News Texas parent does not want her children to learn or even know about sex in middle-school.

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Pipeline 1010

Golden Member
Dec 2, 2005
1,918
742
136
'Appropriate' is a construct that you're trying to impose on young adults that can get access to whatever the fuck they feel like. It's absurd to just decide that if you don't talk to them about it, they won't hear about it.

That was a misassumption that I don't want to talk about it with my kids. Also a misassumption I don't ever want them to hear about it, and a third one that I think hiding it from them will somehow magically keep them from hearing about it or knowing about it. If that was what I thought, I'd be incredibly naïve.

As a parent, I admit that I don't always know where the line between appropriate and inappropriate is. And the line I draw is colored by my own emotions and feelings. I could very well be wrong from an objective perspective or even from a hindsight perspective developed years from now in the future. I wouldn't feel comfortable with a random stranger telling my daughter a story about sex, so why should I feel OK with an author doing the same? Maybe there is a good reason. Or, maybe there is a significant enough difference between the two that I am missing and is leading me to overreact.
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
14,006
12,075
146
Or, maybe there is a significant enough difference between the two that I am missing and is leading me to overreact
I guess for me, I'd accept that hearing it from 'a stranger' is going to happen, sooner rather than later, so I'd prefer they hear something from me first. Whether I'm ready for it or not is irrelevant, which is a common thread in parenting.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
14,452
9,837
136
That was a misassumption that I don't want to talk about it with my kids. Also a misassumption I don't ever want them to hear about it, and a third one that I think hiding it from them will somehow magically keep them from hearing about it or knowing about it. If that was what I thought, I'd be incredibly naïve.

As a parent, I admit that I don't always know where the line between appropriate and inappropriate is. And the line I draw is colored by my own emotions and feelings. I could very well be wrong from an objective perspective or even from a hindsight perspective developed years from now in the future. I wouldn't feel comfortable with a random stranger telling my daughter a story about sex, so why should I feel OK with an author doing the same? Maybe there is a good reason. Or, maybe there is a significant enough difference between the two that I am missing and is leading me to overreact.
I think there is a big different in a kid reading about the life of two minority teens being in a relationship during the depression that uses a little crude slang and a random stranger coming up to your kid and saying "I like fucking women in the ass."
 

sactoking

Diamond Member
Sep 24, 2007
7,507
2,703
136
The middle school and elementary school kids of the youth pastor living next door to me talk about stuff worse than this all the time.
 

quikah

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2003
4,068
649
126
For context.

My library has this available in ebook format so I checked it out. The passage in question is what the boys in the class are thinking about the new girl when they first see her. Pretty much that one sentence is the entirety of it. Not that interested in the book so I didn't read too much. Set in 1937, lots of stuff about race.
 
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[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
14,006
12,075
146
For context.

My library has this available in ebook format so I checked it out. The passage in question is what the boys in the class are thinking about the new girl when they first see her. Pretty much that one sentence is the entirety of it. Not that interested in the book so I didn't read too much. Set in 1937, lots of stuff about race.
So it's a book for school-age children, about school-age children, thinking about things school-age children think about. But we should restrict school-age children from reading it, because we don't want them to think that way. Interesting.
 
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nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
58,055
12,245
136
Yeah, it sounds like one book with one particular section that is a bit inappropriate for children (never read that book, but from the passage quoted it sounds like a description of a sexual assault). Not sure what age range that school is, I could well-imagine having read something like that at 12 and been a bit disturbed, but also confused by the unfamiliar terminology. Heck, I remember reading more than one novel at that age that featured unpleasant violence that made me feel physically unwell (one I think was a novel about colonial Vietnam that involved description of torture). Even "1984" was a bit brutal, as I recall, to read at that age.

Strictly, such books probably shouldn't be in a school library for children of that age (but I think 12 is right on the border of being mature enough to cope with such reading material), but it sounds like an overblown row over just one book not being fully vetted.

I do remember being shocked, at even a younger age than that, by the blatent racism and imperialism in the "Biggles" books!
By age 12, I'd seen Robocop, Aliens, Predator, Conan the Barbarian, Heavy Metal...
A long and sorted thread.
Curious if you meant "sordid".
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
14,452
9,837
136
Holy shit I'm watching Hunchback of Notre Dame for the first time. This movie has a G rating, and has a main character that is committing genocide, killed a woman, and was going to kill a baby. And has the main character attacked just for being ugly.

But "cornholed" should be NC-17?

This is country is seriously messed up with anything to do with sex.

Watched a little bit further, and there was a nice rape fantasy innuendo as well.
 
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NWRMidnight

Platinum Member
Jun 18, 2001
2,922
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Holy shit I'm watching Hunchback of Notre Dame for the first time. This movie has a G rating, and has a main character that is committing genocide, killed a woman, and was going to kill a baby. And has the main character attacked just for being ugly.

But "cornholed" should be NC-17?

This is country is seriously messed up with anything to do with sex.

Watched a little bit further, and there was a nice rape fantasy innuendo as well.
And these people except decades of sexual innuendos from Disney movies made for kids.
 
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IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
68,855
26,648
136
Middle school kids wild out these days. Drinking and sex is far more common at that age than many would assume.
So basically the same as when we were kids, except the sex part, but not for lack of desire. Imagine middle school kids talking about sex and pretending they have any experience in the subject. :p
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
14,006
12,075
146
So basically the same as when we were kids, except the sex part, but not for lack of desire. Imagine middle school kids talking about sex and pretending they have any experience in the subject. :p
While obviously not all, we had plenty of kids in my school gettin' busy in middle school. I know of at least one couple in the 6th grade as well that did.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
68,855
26,648
136
While obviously not all, we had plenty of kids in my school gettin' busy in middle school. I know of at least one couple in the 6th grade as well that did.
I guess my point is that middle school kids who had no experience with sex still talked about it like they did. The passage in the book strikes me as accurately portraying trash talking middle schoolers.