Saturday, June 21, 2008

Pinoy Youth Sexuality



Nowadays, it's not surprising to find unplanned pregnancies among teens, rampant promiscuity among the young peeps, and flavored condoms in your son's wallets (thanks to the ad). I think we've got the perfect recipe for such condition to fluorish - sex-crazed media, porn DVDs and mags sold like candy along sidewalks, unrestricted internet access (download K9 Web Filter please - it's for free), lousy values formation in schools, and the worst of all - parental neglect.

Take for example our neighbor here. This girl is only in her teens and sadly a product of a broken and disordered family. She is rebelling against her parents. One day we learned that she's already pregnant - much to the chagrin of her mom who also had the same experience in her youth (like mother like daughter?). As if that wasn't enough, her much younger sister followed suit, so both of them got pregnant at an age where they should still be attending school. Pitiful. I personally think that the parents are blameworthy in this case. Their parents are often at odds with each other and the fighting can sometimes get physical. Result? - a broken home and children rebelling against their parents. Even up to now, I would still hear this poor young lass having verbal confrontations with her mother - for all the people to hear. Sad, very sad.

The Filipino youths are indeed fast catching up with their counterparts in the western world when it comes to sexual permissiveness and promiscuity. Just take a look at these not-so surprising facts from a 2003 study involving 15-24 years old Filipinos which I happened to dig up from a mag I was reading the other night. These figures may have changed by now but nevertheless still quite alarming:

* Four out of ten (38%) young adults are in a live-in arrangement.
* Premarital sex was engaged in by 26% of those surveyed, statistically representing 3.8 M sexually active people.
* Young men showed higher prevalence of premarital sex (35%) than women (19%).
* Eleven percent have had homosexual experiences, of these, 87% are men.
* Rate of same sex relationships in women is 4%.
* Almost half of those who have had same-sex encounters also had commercial sex.
* Nineteen percent paid for sex; 11% were paid to do favors.
* Pinoy males are now willing to marry non-virgins.

(Source: Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study conducted by the U.P. Population Institute and Demography Research and Development Foundation)

4 comments:

urbanguru said...

whew. if i was part of that survey, i'd be guilty of 4 out of the 8 facts you presented... heck.

Unknown said...

I just discovered your blog. You have a gift for expressing feelings and getting those feelings across in words. I very much like your style. I do not agree with your opinion about sexuality and the SSA. I think a person has the right to make a choice on his/her sexuality and leave the guilt at the door. We are who we are. I have many friends who love members of the same sex and went through trials and tribulations about their sexuality before finally deciding that life is too short to live a lie. Thanks for a great read.

GoingStraight said...

Hi ettarose. Thanks to your compliment. I respect your opinion. As a person struggling with SSA, it's really very tough. I often hear the argument that gay people should lead the life they are "destined" to be - which is the gay lifestyle - which in our view is a lifestyle of promiscuity and waywardness.

Many of the members in our support group have been through that including me and did not find the fulfillment and happiness they are looking for, so you see we have something to base our actions upon and we have learned our lessons.

This thing actually is a long process. Many of us still feel attracted to guys but we choose not to "act" on those impulses to stay true to our commitment to live a chaste life...a life pleasing to God.

I can tell you it is not easy and we still fall. I hope you can pray for us desiring healing and change.

God bless you.

urbanguru said...

Amen to that!

Wait, i think i'll be late for church...

See yah round!