BY Lux Alptraum
July 19, 2007
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There’s an interesting piece in The New York Times about the decline of abstinence education: apparently, after funding scandals, controversy, and a complete lack of any evidence that it actually works, abstinence education might actually be on its way out.

If you’re interested in reading about the abstinence-only vs. comprehensive sex ed debate (as you should be, it’s interesting), you should take the time to read the article. Over here, however, we would just like to take a minute to examine a metaphor put forth in the article:

“You have to look at why sex was created,” Eric Love, the director of the East Texas Abstinence Program, which runs Virginity Rules, said one day, the sounds of Christian contemporary music humming faintly in his Longview office. “Sex was designed to bond two people together.”

To make the point, Mr. Love grabbed a tape dispenser and snapped off two fresh pieces. He slapped them to his filing cabinet and the floor; they trapped dirt, lint, a small metal bolt. “Now when it comes time for them to get married, the marriage pulls apart so easily,” he said, trying to unite the grimy strips. “Why? Because they gave the stickiness away.”

The mind boggles. Boinkology is trying to imagine how our life would have turned out if we’d gotten married back when our stickiness was fresh. Hey, we could have ended up with that abusive loser who turned out to be a pathological liar! Or “stuck to” the NYU student who’s now a scary cokehead (ha ha!)!

All kidding (and tape metaphors) aside, we like to think that dating helps us to learn about ourselves, and ultimately make better decisions. Spending our formative years in the arms of losers taught us a lot about what to avoid: and made us appreciate our healthy relationships all the more (an appreciation that one might compare to the stickiness of some fresh Scotch tape — but we promised no more tape metaphors).

[Via Feministing]