Teenage Sex and Pregnancy: Modern Myths, Unsexy Realities

This detailed, exhaustively documented account shows how and why just about everyone in today’s teen pregnancy debate is wrong--often disastrously so.

Teenage Sex and Pregnancy: Modern Myths, Unsexy Realities presents a unique view of its subject by analyzing the extensive myths and fears that surround discussion of teenage sex and pregnancy, including their relationship to popular culture, poverty, adult sexual behaviors, and anxieties toward the increasingly public roles of young women.

Award-winning author Mike Males argues that today’s discussions rely largely on falsehoods and the suppression of crucial realities. His work details a new view of popular culture as a largely beneficial feature of teens’ lives and presents a carefully documented analysis demolishing destructive myths about the ＂new girl.＂ Debunking popular arguments, he shows that the ＂teen sex＂ debate is mired in interest-group talking points that ignore difficult realities to advance politically attuned agendas. It’s time, he writes, to modernize the discussion, recognizing that teens act in ways consistent with their interests, with the sexual behaviors of adults, and with the school and job opportunities afforded them.

Mike A. Males, PhD, is senior researcher for YouthFacts.org, Oklahoma City, OK, and the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, San Francisco, CA.