Laugh to keep from crying with frustration.
This defense of “dark” young adult fiction by Sherman Alexie is truly beautiful.
Indi Cowie is really good at soccer.
“ Sometimes it’s easy to forget that sex-negativity—and the stigma around teen sexuality in particular—has real, direct effects on young people’s health. It’s not just about the pain of being slut-shamed, and the fear of being labeled “not normal,” and the many, many other ways our relationship to our sexuality is distorted by living in a culture that fears it. It also means that the teen birth rate in the U.S., even when at a record low, remains much higher than in Western Europe because we don’t do enough to encourage teen contraceptive use. It means that a 16-year-old faces disapproval and judgment when she makes the extremely responsible decision to get an effective, long-term form of birth control. And it means that some young people don’t feel like they can trust their doctors—people whose very job is to provide them with the information and tools needed to lead healthy lives in a confidential, non-judgmental way.
— Me at Feministing on a new study that suggests some young people lie about their sexual behavior and the need for better communication between doctors and their teen patients.
