Billboards for Abstinence

AbstinenceFeelsGood.com is a website that has enacted a campaign encouraging teens to keep their clothes on and their hormones in check. There's nothing wrong with abstinence. It's the easiest way to keep teens from pregnancies and STDs. I think an ad campaign in and of itself is not a bad idea.

What I do strongly criticize is the guilt and mistruths the ads try to implant in others. "It feels good to have a good reputation" is one of the slogans. Yeah, only because society tells women that their sexual desires are "irreputable". Do you know how many women I meet who are unable to reconcile their naturally occurring feelings with "sluttiness"? Thank you ad folks with just reinforcing that.

Another one is "It feels good to know my boyfriend love me for more than just my body." How naive. When you interact with a woman on a personal level it is impossible to see her as a sperm repository. I'm talking about teenage boys too. While sex by itself can simply be a primal urge, I can guarantee that if a boy is spending a vast portion of his time with a girl, it's not just because of her body — although that could be a huge factor.

In other words, with their one sentence slogans, the ads succeed at reducing everything, instilling fear, and causing girls to loathe a very natural part of themselves. How very Macchiavellian.

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