Personal Safety
True or False: Reaching for a condom establishes consent.
False. 60% of college students surveyed believed that nodding, undressing, or reaching for condom established consent, which, concerningly means that 40% do not. John Oliver put it best when he said, “That ambiguity is a problem, because sex is like boxing: if both people didn’t fully agree to participate, one of them is committing a crime.” The truth is, consent must verbal and affirmative. Substances impair one’s ability to give legal, affirmative consent. This is one reason that hook up culture is so problematic. Nearly 61% of undergraduate students surveyed reported using alcohol during their most recent hookup, and 7.6% of women indicated that their most recent hookup was an experience they did not want to have or to which they were unable to give consent. Overall, sex is always an ongoing process of communication, and any relationship that can be ruined through the active communication of your personal feelings, standards, or boundaries is NOT a stable relationship.
True or false: Porn addiction is a real thing.
True! Some experts say that the same brain activity shown in drug or alcohol addiction -- when circuits in your brain associated with reward, motivation, and memory get turned on -- is in those who use pornography a lot. Some symptoms of porn addiction include:
Viewing porn on your cell phone during work or in social situations where you might be seen
Being consumed with thoughts of porn even when you are not actively viewing it
Feeling ashamed, guilty, or depressed about your porn viewing
Continuing to watch porn despite any harm it has had, is having, or may have on your relationship, work, or home life
Experiencing reduced sexual satisfaction with a partner when pornography is not involved
Keeping your porn secret from your spouse or domestic partner
Getting upset when asked to cut back or stop using porn
Losing track of time when viewing porn
Trying and failing to quit
Name five methods of birth control.
There are so many forms of contraception! These include: implants, condoms, pills, shots, rings, patches, surgeries, and personal lifestyle choices. Have a conversation with your doctor to figure out which ones might make sense for you.
Is sexual education mandatory for students in public schools in the United States?
No. There is no national standard of sexuality education; it varies state by state, and even district by district.
As of March 2020:
Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia require public schools teach sex education
only 10 states require the information to be medically accurate.
only 9 states require any discussion of consent.
Fewer than half of high schools and only a fifth of middle schools teach all 16 topics recommended by the CDC as essential components of sex education
Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia require education about HIV.
What is the average number of sexual partners in a lifetime?
7.2. However, this number seems to be rising amongst younger generations. One study at Occidental found that the average graduating senior reports having “hooked up” 8 times in 4 years. Despite this, reports have consistently found that students typically grossly overestimate how sexually active their peers are. This same study concluded that ⅓ of students graduated having never engaged in a casual hook up at all!
True or false: Sexual assaults are the most reported violent crime in the country.
False! Sexual assault is actually the most underreported crime in the United States. Despite this, sexual assault is a horribly common occurrence.
-1/5 women and 1/38 men in America have been victim of attempted or completed rape. Additionally, 81% of women and 43% of men have experienced some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime. compared to 43% of men. On average, an American is sexually assaulted every 73 seconds and there are 433,648 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States.
What is "sextortion"?
Sextortion is a serious crime that occurs when someone threatens to distribute your private and sensitive material if you don’t provide them images of a sexual nature, sexual favors, or money. If you experience this, here are the steps you should follow:
Confide in someone – When going through something like sextortion, it’s important that you have a good support network that can support and advise you. Talking to someone that you trust can really help you.
Don't communicate further with the criminals. Take screenshots of all your communication since the more evidence can make prosecution more likely
If images or videos have already been leaked, the video will be blocked when reporting it and set up an alert in case the video resurfaces.
Don’t panic– When you’re being blackmailed, it can feel like you don’t have any other option but to comply. If you give in, they will continue to do it.
Contact the Police – Blackmail constitutes a criminal offense in most states.
What is the most common STD?
Chlamydia! However, there are dozens of STDs. Some, like chlamydia, are spread exclusively through the spread of sexual fluids whereas others can be sexually transmitted, but are predominantly spread in other ways such as Zika, Ebola, Oral Herpes. 15-24 year olds account for 50% of all new cases of STDs each year—in fact, ¼ girls 14-19 have an STD. Women suffer more frequent and severe symptoms from STIs. Some STIs will have symptoms, such as sores or strange discharges, however many will not show symptoms despite still being contagious. Many STDs don’t have to be a big deal with the right treatment, but some can be very dangerous, which is why the best way to prevent the spread of STDs and STIs is to get tested before sexual activity.
Name three ways a school can work to become more LGBTQ+ inclusive.
-enforcing asking for pronouns before class
-never group students based on gender
-ensure facilities are gender-neutral
-state inclusivity in the core mission of the school
-enforce consequences with exclusive or offensive behavior
-educate faculty and staff on how to promote an inclusive environment
-provide ways to amplify student voices in regards to policies
At what average age do children first begin to perceive males as capable of physically overpowering females?
Studies have shown that by age 4, little boys already perceive themselves as stronger than girls. Obviously, this is not biologically accurate, as oftentimes young girls are actually more physically developed than their male counterparts at that age. However, little girls also perceive themselves as “weaker” than their males peers by the average age four years old.
When are you most at risk for sexual assault on a college campus?
More than half of sexual assaults take place on weekends between midnight and 6 a.m. The majority of sexual assaults were reported to have been at or after a party, and between 50-70% of sexual assault cases involved the consumption of alcohol. 90% of victims reported being sexually assaulted by someone they already knew. Also, you are stastically most at risk for suffering sexual assault during the first few months of your freshman or sophomore year.
What is a deep fake?
face-swap technology that replaces an existing image or video with the image of another person.
can be used to manufacture "revenge porn"
Politicians, celebrities, and non-famous women with vindictive ex-boyfriends have all been held up as potential victims of this high-tech form of abuse
It is fairly easy to access technology to produce deep fakes
Important to stress to students that to not believe everything on the internet and know this exists
True or false: Penises and vaginas are equally at risk to contract an STD.
False! It’s important to be aware that the person being penetrated is typically at a higher risk for contracting STIs than the partner who’s penetrating. The lining of the vagina is thinner than the skin on a penis, so it’s easier for bacteria and viruses to penetrate. Statistically, this means that people with vaginas have a higher rate of STDs. However, sexual intercourse isn't exclusively vaginal, so the same can be said for any form of penetrative sex. For example, the risk of transmitting HIV to someone during unprotected anal sex is 15 in 1,000 for the person being penetrated versus 3 in 10,000 for the partner who’s penetrating. In general, ANYONE engaging in any form of sexual activity faces a risk of contracting an STD and the best way to prevent this is though the use of condoms and through regular testing.
Can parents prevent their children from receiving sexual education from their schools?
Twenty five states require parents to be notified before any form of sexual education is taught at school.
Five states require parental consent before a child can receive instruction
Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia allow parents to opt-out on behalf of their children
9% of all kids in America don’t receive any sexuality education whatsoever.
and of course, 25% of those who do learn abstinence only curriculum.
How much money is the global beauty industry worth?
Business Insider calculated the global beauty industry in July 2019 as being worth upwards of $532 billion dollars, and worth nearly $100 billion in the United States alone. In fact, this number is still on an upwards trend. Many attribute the rise of social media (influencers, pinterest shopping, brand ambassadors, etc) as a major factor of this. On average, women in the U.S. spend around $3,000 on cosmetics annually, which accounts to around $225,360 throughout their lifetime. Men spend almost as much: an estimated $2,928 per year. Additionally, Americans spend more than $40 billion dollars a year on weight loss products/programs
All of these statistics reflect the pervasive and problematic beauty standards and body policing ingrained into the Americanized culture of consumerism.
What percentage of American women believe they are overweight?
90% of women in America actively believe they are overweight. In reality, only about 40% of American women are overweight.
This is a question of health safety because of the harmful effects of disordered eating.
-over 70% of American women are currently dieting (compared to 35% of men)
-by age 9, an estimated 80% of girls are already concerned with dieting and weight loss
-1997 study by Kristen Harrison and Joanne Cantor studied relationship between media consumption and eating disorders
-shows that the use of media depicting thinness “predicted disordered-eating symptomatology, drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and ineffectiveness” in women
-such exposure for men predicted a favoritism of thinness in women
-1999 study by Anne Becker and Rebecca Burwell of the Harvard Eating Disorders Center tracked the incidence of eating disorders in residents of Fiji before and after exposure to Western media and found that eating disorders dramatically increased.
-prior to the introduction of Western television programming, typical beauty ideals were predominantly body shapes that would be considered obese in the United States.
-after exposure, 5 times as many females reported vomiting to control weight, 74% of girls reported feeling “too fat,” and 62% reported dieting in the last month. overall, girls who watched more television were more likely to evaluate their bodies negatively
-this study is often cited to highlight the harmful effects that media can have.
What percentage of television contains sexual content?
Answer: 75%.
Studies show that more than 75% of primetime TV programs contain sexual content, and the mention of sex on TV can occur up to eight to 10 times in a single hour.
35% of sexual intercourse cases involved who were not in a relationship
15% of them occurring after just meeting
A national sample study of 1,500 10 to 17-year-olds showed that about half of those that use the Internet had been exposed to online porn in the last year.
What state has the highest teen pregnancy rate?
Arkansas. The teen pregnancy rate in Arkansas is 30.4%, which in CA terms, translates to 60 girls at our school. The national average is slightly more than half that, at 17.7%. This means 35 girls at CA. Massachusetts has the lowest teen pregnancy rate in the country, at only 7.2%. However, this would still means that a whopping 14 girls theoretically should be getting pregnant each year.
How many states require education on LGBTQ identities and relationships?
Answer(Script): Only 9 states currently require discussion of LGBTQ identities and relationships to be inclusive and affirming.
5 Southern states either prohibit sex educators from discussing (or even answering questions about) LGBTQ identities and relationships, or actually require sex educators to frame LGBTQ identities and relationships negatively. These laws further stigmatize LGBTQ youth and leave them without the information they need to protect their sexual health, putting them at greater risk for STDs, pregnancy, and unhealthy or abusive relationships.
These explicit anti-LGBT curriculum laws can be found in 5 US states namely Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.
What percent of cisgender women orgasmed during the most recent time they had sex compared to cisgender men?
According to multiple studies done in 2018, only two-thirds of women had an orgasm compared to 91% of men. Oof.
What are some behaviors associated with Rape Trauma Syndrome?
RTS is a major aftermath effect of sexual-based trauma. Some of the most common symptoms include:
-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
-Flashbacks, nightmares, re-imagining the events.
-“Psychic numbing”: not experiencing feelings of any kind, social withdrawal
-Victims may go to lengths to avoid any feelings or thoughts that might recall the events to mind
-Increased and exaggerated physiological arousal such as startle response, hypervigilance, sleep disorders or difficulty concentrating
-Minimization (pretending “everything is fine”, or that the assault “wasn’t a big deal”)
-Dramatization (cannot stop talking about the assault)
-Suppression (refuses to discuss the incident)
-Explanation (analyzes what happened)
-Flight (moves, alters appearance, etc)
-Hesitance to enter new relationships
-Questioning of sexual identity or sexual orientation (more typical of people assaulted by someone outside of their orientation)
-Disrupted sexual relationships or sexuality
(difficulty re-establishing normal sexual relations, inhibited sexual responses, flashbacks to the rape during sexual activity, hyper-sexuality)
True or False: the majority pornography reflects consensual sex.
False. According to a 2010 study that analyzed 304 scenes from best-selling pornography videos, almost 90% of scenes contained physical aggression, while nearly 50% contained verbal aggression, primarily in the form of name-calling. The majority of this violence was directed against women. It's worth noting that the study only analyzed the most-viewed pornography, as it's nearly impossible to account for all the pornography available on the internet.
At age 30, what chance does a couple have of conceiving a child each month?
Every time you engage in one-time, unprotected intercourse, there is approximately between 3.1-5% chance of conception. However, with age females begin to lose fertility. By age 30, couples have about a 20% chance of conception within one month of trying, and by age 40, this decreases to 5%. A woman of 35 years is only half as likely to have a healthy baby as a woman of 25 years. Unfortunately for us, these findings contrast the demographic shift of delaying childbirth, with the mean age at motherhood rising since 1980.
When was the first evidence based-teen prevention program signed into law?
December 2009.
-$114 million “Labor-Health and Human Services, Education and Other Agencies” appropriations bill
-Trump administration cut more than $200 million in federal funds for teen pregnancy prevention programs
-however, though women hold fewer than 30% of state legislative seats, they introduced five out of every seven state bills updating sex education standards that were enacted in 2018
True or false: “Friends with Benefits” arrangements are more likely to occur between same-sex partners, since many of these relationships start from a place of same-sex friendships.
False. In fact, these “arrangements” are vastly more popular amongst heterosexual couples. One study in 2009 found found that while 60% of undergraduates reported having a “friends with benefits” relationship at some point in their lives, 98.7% were with an opposite sex partner while only 1.3% with a same-sex partner. This study concluded that FWB relationships, though seemingly representative of low-pressure, sex-positive cultural shifts, actually often wind up perpetuating the status quo.