"US 13-year-olds are fairly conservative: Time poll"

[Bluebear]

In other words, being cautious about sex and trusting your parents and church is limited to conservatives.

====

It might surprise their parents, but in the age of graphic lyrics and violent video games, American children entering their teens remain very cautious about sex and dating and still trust their parents and church.

In a story on the lives and thinking of American 13-year-olds, Time magazine reports that sixty percent of the 500 surveyed by the magazine are against sex before marriage, and 63 percent believe they are too young to date at their age.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050731/lf_afp/afplifestyleusteens_050731205712&printer=1

[Newsjock]

1. Note the subtle manipulation

If anything is surprising in Time's feature, it is how normal and conservative -- in a day of provocative music videos, widespread Internet access, and lurid cable television shows -- today's 13 year olds are.

Time equates "normal" with "conservative." Because those liberals, y'know, they all let their kids run wild.

[Ms. Toad]

6. That was my first reaction, as well.

The items mentioned in the article describe my 15 year old - but she would be highly offended at the notion that that makes her conservative - and probably as well by the notion that she is normal...

[Clark2008]

2. Yeah, but when the hit 16, look out.

I have never known of so many girls WANTING to get pregnant at 16 in my life. It's like it's "cool" or something. Never mind that they're still babies themselves. Never mind that they haven't finished their schooling. Never mind that the father isn't in the picture.

I'm not a prude, mind you, and I'm sure 16-year-olds have been having sex for years - but it seems there is more EVIDENCE (ie. a baby) of it now.

This poll is either bogus or a lot happens in two to three years to make them less conservative.

[gollygee]

3. Oh please. How many articles have I read lately about 13 yr olds and oral

sex? Parties where 13-yr-old girls are indiscriminately giving oral sex to 13-yr-old boys or whatever.

Either they're having sex like rabbits or they're cautious about sex. It can't be both.

[pretzel4gore]

5. it's called having your kaka and eating it too

that's time magazine and the gopig's winwin agender, and it works, in a junior the bush kinda way :)

[Ms. Toad]

8. It probably is both...

I suspect it's harder to be in the reasonable middle range with peer pressure shoving teens to pick one extreme or the other. That makes for higher number of kids involved in the sex parties, and also higher numbers of kids wearing abstinence rings and things of that nature.

[HockeyMom]

4. I am be crazy but

I really question this Abstinence Only until Marriage push by this administration. If you keep telling these kids that aren't you advocating/pushing them to wards YOUNGER marriages, just to have sex? Could there be a motive behind this? I hear so many Freepers talking about how feminists have hijacked marriage with so many young women now postponing marriage for college, a career, later marriage, and fewer children as a result.

But by the same token, as they push for younger and younger marriages, foregoing advanced education, that will severely shrink the middle class. You add to all this mix the baning of abortion and birth control, well you can see where that is headed. Poorer, younger families, with a lot of kids.

New World Order?

[Ms. K]

16. Betty Friedan wrote about it

in The Feminine Mystique, more than 40 years ago.

It's a way to keep women in line, pushing them towards marrying young. And you'll note that the Freepers always blame the women for not marrying young and pushing out a lot of babies. Can't be the fault of men who are postponing marriage, nooo, it's those damn feminists.

I just got my copy from Amazon, and read it again for the umpteenth time in fifteen years, and realized that most of what she wrote about in 1963 still has relevance to 2005. It's just a matter of time before we go back to girls being required to take home ec in high school, and marriage and family classes being required for girls in college. If girls are still allowed into college.

[HockeyMom]

19. Ironically,

my daughter took both Home Ec and Shop (required) in HS. Her step stool turned out great, whereas her cookies could have been used as hockey pucks.

I grew up in the 50s/60s. You know, that time of Father Knows Best, Donna Reed, etc. My DAD did all the cooking. He LIKED to and was actually a better cook than my Mom (she had an outside job). He wasn't above mopping the floor either. And my Grandma, who was born in 1900, could take apart anything mechanical, fix it, and put it all back together again.

I guess what I am saying is that gender stereotypes are absurd and have nothing whatsoever to do with the "feminist culture" (Freepers) we live in today.

[XemaSab]

7. I think 13 is the wrong age to ask

I think asking at 15 would get MUCH better results... most 13 year old boys don't know what sex is yet.

[mrdmk]

10. That is about it, maybe 13 year old girls may have a clue what sex

is, on the other hand a 13 year old boys may also have a clue what sex is. The inclination to have sex at that age is very unusual, 16 to 17 years of age is more like it.

[DanCa]

9. Based on sean hannitys grasp on math skills and scripture interpertation

I would have said that the average conservative was much younger.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. So 300 13 year olds

answered a survey the way they thought their parents wanted them to answer. Does that mean they are not having sex and really do trust their parents and church?

I have seen too many 14 and 15 year old mothers to believe that.

[wli]

23. I've seen too many 16 year old mothers of 3-year-old babies to believe it

And yes, I'm serious.

[Kerrytravelers]

12. Well, whooppeee. And this means they're conservative...how...

At 13, I listened to my parents. They advised me against pre-marrital sex. I wasn't interested in dating. We went to church as a family (except my dad, who always skipped out when NASCAR races were on.) Mom and I even sang in the choir. Gasp!

And guess what? I was then, have always been and will always be a liberal. Gasp!

I was raised by liberals. Gasp!

Looks like Time might want to consider rethinking what they consider "conservative." :eyes:

[deutsey]

13. Yeah, like true conservatives, these kids lack real life experience

that might help them to connect with the human condition in a real and meaningful way.

[seabeyond]

14. all the kids making good choices conservative, all kids making

poor choices....?

let my children be an example of progress kids in thought they make excellent choices in life.

[rainbow4321]

15. They need to go look at some teens' Xanga sites...

...cuz the stuff I see on those that belong to the kids at my daughter's school are pretty damn shocking. And these are 13, 14, 15 yr old kids. Including the one where a 15 yr old girl is now pregnant after a guy claimed to have a "latex allergy" and said he couldn't use a condom. The "father" is 19..the baby is due in October, CPS is involved, charges against the 19 y/o may be pending.

For those not familiar with Xanga.com, you can go there, do a search w/ certain keywords (i.e name of your kids' school, name of your city etc...) to find the right blogring, and get a real eye opener on the local kids.

www.xanga.com

[Carni]

17. What this tells me/they suspect their parents will read the survey answers

Today's 13 year olds must be more savvy than I thought!

[Bluebear]

25. Exactly.

[DemGirl7]

18. Weird.....

I'm cautious about sex (being that I'm still a virgin), and I trust my parents, but the policies I believe mirror that of what conservatives would call "a flaming liberal". This is BS, most 13 year olds just repeat the same crap their parents said, they should interview these kids in 2 years and see if they say the same stuff...I'm willing to bet they don't.

[Lex]

20. Most conservatives I know still live at home off Mom and Dad

and don't have a job either.

I guess that's what makes a good conservative--never been out in the world on their own in any meaningful way.

[cry baby]

21. My 13 yr old is already an environmentally aware liberal democrat.

Hope he stays that way!

As for polling 13 yr olds, they will say whatever they think they are supposed to say.

[sleipnir]

22. I was a Conservative Nut when I was 13. Yeah, but it all changed later

Seriously, about 3 1/2 years later, my entire life changed and over about a year, I completely changed into a very liberal person. By the time I hit 20, it was a whole new ballgame. There was only the shadow of my conservative 13-year old self in a mirror at my parent's place.

Yeah, this poll is bogus. I thought that Bush the 1st was one of the best presidents ever as a 13 year old. Oh, what little did I know and how much I have learned since then.

[JackRiddler]

24. most 13-year-olds

have always been "conservative" (in the sense that this word is used and abused in our culture). I was too, and I remember the kids from my substitute teaching days!

Not such a surprise that this age is most susceptible to the systemic propaganda. Luckily the rebellion for enough is yet to come, whatever Time or whoever thinks (and yes, Time is here conflating reasonable attitudes about sex with "conservative" values and itself producing a propaganda piece, what a surprise).

[Warren DeMontague]

26. Breaking: Most Conservatives have the cognitive reasoning ability

of a 13 year old.

Makes sense.

[MODemocrat]

27. Who cares?

The little wingnuts should be learning to read and write first. They're going to say what their parents do unless they are savvy enough to get it figured out on their own. The republicans are a strange lot, to say the least.