What you get when not freaking out about teen sex

33 times fewer gonorrhea cases in the Netherlands amongst teenagers than in the United States for a start. But also drastically lower rates for HIV infection, Syphilis, teen pregnancy, abortion, undsoweiter. It’s almost as if treating teenagers having sex as a normal part of growing up and sexuality something you can teach your children about to treat with care and respect you can actually avoid or drastically lessen the dangers of sexualy ignorance… Honestly, even the danger of getting killed by a serial killer when losing your virginity is less in Holland. The Dutch approach isn’t perfect of course, there have been setbacks in recent years, but on the whole it scores so much better than trying to scare teenagers away from sex.

But even if the Dutch system was perfect, it still has one big flaw that would always keep it from being adopted in the US: it’s not punitive enough. Too many people do not want their — and others’ — children to be safe so much as punished. It’s the old idea that good people don’t have sex until they’re married and if they can’t wait, they deserve what they get. Let’s not even mention homosexuality or other “deviant” behaviour…

What’s strange is why America has gotten so fucked up about, well, fucking, when European countries like the Netherlands have long since outgrown such feelings. Holland used to be a strict calvinist, moralistic country as well after all, but we changed while the US slid back. Even our religious nutters are so much less strident than we’ve seen from across the Atlantic. It’s a mystery.