Study Shows Linkage Between Teen Girls' Weight And Sexual Behavior

Yeah, I was surprised to read that conclusion and the conclusion that white and black girls react opposite to each other. Goes to prove how complex this issue is.

I would say studies like this only create new bias....In my experience white girls are more promiscuous. Although, any time I've been around black women they've typically been very biased people.

I'd say you have some bias of your own. What proof do you have that white girls are more promicious or black women more biased?

"Risky" sex? Seriously? It's as risky as breathing is for you.

Risky sex has a precise meaning of having sex taking unnecessary chances: no attempting to protect against STDs or pregnancy.

Women are particularly vulnerable for both, so this is an important subject to discuss if we want to protect the health of our young women.

Did they consider taking attractiveness into scale?

The article was not about how men view women. It was about how these young women view themselves and how those views affected their sexual decisions.

That isn't true.

Our bodies are not the sum total of our Selves. Just because our body can do something does not mean we are emotionally or physically able to cope with the results.

Girls are not ready for procreation as soon as they experience menarche. Girls who are pregnant as young teens suffer significant health problems, some of which affect them for the rest of their lives. Mortality during childbirth is significantly higher too.

For boys, it could be different because they cannot get pregnant. Are there studies that look into this? I'm not sure.

However, our ban on early sex has to do with parenthood more than anything. Young teens are not ready to be parents and suffer significant harm when they are forced to accept that role before they are ready. They receive less education, thus have less earning power for the rest of their lives. If they marry, they are less likely to be able to hold their marriage together.

Our brains and our bodies are not done maturing until about our mid-twenties. We need to stop thinking that maturity is upon us just because our sexual organs are waking up.

We're not talking about enjoying sex in general. We're talking about risky sexual behavior, like being with a man who is who is known for dating violence and/or raping his dates. Also for not using birth control, thus risking pregnancy. Or for not using condoms, thus risking STDs.

Women have more to lose by having sex than men do. So having sex with multiple partners without using condoms or birth control will impact a girl more than a boy. The boy does not risk becoming pregnant. Males are less likely to catch incurable STDs from females than the other way around.

So low self-esteem is a factor to consider over and above wanting to have sex. A person can indulge their sex drive without taking unnecessary risks. The goal is, as you stated, to encourage responsible sexual behavior. We can do that best when we understand the factors behind what drives irresponsible sexual behavior.

I'm not "hun." Okay? I have a name. I prefer to be called by it.

Please read this again:

I would say studies like this only create new bias....In my experience white girls are more promiscuous. Although, any time I've been around black women they've typically been very biased people.

You fault the study for being biased...and also add in your own bias. That was the contrast I was showing.

Your personal experiences don't count when it comes to categorizing an entire group of people, especially when you want to fault the study for doing the same. Is that clearer?

I already stated how I believed lumping everyone together was absurd.

And yet that's what you did in the above statement.

Females have an opinion on how attractive females are, and what makes them attractive.

Once again: this isn't about how other people -- male and female -- view these girls as attractive or not. It's about how they view themselves. I'm not sure why that is hard to understand.

We don't need to latch on to specific sorts to try and prove a point, so as that we may try and settle some conflict within ourselves, based from past events in our lives that we can't shake off due to our own inability to move on or grow up.

If I am reading you right, you think that these researchers were using this study to "shake off their own ability to move on or grow up"? How did you arrive at that conclusion? I didn't see that at all.

I see. So disagreeing with you means that the person who disagrees need to "grow up."

You are aware of the CoH?

This isn't about me or you. It isn't about bias either (which is different from both ignorance and denial...that's why it is a different term).

The topic is how girls perceive themselves and how that affects their sexual choices. If you want to discuss the topic, please feel free to do so.

But please leave all the other junk out of it.

I'm wondering if the two -- weight and sex behavior -- aren't two symptoms of the same underlying emotions. We already know that girls who've suffered from child sexual assault are more likely to have body image distortion and to either engage in risky sexual behavior or refuse to engage in sex at all.

It seems to me that doing this study without asking the deeper question of why the two appear to be linked is rather useless.

From the article:

"This study will contribute to sexual health education prevention efforts, which can be tailored to address how cultural norms regarding body size may influence adolescent sexual decision making. Knowing how a girl perceives her weight may be just as important as knowing her actual weight," noted Dr. Akers.

It goes on to note:

Caucasian girls who believed that they were underweight, whether accurate or not, were more likely to have had sex and to have had four or more sexual partners. Overweight Caucasian girls were less likely to use condoms.

Underweight African-American girls also were less likely to use condoms while overweight African-American girls reported four or more sexual partners.

Latina girls of all weights were more likely to engage in a wide variety of sexual risk behaviors -- lack of condom or oral contraception use, sex before age 13, greater than four sexual partners and use of alcohol.

So it isn't the idea that they will become obese. It is how they percevie themselves in the present that was measured. White girls reacted opposite to black girls but Latina girls weren't divided as to their perceptions of themselves and their sexual choices.

That suggests culture is setting the stage for self-perceptions, which then translate into sexual action. However, as I pointed out in another post, rather than look at this as cause/effect, perhaps we should look at both as effect from a prior cause.