Don't Be a PRUDE! Trivia Quiz

Answer: All of these

"Prude" utilizes an immense array of resources to make clear points or, often, lets the research speak for itself. This proves to be a powerful way to address what is put forth as a pressing matter, arguably reaching epidemic proportions. For example, entire generations of young, sometimes prepubescent girls being taught to evaluate their self-worth by measure of their sexual appeal or experience.

There are instances of direct quotes from media sources, commentary from experts and teenage girls alike, official study results, and descriptions directly referencing material contributing to this issue to warrant no necessary "authorly" opinion to interweave them at all.

Answer: Sexual virtue

Though monogamy and contraceptive use are seemingly close behind, as evidenced in "Prude" by very minimal positive attention directed towards either of the two in today's popular culture, the book adamantly asserts today's "scarlet letter" to be anything from (in my own words) "V" for virtuous, to "C" for chaste, or especially "P" for prude.

The argument is that no longer are promiscuity or infidelity viewed as tarnishing acts, but instead the opposite of these warrant the shameful badge of "prude".

Answer: School textbooks

The unfortunate and possibly paranoia-instilling truth presented is that any medium can be used to influence a vulnerable group of people such as adolescent girls (or boys), if the will to do so is present. Although school textbooks have not yet found a need to include such manner of content, and while the indisputable intention behind a place of study is to, of course, study, the general environment of many schools provides as good a breeding ground for trend-setting as any misogynistic music video, polyamorous TV show, or other such influential medium. Even literature is no exception as evidenced by an abundance of popular young-adult series which feature the same promiscuous goings-on as their on-screen counterparts.

Answer: True

"Playboy" is the biggest pornography-related culprit named in "Prude" with regard to non-pornographic merchandise, what with its bunny emblem gaining popularity on items like handbags, flip-flops, and even pencil cases. Coupled with harder-core porn magazine "Hustler"'s attempts at its own logo-emblazoned accessories, and a frightening trend of "attitude clothing" which features T-shirts bearing lewd slogans, it is asserted that modern culture is going beyond female empowerment via sexiness into the morally bankrupt territory of desensitized degradation and objectification. Where it might have once been alarming to make open sexuality appealing and a seemingly powerful tool for women to have, there is now the idea that being popular, accepted, and valued comes from willingly declaring oneself a complete sex object.

Answer: Thongs

The huge rise in highly sexualized clothing and its marketing and appeal to teenage (or younger) girls, as described thoroughly in the book, is almost grotesquely unimaginable. Consider, as "Prude" points out, that in 2002, popular young adult clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch stocked thongs in sizes tailored for 10- to 16-year-olds, sporting suggestive catchphrases.

Answer: True

According to the book, it seems even infants deserve their share of an over-sexualized clothing trend which aims to desensitize children to provocative and degrading attire serving to transform them all into mini "pimps". Another catchphrase "Pimpfants" boasts is "My Mom is a MILF", available in a variety of colors.

Answer: False

The term "prostitot", describing young children sporting apparel or, worse yet, exhibiting behavior resembling that of... well, you can guess, has indeed entered mainstream North American jargon. Not surprising, as referenced by "Prude", when companies exist which market "Child Pimp & H* Costumes" complete with costumes such as "Transylvania Temptress", "Major Flirt", or "Handy Candy".

These include anything from miniskirts to fishnet stockings and low-cut necklines, aimed at 13-year-olds.

Answer: Peer advice online generally portrays teen sex as a ubiquitous entity with no concrete moral "right" or "wrong".

This issue is often a downside even to respectable sites, such as WebMD, which do, in fact, offer accurate facts to curious teens. "Prude" shows with a variety of references and quotes to teen advice pages, blogs, polls, and more, that the Internet is a bigger resource for advice pertaining to sexual acts and exploration than to the issue of whether or not sexual activity is ever wrong or unacceptable. "Prude" argues, as evidenced by such references, that most sexual health-related information is presented completely free of morals or ethics. One response on Planned Parenthood-sponsored site called "Teenwire" suggests that one may be missing her period despite a negative pregnancy test due to "a menstrual cycle that hasn't become regular yet." This leads the author to wonder if truly no age warrants even the advice that sex is just wrong.

Answer: Contraception

Indeed, the book states that a reported 54% of sexually active girls aged 15-19 are using condoms, 43% using hormonal methods such as pills, patches, implants, or emergency contraception, and 20% of these numbers are using a combination of both of these. Adjusting for overlap of uses of both, this reportedly leaves 17% using no contraception of any kind. Needless to say, this leads to a tremendous amount of issues which, in turn, put stress on teenage individuals, their parents, their offspring, government programs, and society in general. Pregnancy and birth control questions on online forums are also generally the least frequently viewed.

Answer: False

It is actually estimated that 31 percent, nearly a third, of girls aged 15-19 who have had sex have also been pregnant at some point, according to a reference in "Prude". What's more is, over 80 percent of the estimated one million teenage pregnancies occurring in the U.S. each year are unintentional. Boys are, arguably, no less to blame for this than their female counterparts, but "Prude" deals mostly with the feminine side of the issue as part of its message that teen girls are so often dehumanized and taught to disregard the safety and sanctity of their bodies and sexualities.

Answer: A "lack of creativity."

"Prude" revisits the matured idea that what a perverse and outlandish sex-infused marketing strategy boasts in shock value, it does so to compensate for a lack of creative and tasteful ideas which produce effective ads by way of being imaginative, heartfelt, or funny.

In fact, the book also claims that, while highly sexualized clothing or behavior may have been a way to showcase a kind of rebellion in the past, the rapid evolution of this issue, particularly with regard to what you can see on a billboard or average TV commercial (which is almost everything, anatomically speaking), has left little to rebel against, except the "salacious fashion status quo".

Answer: Abortion

According to a publication by the CDC, in 2002, 51 percent of all abortions involved women under the age of twenty-five. Since becoming legal in 1973, it has become an almost popular method of birth control for many women, particularly those who are unmarried. Eighty percent of abortions overall, as noted by the aforementioned CDC publication, were to unmarried women.

A 2003 Gallup Youth Survey, referenced in "Prude", found boys to be marginally more accepting of abortion than girls.

Answer: Chlamydia

Females between the ages of 15 and 19 have had the "highest age-specific rates of reported chlamydia" since 2005, and it is likely that infection levels are higher than reported because so many of those infected may not be aware of it. Consequences of chlamydia may be serious if untreated, as it may lead to pelvic inflammatory disease or infertility, among a number of other issues.

Though its reported rates have decreased during the last decade, gonorrhea is twice as prevalent among girls ages 15-19 as chlamydia, and often comes with no symptoms.

Reported rates of syphilis remain low among girls in the aforementioned age group, but gender-specific rates for women are highest in the 20-24 year age group.

Herpes is an incurable viral disease whose appearance among teens has been rising to nearly five times that of rates in the 1970s. Like chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, it increases the risk of infection by other STDs, including HIV.

References in "Prude" state that "one in five newlywed American couples are unable to conceive a child", which is very likely relevant to the fact that "sexually transmitted diseases may account for as much as 15 percent of infertility cases" in the U.S.

Answer: Sexually active girls have higher reported rates of depression.

Particularly, an analysis by the Heritage Foundation Center for Data Analysis based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, Wave II, 1996, found a common misconception to be the idea that depression occurs in teenagers BEFORE the onset of behaviors such as drug use or sexual activity. For years, there has been the notion of depression driving teenagers to "self-medicate" with such experimental and/or high-risk behaviors.

The analysis, however, stated significant links between the two which actually demonstrated that depression more often resulted from such behaviors and did NOT predict future "behavior in boys, or experimental behavior in girls".

Alternatively, "both experimental and high-risk behavior patterns" were found to be predictors of depression in girls, while "only high-risk behavior patterns increased the odds of later depression" in boys. Among teenage girls aged 14-17, 25.3% of those who were sexually active responded in the survey as feeling depressed "a lot", "most", or "all of the time", compared to 7.7% who responded as such and were NOT sexually active. Figures were much lower for boys, though still relatively higher in those who were sexually active.

The analysis and survey results may be found at http://heritage.org/Research/Reports/2003/06/Sexually-Active-Teenagers-Are-More-Likely-to-Be-Depressed .

Answer: Tobacco industry

Much like the way the U.S. has overcome sensationalized marketing strategies for cigarettes once the public found them to be harmful, "Prude" encourages us to take a stand against glamorized sexual content. When young consumers of sex-saturated products join their elders in rejection of those products and a demand for "a more wholesome culture", the market will deliver. Think of the ads we see today detailing cancer and other effects of smoking with an air of abhorrence compared to the-- now banned-- encouraging tobacco ads which once sought to sell a product by way of it making it "cool".