And now, from the "Yes means No means Yes" files and Yahoo! News...

Sudiegirl sez: I’m not sure why this article caught my eye either, but I seem to be moving on from liplock to the horizontal mambo. OH well…who am I to criticize? But this is more about DENIAL anyway, right? Maybe some would like me to deny that I even commented on this news story, but no dice, y’all.

Virginity pledgers often dishonest about past
(Notice how this headline is kind of ambiguous? Yeah, me too.)

By Charnicia Huggins
Thu Jun 1, 4:19 PM ET

Teenagers who take pledges to remain virgins until marriage are likely to deny having taken the pledge if they later become sexually active. (OK…you know what? When you’re a teenager and you’ve discovered that hormonal urges can be your FRIEND, you would deny knowing your own mother if it meant nookie would be happening.)

Conversely, those who were sexual active before taking the pledge frequency deny their sexual history, according to new study findings. (And this is a surprise too? It’s called “making a good impression”, folks. Movies have been made about it, soap operas make their living off of it…deny, deny, deny.)

These findings imply that virginity pledgers often provide unreliable data, making assessment of abstinence-based sex education programs unreliable. In addition, these teens may also underestimate their risk of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases. (Why does it seem like these things go in cycles? I mean, it’s cool to have sex – it’s not cool to have sex. People, MAKE UP YOUR MINDS!!!!)

"Teenagers do not report their past sexual activity accurately, with virginity pledgers giving more inaccurate reports of their past sexual activity," study author Janet Rosenbaum, of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told Reuters Health. (Well, DUH! That’s called “courting". Do you really think that if (in most cases) I told a prospective suitor about EVERY GUY I SLEPT WITH that he’d still want to sleep with me? Probably not. Some might, but it’d be the old ‘notch on the bedpost’ thing.)

Consequently, rather than rely on self-reports, "studies of virginity pledges must focus on outcomes where we know we can get good information, such as medical STD tests," she added. (Ah…the stirrups and swabs don’t lie, do they? And I like the term "self-reports". It's that old "fox in the henhouse" factor that has proven so accurate and helpful all these years, isn't it?)

Previous research shows that survey respondents tend to answer questions about sexual activity according to their current beliefs, particularly if their current attitudes conflict with their past behaviors. Survey respondents may also underreport or overreport their health risk behavior. (Has anyone ever considered the concept that respondents may just be bloody ignorant? I mean, some people still believe that you can get pregnant from a toilet seat, for cryin’ out loud!)

Rosenbaum evaluated retractions of virginity pledges and reports of sexual histories among a nationally representative sample of seventh- through twelfth-grade students who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. (I’m sorry – I just see or hear the phrase “retraction of virginity pledge” and it makes me giggle. So that means if you score and you want to make it sound more respectable than “We played hide the sausage in the back of my car”, simply say, “We retracted our virginity pledge.”)

The students were first interviewed in 1995 and followed-up in 1996. The first survey included responses from 79 percent of 20,745 students. The second survey included responses from 88 percent of 14,736 students from the first group. (OK…what does that say about the 10 – 20 % that didn’t respond? That they aren’t going to paint themselves into a corner? Good call, in my opinion.)

In the initial survey, about 13 percent of adolescents reported that they had taken a pledge of virginity. Just one year later, however, more than half of this group said they had never taken such a pledge, Rosenbaum reports in the American Journal of Public Health. (OK, if they have taken virginity pledges, is there a formal process for that? I mean, do they put their hand on a bible or a copy of The Joy of Sex? Do they sign something that says “I do solemnly swear to wait until marriage to do the nasty?” Do you get a t-shirt? Do you get a ticket if you break your pledge? Talk to me, people. I waited and there was NO INCENTIVE PROGRAM, plus the jerk left me two years later.)

In addition, more than 1 in 10 students who reported being sexually active in 1995 said that they were virgins in 1996. Students who reported they were sexually active in second survey were more than three times as likely as their peers to deny they had taken a pledge of virginity. (Well, now – wait a minute. Who’s defining what sexually active is? I mean, some define it as intercourse only. Others define it and encompass other things. Is penetration a factor? If it’s not, then I lost it at 17. Also, I’m sorry – this is not a problem with the REST of the animal kingdom. Why do humans get so hung up about it?)

The adolescents' denials of virginity pledges and sexual histories were associated with changes in their sexual and religious identities, the report indicates. (Ya know why? Taking a virginity pledge is a good smokescreen when ya ain’t getting’ any!!! Duh! You could look like 10 miles of bad road, have a B.O. problem and sacrifice toads in your back yard, but at least you can cover up your inactive sex life with a virginity pledge. “I chose to keep my virginity – that’s why I’m sacrificing toads in my back yard. I have nothing else in my life.”)

For example, adolescents who abandoned a born-again Christian identity were more than twice as likely as their peers to say they had never taken a virginity pledge. (This is a surprise? Not to me. Why on earth would you claim something that would mark you as a “square” or whatever word is used nowadays?)

On the other hand, 28 percent of nonvirgins who later took a virginity pledge retracted their sexual histories during the 1996 survey. The same was true of 18 percent of nonvirgins who later adopted a born-again Christian identity. (Uh…*Sudiegirl raises hand*…isn’t there a way to prove virginity and non-virginity? I know there should be for women, but what about guys? That’s never seemed fair to me. Then again, we are more mature.)

Sexually active teens who later took virginity pledges were four times as likely to deny previous reports of sexual activity than were those who had not taken virginity pledges. (Again…what’s the acid test here? Is it an essay test? Will the magic stirrups at Planned Parenthood lie or tell the truth?)

According to Rosenbaum, "it's not possible to know why pledgers retracted their sexual history since it's impossible to know whether respondents actually had sex." (UH-HUH! MY POINT!!!)

"Psychology studies in a variety of contexts seem to demonstrate that people's memories of their behavior are consistent with their beliefs rather than their actual behavior," she told Reuters Health, adding that "anecdotally, some people seem to feel like the answer which is strictly true may not represent themselves accurately." (Ah…but “accurately” is subjective, is it not? There’s “accurate” for Mom and Dad, and then there’s “accurate” for the football team. Oh, and there’s “accurate” in a court of law, plus “accurate” as to how to explain it to someone else you’ve been dating at the same time. Lots of “accurates”.)

"If those who deny their sexual pasts perceive their new history as correct, they will underestimate the sexually transmitted disease risk stemming from their prepledge sexual behavior," Rosenbaum adds. (Yeah! What he said. It’s all about perception, huh? What if you have problems with depth perception? Then you’ll spend the rest of your life asking if it’s in yet.)

SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, June 2006.

Sudiegirl’s final opinion?

You know, maybe I sound jaded, but this is a no-win situation.

Think about it – this pledge obviously means nothing to the pledgers that are taking it. Also, if you’re talking in purely biological terms, you can only really prove virginity or lack thereof in about half of the pledge class. (Didn’t they used to do that in medieval days as well, among the royalty?)

Life is scary and hard enough. It’s not wrong to wait, but it’s not necessarily wrong to engage in the act if it’s for the right reasons. Pledging and recanting to “rewrite history” a certain way isn’t going to solve the problem. It just makes for a very confused society, and one that’s potentially dangerous in terms of disease and teenage pregnancies.

I think it’s more important to reinforce in teenagers today that adults will accept them and help them work through the pitfalls of life. I had that to a degree, but I want my nieces and nephews to know that I will be there to help them if they need it. Some people don’t even have that much.

On the lighter side, at least I don’t have to worry about whether or not I got a free tee-shirt. It wouldn’t fit now anyway, and it would probably say, “I risked being ostracized by my peers by taking an oath of virginity and all I got was this lousy t-shirt”.

Isn’t life great?

Sudiegirl .