Mixed Messages About Teen Sex Summary

I started reading an interesting article titled “Mixed Messages About Teen Sex” by Stephanie Mollborn. The article started out by explaining Patton’s view on teen sex. Patton is a teenager who grew up in a very open-minded town that disagrees with teens engaging in sexual activity, but encourages them to be safe about it if they do have sex. His town outcasted those who got pregnant from these actions. Not only are teens shunned for getting pregnant, but they are also viewed as sluts. He viewed sex as only “cool” kids were having it, but they were being practical about it by using condoms or being on birth control. They were not enforcing abstinence, but only enforcing not getting pregnant (Mollborn).
The article then takes a turn on another teenager’s view on teen sex, Annika. Annika grew up in a conservative town, who believes teens should only engage in sexual activity if they are married. Although, Annika’s town believed sex should not happen until marriage, …show more content…
I don’t attend church every Sunday and my family doesn’t push religion on me. My friend Lexi attends church every Sunday and her family pushes religion on her. Lexi’s mom put her and her sister both in a purity class hosted by the church. I occasionally attended church, and went to these purity meetings directly afterwards. The purity class taught them to wait to have sex until marriage, and if they didn’t then it was considered a sin. After they completed the course, each of them earned a purity ring. We were raised in two completely different households which were less than ten miles away from each other. I saw two completely different views on sex just by being friends with her. When I would attend these classes, they would try to persuade me with their beliefs even though that’s not what I was taught at home. What is the right thing to do when I witness these very different views on teen sex? Do I really believe all the views that are being thrown in my