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Transcript of Podcast

Dylan Gribble

WRD 110

Podcast Draft

[Music]

So.. let's talk about sex. You know it, you love it. Whatever your sexual habits may be, sex is an important part of life.

Having sex is intimate and you should be able to trust the person you’re having sex with. Your partner should be able to keep you safe and protect you from diseases.

But, how would you feel if it turned out that your partner knew nothing about how to protect him or herself from diseases or how to prevent unwanted pregnancy?

As scary as it may sound, with our country's’ status-quo for teaching sexual education, more and more teens do not know how to protect themselves or their partners when having sex.

The cause for this lack of education is because of widespread abstinence-only classes all over the nation.  

The fundamental goals of abstinence-only classes are to prevent teen pregnancy,  the spread of STD’s, and onset of sexual activity through the teaching of abstinence before marriage.

Before I can go into the negative consequences of abstinence-only education we have to go back and look at the history of sex ed in our country.

[Music]

In the United States sexual education began as early as 1910. However, these classes were very basic and they emphasized the idea of abstinence into the mind of each student. This outdated form of sex ed continued until around the 1960’s.

People began to adopt free love and free expression in the sixties. This brought new and needed views about sex and created a new form of sexual education that aimed to replace abstinence-only.

This new form of sexual education was called comprehensive sex ed. Comprehensive classes teaches students about proper protection including uses of contraceptives.

Support for comprehensive classes became widespread through the 60’s and 70’s. In fact, according to Bill McCarthy there was “a substantial popular and political support for comprehensive sex education programs”. Unfortunately this support abruptly ended in the 1980’s.

In 1981 Congress passed a bill called the Chastity Act. This was the first time in our history that the federal government supported an abstinence-only education bill. The bill vowed the set aside $100-$135 million every year to schools who teach abstinence-only education to students.

I get it. You’re wondering, why this bill is so harmful to our society?

It’s because in order to receive funding, when teaching an abstinence class teachers have to follow a set of eight guidelines produced by the Chastity Act. These guidelines are psychologically dangerous to students because they state harmful, incorrect facts. According to Kay Perrin one guideline tells teachers to teach that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child’s parent, and society. This is extremely offensive and would cause harm many student in the classroom. Since a lot of children in our country have single parents, if a child of single parents heard this lecture it would likely have lasting consequences and make the child feel inadequate and unloved.

As if these harmful guidelines weren’t enough to make you want to throw abstinence education in the past forever, abstinence-only classes also teach students innacurate information.

In one abstinence-only program called “Why kNOw Abstinence Education”, which by the way is government funded,  teachers tell their students that “the condom has a 14% failure rate in preventing pregnancy”.

However, this claim is completely false. The 14% failure rate of condoms only applies to users who put the condom on in the middle of intercourse, rip the package with their teeth, or only use a condom every other time they have sex.

Students should have access to correct information about contraception so they can feel comfortable with potentially having sex instead of being scared by false facts that are meant to make sex seem scary.

Before going any further, I want to make one thing clear. The idea of abstinence itself is not harmful to students. In fact I believe that it is healthy for students to be taught about abstinence as an option.

Abstinence classes need to be replaced not because of what they teach, but because of what they don’t teach.

Since abstinence classes do not teach students anything about contraception they are left in the dark about how to prevent diseases and pregnancy.

This lack of knowledge can be seen empirically when looking at data about STD’s and pregnancy throughout our country.

For example, not only does the United States have the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the developed world, but the United States also has the highest rates of STD’s in the developed world. By age 25 one in two people in the United States will have or have had some type of STD. On the other hand, in a more progressive country like the Netherlands that teaches comprehensive classes, only 17% of their entire population has or has had an STD according to the World Health Organization.

Also, in Mississippi, the state with the strictest abstinence-education laws, the teen pregnancy rate is the highest in the country at 60% more than the national average. On the other hand, Vermont has adopted comprehensive education classes and they are the state with the lowest rate of teen pregnancy.

To show how abstinence-only classes do a disservice to students by not properly educating them about contraception and reproduction, I invited my friend Kolton in so he could demonstrate his knowledge about sexual education. Kolton went to a private Catholic school where abstinence-only education was taught. To test Kolton's knowledge I have compiled a list of five basic questions that every male and female should know about sex. Lets see how he does.

[Music]

Dylan: “Hi Kolton! Welcome, Thank you for coming.”

Kolton: “Thank you for having me.”

Dylan: “Okay so, my first question to you is: how many days can live sperm stay in the vagina?”

Kolton: “Maybe one or two.”

Dylan: “You’re kind of correct. Live sperm can actually live in the vagina for two to five days. Meaning, even days after a woman has had sex she can still get pregnant.”

Kolton: “Oh wow okay”

Dylan: “Alright, next question. Can a woman get pregnant while on her period?”

Kolton: “No she can not.”

Dylan: “Actually, even though it is pretty rare a woman can get pregnant on her period.”

Kolton: “Wow I had no idea.”

Dylan:  “Question three. What type of lube causes condoms to break?”

Kolton: “I would have to say.. Water based lubrication.”

Dylan: “That is incorrect, you’re actually supposed to use water based lubricant. It is actually oil based lube that causes condoms to break. Okay Question number four. Do you know the difference between a bacterial STD and a viral STD?”

Kolton: “I have no idea.”

Dylan: “Well, a viral STD is something like herpes or AIDs that you have your whole life, but a bacterial STD is curable or treatable.”

“Kolton: Interesting.”

“Dylan: Alright! Last Question. If a woman decides to take a Plan B pill, how many days does she have to take it before it becomes ineffective?”

Kolton: “She only has one day to take it.”

Dylan: “Actually she hasn five days”

Kolton: “Oh wow”

Dylan: “Yes. Well, I am sorry you didn’t do better, but thank you for coming!”

Kolton: “Thank you for having me, I had a lot of fun.”

As you just heard, Kolton is clearly uneducated when it comes to sexual education. This lack of education is due to the abstinence-only classes he took in private school.

If Kolton’s interview did not do enough to show the ineffectiveness of abstinence programs, recently the National Campaign to Prevent Pregnancy has run several tests to compare abstinence-only classes to comprehensive classes.

The tests found that none of the abstinence-only programs showed any changes in participants onset of sex, frequency of sex, number of partners, and protection like condoms used. On the other hand, when students took a comprehensive class they had sex later in life and with less partners. This proves that comprehensive classes are better because they helped students make healthy choices.

It is clear that abstinence-only classes are not sustainable for our nation because they do not teach students how to protect themselves from diseases or pregnancy and as a result our nation has some of the worst disease and pregnancy rates in the world. If this is the case, why are abstinence-only classes still so widespread?

Abstinence-classes are still so common in the country because of federal funding. Currently our Congress in over 90% Protestant Catholic. Abstinence is a key part of the protestant religion. This religion has even started several abstinence programs of its own aimed at promoting abstinence in teens.

Most of the Catholic Congressmen constituents are also catholic meaning they too hold abstinence in a high regard. Since Congressmen represent their constituents, they will continue to support abstinence programs to keep voters happy. This is a fact that will not change in our country any time soon

In the United States, schools are hugely underfunded and they are usually eager to receive any type of federal funding. It is likely very appealing for a school to be able to receive funding for the sole reason of teaching one topic over another. If a school decided to make the change to a comprehensive sex ed class they would lose significant funding and this would cause budget cuts.

As far as the future goes, comprehensive education will likely never become widespread because it just can not compete with federal money. However, there is one tiny glimmer of hope for future generations.

A new form of sexual education called abstinence-plus has been created and it may start to gain traction through grass root parental organizations. Abstinence-plus focuses on abstinence and teaches students that it is still the best option but it also teaches students about contraception and protection. Since abstinence-plus still focuses on abstinence it will be interesting to see if the federal government will adopt this method in the future.

But for now, all we have is abstinence education and it's our job to make more and more people see how flawed the system is so they will want to change it.

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Dylan Gribble Podcast WRD 110

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Digital Journal 12

Dylan Gribble

WRD 110

Digital Journal 12: How would you like to help our world?

Ever since I was a young girl I have always had a strong infatuation with the outdoors. I would play outside until the sun went down every day after school. I much prefered being outside to being inside. As I grew older my love for nature changed and developed into love for animals and a strong need to want to protect this beautiful planet that we live on.

Currently, I am a double major. My majors are environmental science and international studies. I wanted to major in environmental science so I could learn about the problems that the world faces and hopefully learn some ways I can help. I wanted to major in international studies because I want to see how the world works together and then apply this to the environment and see if there are any opportunities to make global legislation.

In a perfect world, I will be heading off to law school in three years and I will hopefully be studying environmental law. With my knowledge of international studies from undergrad, hopefully I will be set apart from the crowd when applying for future jobs in the law field. I would like to start of as an environmental lobbyist working with grassroot organizations to get vital legislation passed that can help protect the environment. This will hopefully help the world because the laws that I will help create will protect our natural resources and our environment and this overall will lead to a clean and happy earth.

In the future because I will have prior knowledge in the international studies area, I hope to do quite a bit of traveling to third world countries who need environmental help and I can work with their local governments to create legislation that focuses on the needs of the poor, not the needs of the rich who mainly use unused land as a dumping ground. Hopefully from here, I can get a job at the UN or as a Congresswoman. Both of these jobs would give me the opportunity to listen to the needs of people and help them, creating a better world.

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Dylan Gribble

WRD 110

Mrs. Ruderman

Digital Journal 9: How do Male and Female Role Differ in Your Family?

My parents got divorced when I was two years old and my mother did not get remarried until I was nine years old. This meant that I spent the majority of my formative years with one parent at a time. Even when my mother got remarried, my step dad worked a lot and I still spent the majority of my time with just my mother. Growing up like this gave me the unique opportunity to understand who my parents were and how they differed.

As I got older I began to see big differences in how my parents raised me and differences in the things I relied on them for. I saw my mom as the carefree lady whose only rule was for me to be safe. She would let me play outside until the sun went down and then we would eat dinner and watch movies together. I began to see her role in my life as keeping me constantly positive. She always told me to “be curious” and try new things. Without my mom I would not try anything out of my comfort zone. On the other hand my dad was the type of parent who would not let me do anything unless my homework was done. He also would never let me go anywhere without sunscreen or proper clothing for the weather, and I was never really allowed to go play outside like I was at my mom's house. My dad was a very serious person and he kept me grounded by not letting me dream too much. My dad’s role in my life was to teach me about responsibility and the reality of life. Without my dad I would not know anything about being responsible for my actions and I would never keep up with my chores.

Since my parents roles were so different in my life the instilled a perfect balance of characteristics in me. My mom is positive, daring, and outgoing and she brings out the best in me because I aim to try new things when I am with her. In comparison, my father is serious and reserved and he instilled responsibility and realism in my life. Without which I would be too excitable. Without my mom I would be too serious and stuck in the same routine.

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Dylan Gribble

WRD 110

Digital Journal 8: Will you be wearing a Halloween costume this year?

While I do not think I will be going out on the true night of Halloween since it is a weeknight, I will be dressing up nonetheless. My plan is to be Kim Possible. I remember watching her on TV as a kid and I was drawn to her more than I was any other girl on TV at that time. Not only did she have hair like me, but she was also just a normal girl who kicked some serious butt in her spare time. I loved how she was just an ordinary girl who was able to break stereotypical roles what girls are supposed to be like in high school. I was around 5 or 6 when I watched Kim Possible and I remember telling myself that I wanted to be just like her when I grow up.

This is probably the first year of my life where I am truly making an effort in my Halloween costume. I saved a picture of what Kim Possible looks like and I am trying to buy things that will help me match it perfectly. In years past I have tried to put effort into Halloween by making my own costumes, but I always ended up looking stupid. My friends and I used to be really into “puffy paint” so for two years in a row we made our own shirts with an array of colors, that we thought looked cute at the time. Looking back now, I see plain shirts with writings/phrases on them like “lmao” and “we are so cute” that do not even portray to the costume. We were M&M’s with the big M in the front and and on the back was a vomit of middle-schoolers puffy paint abstract art. We also cut the shirts like how we had seen in several youtube tutorials, except we failed miserably, but of course being an arrogant middle schooler we thought we looked amazing. With those failures in mind I want to actually try this year to look semi-decent and to at least be recognizable as Kim Possible.

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Dylan Gribble

WRD 110

Ruderman

 Digital Journal 7: What new emoticons does the world need?

             In an era with so much access to technology it seems like everyone is somewhat addicted to their phone. It seems like everywhere you look, there is someone texting, talking on the phone, or playing a game. One exciting thing that has become popularized among the iPhone world in the past few years is the use of emoji’s. There seems to be an emoji for every possible thought/emotion a person would want to express. For a while when emoji’s first became popular there was a huge lack of representation in what the different emoji’s looked like. All the “human” emoji’s were white with blonde hair and blue eyes. There were no emoji’s that embodied people of color and as gay marriage became legal it was questioned why there were emoji’s that showed straight relationships but not gay ones. However, through several new rounds of IOS updates apple has incorporated more emoji’s that appeal to a wider audience. Now we have emoji’s with all different types of skin tones, jobs, and as ridiculous as it may sound there are even what appears to be gay and lesbian emoji’s.

           While apple (and android) has made progress incorporating new types of emoji’s that represent a very wide range of people, there are still people who feel that there should be more emoji’s or certain emoji’s should be removed. Personally, I have noticed that there is not a gay pride flag emoji. While this does not personally affect me as I am not a part of the gay community I think it may please the masses if this flag was added. This may be in the interest of the creators if they are trying to make their emoji’s more diverse and incorporating.

           Today I hastily searched through the plethora of emoji’s on my phone trying to see which ones are missing. Besides the gay flag, which may be a bit of a reach, I could not think of anything. If the creators want to keep users happy then they should add emoji’s that are requested on social media.

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Dylan Gribble

WRD 110

 DJ 6: What have been your experiences with catcalling and other kinds of street harassment?

              As a young girl when I would see women get catcalled on TV or in movies I would always laugh and think it was funny. The main female characters would always laugh and brush it off, or depending on the movie they would be nasty to the catcallers which would always make me laugh. This always made me think being catcalled was something natural and funny that happened to women. I never saw it as something degrading until it happened to me. The media portrays catcalling in a much more pleasant light than it truly is.

           I remember the first time I got catcalled. It was Halloween and I was in 8th grade. I thought I looked really cute. I was excited to be celebrating one last Halloween by trick-or-treating with my friends. It was still light outside and a group of us were walking to another neighborhood to meet up with another group of friends. We were laughing and being silly running down the side walk, not a care in the world. Suddenly I heard the blast on a car horn coming from behind us. The surprising noise startled me so much that I let out a small shriek as I turned around to see the cause of the sudden noise. It was a large black truck with five or six men sticking their heads out of the window. The honking continued as they began to shout at us. They slammed on the gas and sped up to be near us. The truck pulled up right next to my friends and I began to feel nervous about what they were going to do. The driver stuck his head out the window, his friends in the backseat laughing and smiling. The driver winked and said “you girls are too old to be trick-or-treating, you should come with us. You’re way too pretty to be walking around by yourselves”. I felt panicked and frozen in my spot. My friends grabbed my hands and we walked quickly away from the truck. Once again, the truck sped up accompanied by the sound of obnoxious honking, laughing, and boys screaming.

           This wasn’t like the catcalling that I had seen in movies and on TV shows. Or maybe it was, but I certainly did not feel like the women characters did after they had been whistled at. Those characters would laugh or brush it off, but in that moment, I was petrified and disgusted about the entire incident. I did not feel pretty or appreciated. I felt abused and harassed. If the aftermath of being catcalled felt like this, then why was it so glamorized in the media? Almost every time I walk on a busy street, no matter the time, I will be honked and yelled at. It’s not the way for men to display their emotions and more people need to speak up against harassment on the streets because it is very degrading and hurtful, especially when it happens as often as it does.

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Dylan Gribble

WRD 110

DJ 5

 How do you feel about your last name?

             Growing up, I always hated my name. I thought that in order to fit in I needed a name that was like everyone else’s. I felt that because I didn’t have a name similar to everyone else’s that I was somehow worse than them. I never met another girl with the name “Dylan” and I was very self-conscious as a young girl that before meeting me people would think that I am a boy, or they would make fun of me for having a name not normally meant for boys. To make myself more self-conscious, my last name was also the punchline of several jokes whenever I met new people. I cannot count on one hand the amount of times I have heard, “Gribble... like Dribble? You must be goof at basketball, right?”. I could always feel my cheeks turn bright red as I saw the shock on people’s faces after learning my first name, and the annoyance tied into my embarrassment as I had to painstakingly spell out my last name along with correct pronunciation.

           Throughout elementary school, I always wanted to have a common last name. I felt like if there was someone in my school that had the same last name (or first name) as me, then I wouldn’t stick out as much. As a very young girl I even invented a new name for myself. When I would play at home I called myself “Casey Lynn Johnson”. Pretty peculiar for a five-year-old to make up, but I always thought that name was more appealing than the one I was given. To this day, I have never met anyone with the same last name as me and I have never met another girl with the first name “Dylan”.

           Now that I am slightly older, I love my first and last name. While it is not the typical girly-girl name I think that is why I like it. I encourage all the jokes about how my last name is spelled and how it rhymes with dribble, because now it is a funny conversation starter and people tend to remember unique names, rather than common ones. My father also introduced me to an infamous Olympic swimmer named, Matt Gribble. As a swimmer myself growing up, it was neat to pretend that him and I were somehow distantly related. I am impressed with myself and how I have been able to become more comfortable with my name, even though I hated it when I was younger. It is hard to overcome insecurities, even something as silly as a last name, but I am happy and proud of myself that I am confident with myself and my name now.  

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Dylan Gribble

DJ 4

Have you ever interacted with the police?

The week following the election of Donald Trump was a week of emotion turmoil. I could not stop crying and I could barely get out of bed. Living right outside of Washington D.C., all of my friends were feeling as miserable as me. It was a cloud of sadness that none of us could escape. Being so close to the district we could not escape the news and the chaos that came with the new president elect. I lost all faith in my fellow American’s and I did not know how or when this feeling would ever go away.

Leading up to Trump’s inauguration there were whispers of a Women’s March being created. The rumors said that this march would be the day after the inauguration and its aim would be to tell Trump and his entire administration that women will not stand passively by. We are going to fight for our rights until we are equal. As the months passed, the rumors about the march became a reality. It became a real event with women from all over the country planning to attend. I knew it was something I had to be at because I wanted to show anyone that would care that I am upset with the way our country is headed and I am not going to sit by and watch our country be destroyed by racism and sexism.

On the day of the march I was fighting what felt like scarlet fever. I gripped my poorly made poster in front of my chest like a shield to protect me from the hate being screamed at me from Trump supporters lining the sidewalks. As soon as the march started to move, I was thrown in the midst of over 2 million women chanting and crying, pouring all of their emotions into a cause that their cared about. Suddenly, I forgot about the hate being spewed from anit-protesters and I only cared about the cause that I was fighting for.

Some part during the march some women got more violent and began yelling back at the anti-protesters. They began pushing and shoving. People were falling and getting trampled. There was no where to go because of the absurd amount of people lining the streets. Just as I thought I was going to get shoved to the ground I felt hands on my arm gently pulling me away. As I turned I saw the warm eyes of a riot policewoman. She and her fellow officers gently pulled my friends and I out of the bad situation. She shook my hand and told me to be careful during the rest of the day because these marches can get intense. Until that moment I had always been afraid of police and getting in trouble with the law. But, being helped by a woman police officer who had the same values I do was truly life changing in that situation.  

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Dylan Gribble

Digital journal 3

What are your Family Stories of Sacrifice?

My mom grew up as a devout Catholic. She attended Catholic grade school, high school, and even to a predominantly Catholic college. My mom is the youngest of seven siblings, and throughout her life she saw their intense love for God and the catholic religion. My mother always felt a disconnect to catholicism, but she could never say anything to her strict mother and she knew her siblings would never understand her mixed feelings.

In her twenties my mother met my father. A devout jew with only one other sibling and immigrant parents who fled from the holocaust. They were exact opposites on paper. But, once they began to get to know each other my mom felt a deep connection with my father’s jewish beliefs. She had finally found the spiritual beliefs that she had been missing for her entire life. My mom knew she wanted to be apart of this religion and raise whatever children she would eventually have as Jews as well. With this decision came one of the hardest thing my mom has ever done. She had to tell her ultra catholic mother that she had found a man of a different religion, she intended on marrying him, and she also intended to convert to Judaism in order to raise her future children as Jews. My grandmother took this decision very hard. She did not understand why my mother felt the need to change so badly. My grandmother could not put herself in my mothers shoes. My mother sacrificed her relationship with her mom in order to put herself first and plan for my future.

There was a rift in my family for a long time after my mother confessed her desire to marry a Jewish man and start a Jewish family. However, after my Aunts and Uncles saw how happy my mother was, they got over their initial shock and began to accept my mother's new life. Now, eighteen years, I can not even begin to comprehend what my mom went through during that period of her life. She went against her family and potentially sacrificed their relationships just so she could be happy and have a happy family. I could not be more grateful for what she did because I love being Jewish and I can not wait to have a family of my own so I can teach them all about the traditions i've come to love.

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Digital Journal 1

What are you looking forward to, or dreading, this school year?

It is easy for most people to begin a new school year full of excitement and hope. Everyone is bubbling with joy, gushing with optimism as they move into their dorms, finally embarking on a new journey. We have waited eighteen long years, trapped, ready to get out. It is a right of passage and most people could not be more excited. Everyone is ready to change, to become a new person, but what about the people who do not want everything to change? Are there a group of these people or am I the only one? Counting down the days to graduation and “move-in day”, but as they arrived my feet were glued to the floor and fear took over my body. When asked about college I deliver my perfect scripted response, “I can not wait for school to start. I picked a school out of state so I could grow as a person. I think I can survive without my mom.”

I am dreading, with every cell in my body that I will change. That everything will change. What’s even worse is I am afraid things have already begun to change. I have begun to change. Who said this was okay? I loved who I was back home and what if I lose this. With change comes so many questions and unknowns. I have never been faced with so many new roads to take, but none of them are appealing unless they take me back to the age of five, singing Dixie Chicks with my mom, getting lost on back roads. With every waking second I dread that with these new changes, I will change for the worse. Will my mom recognize me when I come home? Does she miss me? Will my friends remember who I am a month from now?

I am faced with such a constant loneliness here that I never felt in my happy little life back home. I miss the city, I miss my dog running in between my legs when I get home from school, and I miss the feeling of safety and security. I never had to make any life altering choices back home, and here in this mysterious place it feels as though every choice I make will affect me forever. Every choice results in a change, everything I do will effect me in the future and I dread this responsibility. I dread the fact that I do not know if I am ready for this.