Toot It and Boot It.

I had a hard time figuring out what subject to write about this piece. I did something really deep and personal last piece I wrote so, this time I have decided to write a more controversial piece.

Im going to write about how teens are being impacted by the "hookup culture" and how it is affecting their mental and physical well-being.

In this time period we see so many young adults being brainwashed into thinking that hooking up and having sex with random strangers is going to help them in some way. Whether its to make them feel a certain way or to impress people. Whatever it is, its affecting what they think is "normal" and its ultimately going to affect their mental and possibly their physical health.

As a young adult, I have gone through this before. I thought that having sex with someone without being in a relationship or married would make me feel good and fill this need inside of me. It doesn't. It made me feel worse when something happened and all these thoughts ran through my brain. Society has been teaching us (young adults) that it is okay to have sex with random strangers then never see them again. Movies, dating sites, music, and the internet all portray the same message to these young teens. They have even come up with slogans for it: "smash and dash", "pump and dump", "toot it and boot it" and "shagged and bagged." They have songs specifically about having sex with someone then leaving after.

What happens when the teen gets an STD and can't get it checked because their parents don't know they are having sex. What happens if they contract HIV or AIDS and give it to someone else because they don't know they have it. Teenagers don't think about that stuff because they aren't taught about it. If society is going to normalize sex, then they also need to normalize testing. They need to have ways that the teens THEMSELVES can go and get help, without a parent or guardian.

What is this teaching all the young adults in the world? That having a serious and intentional relationship is not worth it? That happiness only comes from one night stands with randos?

No, It effects their mental health. It teaches them that no matter how many times they sleep with someone that they aren't worth staying with. It warps their brain into thinking hundreds of different scenarios that probably aren't even true.

And what happens when they do have sex with someone and they get pregnant? They can't tell their parents they are having sex because they are too young or embarrassed that they did it in the first place. What happens when a 15 year old girl gets pregnant with a 18 year old dude that she has met one time through the Internet and she gets pregnant? She can't even buy herself a morning after pill. You have to be of legal age to buy an emergency contraceptive or to get an abortion.

How do we expect our young teens of the world to be able to take care of themselves, mentally and physically, when they are getting exposed daily to hookup culture? How are we, as teenagers, supposed to get help if we can't even buy ourselves a morning after pill? What sense does it make for children to be exposed to porn, explicit music, and dirty TV, and not even be able to get birth control or emergency contraceptives.

At what age should teens be allowed to have sex? Get their own birth control or contraceptives? At what time will we figure out that these stupid rules and regulations are actually making children's lives harder.

Heres an even better question: When will the media stop normalizing sex at a young age and random hookups? And if the media is going to normalize it, when is it acceptable for a young adult to decide to have sex or not?