Ralph the penis and ’70s sex ed

Without Judy Blume’s books for young adults, my sex education would have consisted of one awkward, all-girl viewing of a menstruation filmstrip in sixth grade. (Filmstrip. Think stone-age Powerpoint.)

The first Blume title that Dad brought home was Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. The book probed religion in ways that felt heretical. Margaret bought a bra and learned about sanitary napkins.

My parents might not have approved. But they didn’t read it. So I kept reading. I learned what (a middle-aged woman author thinks) teen boys think about in Then Again, Maybe I Won’t. I related to the pain of the outcast in Blubber.

Most instructive was Blume’s Forever, in which 17-year-old Katherine loses her virginity, learns about STDs and acquires birth control pills from Planned Parenthood.

I passed the useful book along to 12-year-old girls who gave it to 13-year-old boys. Someone slipped it back in my locker after the book split in half at page 85: “He led my hand to his penis. ‘Katherine, I’d like you to meet Ralph … ‘Does every penis have a name?’ ‘I can only speak for my own.’”

Adolescent giggles ensued.

That was 1977, in the puritanical midwest. In Nevada, where “sex worker” is a legal career, I’d like to think sex ed has improved.

Not so, say students in Fernley, where schools use an abstinence-only curriculum developed by a conservative religious group. Earlier this year, Fernley students went to the school board to complain that program isn’t working. Teens aren’t just saying no. When “yes” happens, they are unprepared.

“They said ‘We’re still getting pregnant—this isn’t working,’” explains Planned Parenthood Mar Monte public affairs vice president Alison Gaulden. “‘We need something that helps us.’”

For starters, abstinence-based programs, though well-meaning, don’t address proper protection from STDs and pregnancy.

“Teens are not using condoms correctly,” Gaulden says. “They’re not using them with lubrication so they tear or come off easily. They’re not using them consistently.”

At the students’ request, the Lyon County school board will consider a new curriculum for Fernley students. But a bigger plan involves state-wide sex ed consistency. “It’d be simpler to have a state standard,” says Carissa Snedeker, member of Fernley’s curriculum advisory committee.

Nevada’s 17 counties have 17 different sets of sex ed guidelines. Statewide standardization is the goal of a 2011 bill draft request filed by Nevada Assemblyman David Bobzien.

Nevada has the 10th highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation. In 2009, Nevadans contracted around 6,661 cases of chlamydia and 1,009 cases of gonorrhea. The highest percentage is among youth 15 to 24 years of age.

Reaching teens in high school is key to keeping them healthy in college. In polls conducted by the National College Health Assessment, UNR students have admitted to not using condoms with all partners and all sex acts, every time.

A useful sex ed program is frank about contraception and the need for protection. It explores cultural messages, sexual identity and self-esteem issues, helping young people understand the pressures that accompany sex and its consequences.

Teens need information and support from knowledgeable, open adults. They also need access to protection/contraception.

I had some information, thanks to Blume. But I grew up in a town far from a Planned Parenthood office where I could obtain birth control.

When Blume’s Forever turned up broken in my locker, I asked our school librarian for tape to make repairs. She offered to help fix my book, and I couldn’t refuse.

She read page 85 and blushed.

“Take this home,” she said. “Don’t bring it back to school.”

I put the book back in circulation that afternoon and didn’t see it again.

I didn’t get pregnant till I was 17.

This article was modified from its original version to say “Fernley” instead of “Fallon.” We regret the error.