this subject is something that has been bugging me for quite some time from a point of obsession about bad science. I live in an area with a lot of autism and listened to and argued with the mother of my children about inoculations. 16% believe”that teenage girls who were vaccinated might be more likely to have sex”- might is the operative, hell some folks say 50% of Americans don’t believe in evolution.
And lastly-
@Alternate- I’ve stepped on many nails & driven a couple into my foot from the top & it is benign pain compared to a broken heart- which life will deal you.
Your funny.
Well, school in a way has become a seat of immorality. Just ask any college footballers and you will know how many women they had bed (fornication). Observe any popular kid and you’ll see how many they had tormented (bullying). Of course drug using is popular, though discreet, activity, smoking even less discreet. Cheating is quite rampant too; the popular ones has lots of toadies to do their assignments and projects and to copy from in tests. Don’t tell me you can’t see them. I had been to school, you too, and this activities are quite evident.
Not to mention, there are lots of reports from the results of all of this. Bullycide, teen pregnancy, AIDS and STD… should I enumerate more? This had become a very big societal problem. You can’t be blind from all of this. They even make movies of this like “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” “I am number 4″ and other movies where school life is portrayed.
Not to mention, schools does fail in educating. I know from experience. I have gone to college and many of my classmates could not understand what they are reading, many can’t solve average mathematical problems and almost all have problems in spelling. And of course you could look at the statistics. Schools just failed.
And finally-
You have a flair for Dramatics too: “compared to a broken hearth.” Huh huh huh! It makes me cry… and totally out of topic. Come on! I know you know what I am talking about… and you avoid the argument.
@Alternate- Arguement?
Yes. Argument.
My argument is that using the tetanus vaccine is not a analogy for judging the wisdom of having promiscuous sex after having HPV vaccine. Having a tetanus vaccine would not make us like stepping on nails. HPV vaccine however does make promiscuous sex more repercussion-free, that is, makes promiscuity safer. Not to mention having sex feels good, stepping on nails isn’t. Then you totally go off road with your broken heart statement. That is not a good way of making intelligent arguments. It feels somewhat an insult to me.
And then of course you totally ignored the other bigger part of my comment which you opined as not what school is becoming. Ignoring it does not make it disappear you know.
@Agenda- I’ll concede difference of opinion not Arguement….
I graduated from HS in 75. We smoked cigarettes in the smoking lounge and reeked of the weed we smoked out back. We drank at lunch time and dropped speed for games. We had sex with our peers, teachers and the parents of classmates. They were pregnanacies a few abortions, a few “years abroad” and a shotgun wedding. Deaths due to OD and accident.
Orgies on weekends, Sex in the parking lot before school & after, and in the stairwells and under the bleachers, wrestling room, back stage……..
The tetanus thing kind of escapes me- I’ve been in construction for 40 years and can conceive that I am a lot more blasé about rusty nails with a tetanus shot than I might be..
Oh! Tough guy! LOL!
You are the most ridiculous guy I’ve ever met. Thanks for the laugh.
And thanks for being so weak in arguing. It feels so good to corner someone, reducing them to insults and trolling and mindless mumbling. It’s good to know the the person you are arguing with knows that he lost the game and is getting desperate.
And based from your confession, you are far from a ‘good man’ as this site aspires to be. That reflects a negative for this site.
As for the tetanus thing escaping you, well, I could never imagine a more dumber person than you for not getting it. No wonder your are responses are so obtuse.
You are such a nincompoop.