It's a Neck Massager! Really!

Two bits of stupidity today:

Two legislators have proposed a bill in Tennessee to make sex toys illegal. I really have no idea why, except that there seems to a be large group of people who want sex of any kind except procreative to be illegal and are squicked out by the thought of the whole thing. Methinks that these two legislators really have no idea how many good, married christian women have vibrators.

I can only believe that the Tennessee legislators are in the same camp as the bizarre and completely WRONG "facts" that are provided by the abstinence-only crowd. A recent congressional study found that abstinence-only classes are intentionally misleading teens. No, misleading is a much too tame a word. What they are doing is either making shit up wholesale or lying outright. Pick one.

The report concluded that two of the curricula were accurate but the 11 others, used by 69 organizations in 25 states, contain unproved claims, subjective conclusions or outright falsehoods regarding reproductive health, gender traits and when life begins.

Sure, teach abstinence, it's the only sure-fire way to prevent pregnancy and STDs. But it is only one option available and -- let's face reality -- one that is ultimately ineffective. I think that refusing to teach kids about sex and birth control (because it might convince them to have sex? Is that the reason? ) is criminal.

And let's see just what they are teaching teens (other than "facts" that directly contradict actual scientific findings. Remember science? The testable stuff?). Oh, yes - women are supposed to be dumb and submissive and rely on men. Yup:

Some course materials cited in Waxman's report present as scientific fact notions about a man's need for "admiration" and "sexual fulfillment" compared with a woman's need for "financial support." One book in the "Choosing Best" series tells the story of a knight who married a village maiden instead of the princess because the princess offered so many tips on slaying the local dragon. "Moral of the story," notes the popular text: "Occasional suggestions and assistance may be alright, but too much of it will lessen a man's confidence or even turn him away from his princess."

Abstinance is not the issue here -- it's this backwards, mysogynistic view of women that the right-wing seems to want to enforce. Women must be secondary to men and are not supposed to actually feel desire or want sex. Don't actually express an opinion or show any power, or men won't like you. Is that the message we want to teach girls? Of course, if it's stupidity and compliance that they want from women, and this causes them to be chosen as sexual partners, don't you think that we should be encouraging girls to use their brains and be independent. According to this logic, they'd never get laid, so it's even better!Gah.