I'm pretty skeptical of most articles that people post on Facebook.
So, when I saw that someone posted a link to an article titled, "Planned Parenthood Produces Video Promoting Bondage and Sadomasochism to Teens," I assumed the article would be shady at best. My suspicions were initially confirmed when I realized that the website was clearly a highly biased right leaning news source. But, as I started to read the article, it became clear that this wasn't right wing propaganda. Planned Parenthood really did fund an instructional video for teenagers on bondage and sadomasochism.
DISCLAIMER Given the subject matter of this post, I will be bringing up subjects that I wouldn't otherwise mention in this blog. If anything I mention offends you, realize that you should be exponentially more offended that Planned Parenthood created an instructional video for teenagers on that very subject.
In the article, they link to the video in question and, I kid you not, the intro for the video features the drawing of a person's crotch region as they draw underwear on the person.
The next frame confirms that this video was created in partnership with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. To be fair, the video was not produced by the federal Planned Parenthood, but it is nonetheless an officially sponsored Planned Parenthood video. According to the right wing article which informed me of this series, they have received $2,750,000 of government money.
As the video progressed, I watched in awe as it truly was a cute, bubbly instructional video on how to participate in BONDAGE, DISCIPLINE (or dominance), SADISM (or sadomasochism), and MASOCHISM for teenagers. And, as best I could tell at the time, I was learning about BDSM from a high schooler (though, as I mentioned, she's actually older than she looks).
Still not believing what I was seeing, I decided to go to their actual website, and make sure that these videos are being linked to on their website. I clicked on the tab "FOR TEENS" to discover that the second link for teenagers in the resource section is for THE NAKED NOTION YouTube channel.As a side note, also in the "FOR TEENS" section was a fun contest for teenagers called Condom Contest. In that tab is a picture of a 9 inch tall jar of condoms. The teenager to guess closest to the number of condoms in the jar gets a free Planned Parenthood goodie bag. I must confess, I am dying to know what comes in a Planned Parenthood goodie bag for teenagers. Is it a bag filled with condoms, birth control, and a Planned Parenthood t-shirt? Seriously, I want to know.
...back to A Naked Notion...
At this point my curiosity took over, and I had to know what else Planned Parenthood was educating teenagers on through A Naked Notion.
A Naked Notion
So, I decided to take a look at their blog at anakednotion.org.
The most recent video at the time was called Abortion Options. It was a cute, bubbly, slightly jokey video on the light subject of getting an abortion. I'm not saying that every discussion of abortion needs to be extremely heavy, graphic, and guilt inducing, but perhaps you've gone too far in the light direction when your video can be called bubbly and cute.From there, I just scrolled through the titles of posts just from the first page. As I list these, remember these are instructional videos for teenagers. [As a side note I'm very uncomfortable typing some of these]:
- Birth Control Options: Pulling Out
- Annual Visit = Happy Vag
- Problems With Penises
- The Death of Sex Ed
- Squirters
...this is just the first page.
Posting Nude Pics?
As my jaw continued dropping lower and lower, I scrolled through several more pages of titles until I came upon one which caught my eye, Posting Nude Pics?. I guess it wasn't surprising to me that they covered the topic, but it was surprising that the video was nearly four minutes long. How long does it take to say, "DON'T DO IT! If you're under 18, you're both producing and distributing child pornography according to the law!"? As it turns out, that wasn't the direction they went with the video.The first third of the video is the hostess giving a series of reasons why someone would want to post naked or sexy pictures. The two big reasons were to get attention and to get compliments. Without going too far down a rabbit trail, I will say that trolling for compliments and attention by posting naked pictures might be a sign that you have some internal insecurities which need to be resolved.
During the middle section, she makes a pros and cons list about posting naked selfies. The pros list features things such as pride in one's body, excitement over exhibiting ones self, and affirmation through compliments.
She then moves to the cons list:
- "If you're under 18 it's illegal" - That's all she say about that. She forgets to mention that you're technically creating and distributing child pornography and, if convicted, could be labeled as a sex offender for life.
- "There's also a creep factor." Then she immediately jokes, "Who's looking at these?" - In fact there's such a creep factor that there was even a show called, TO CATCH A PREDATOR!
- "These strangers may see it as an invitation." - I repeat there was a show called TO CATCH A PREDATOR! She continues talking about how you may have some interactions which are online or in person, and then jokes, "That may be a pro."
- "There's the possibility that it could resurface and hurt you in the future." - More like, IT'S GUARANTEED TO RESURFACE AND HURT YOU IN THE FUTURE. She kind of acknowledges that when she says, "This sort of thing resurfaces more than you would expect."
After a quick google search, here's just a few ways these highly illegal naked selfies might come to haunt you:
...back to the video...
The final third of the video is her giving suggestions on how to take naked selfies in a way where it won't resurface or come back to haunt you. After 30 second rant about how nudity shouldn't be sexualized but it is in our culture (the underlying idea that the only reason it's dangerous to take naked selfies is because society is broken), she gives some nice pointers on how to safely produce naked selfies.
At this point, my jaw was dragging across the floor, and curiosity led me to try and find out more about the hostess of these videos.
- An 18 year old boy forwarded a naked picture of his 16 year old girlfriend to several friends and family members after an argument. Her picture was spread into the open, and he was convicted as a sex offender.
- A 16 year old Virginia teenager is arrested for producing child pornography after posting a naked selfie on Twitter.
- A couple months back, I read an article by a girl who's sexy selfie from when she was 16 was used in promotion of multiple adult websites for multiple years. Unfortunately, I can't find the link to this article.
...back to the video...
The final third of the video is her giving suggestions on how to take naked selfies in a way where it won't resurface or come back to haunt you. After 30 second rant about how nudity shouldn't be sexualized but it is in our culture (the underlying idea that the only reason it's dangerous to take naked selfies is because society is broken), she gives some nice pointers on how to safely produce naked selfies.
At this point, my jaw was dragging across the floor, and curiosity led me to try and find out more about the hostess of these videos.
Laci Green
Looking in the about section of the website you will learn:
About Laci Green: 22 year old San-Franciscan. Sex educator, video blogger, blog blogger, crisis counselor, social scientist, asparagus lover & artichoke dipper
This was slightly encouraging to me since it meant at least she wasn't a teenager. This hope was quickly dashed when I did a google search of her name and realized that she was hired by Planned Parenthood for this project because, at the age 19 or 20, she started her own sex education channel on YouTube called Sex+.
Let that sink in for a second.....at the age of 19, she self-declared herself an expert and educator on sex.
What is the message of Sex+? Well, this is a quote from her website:
Sex-positive, a term that’s coming into cultural awareness, isn’t a dippy love-child celebration of orgone – it’s a simple yet radical affirmation that we each grow our own passions on a different medium, that instead of having two or three or even half a dozen sexual orientations, we should be thinking in terms of millions. “Sex-positive” respects each of our unique sexual profiles, even as we acknowledge that some of us have been damaged by a culture that tries to eradicate sexual difference and possibility. It’s the cultural philosophy that understands sexuality as a potentially positive force in one’s life, and it can, of course, be contrasted with sex-negativity, which sees sex as problematic, disruptive, dangerous. Sex-positivity allows for and in fact celebrates sexual diversity, differing desires and relationships structures, and individual choices based on consent.
In short, you can do what you want to do as long as it's consensual.
In the end, that's what makes all of this so offensive to me.
Planned Parenthood is About More Than Women's Health
There seems to be a huge divide between those who support Planned Parenthood and those who hate it, and there aren't many people who are in the middle.
On the pro-Planned Parenthood side you have people praising it as an amazing company which saves women's lives and provides necessary health coverage for women.
Unfortunately, that's not where things end. They do so much more than just provide "essential health care services for women."
If all you want to do is provide health services and education for women...
YOU DON'T CREATE TUTORIAL VIDEOS ON BONDAGES FOR TEENAGERS!
If all you want to do is provide health services and education for women...
YOU DON'T CREATE HOW TO TAKE SAFE NAKED SELFIE VIDEOS FOR TEENAGERS!
If all you want to do is provide health services and education for women...
YOU DON'T HIRE A GIRL WHOSE LIFE MESSAGE IS EVERYTHING IS OKAY IF IT'S CONSENSUAL to educate teenagers! (I might ad that it's extremely creepy that they hired someone so young-looking to talk about all forms of sex)
If all you want to do is provide health services and education for women...
YOU DON'T HIRE A LOBBYIST TO FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO PERFORM POST-BIRTH ABORTIONS!
If you don't know what that last one is in reference to, watch this video from a Florida hearing on new abortion laws. When asked if a child is born alive after a failed abortion what Planned Parenthood would do, she says the decision should be up to the doctor and the mother. This leads to a six minute conversation which reminded me of the controversy from a year ago about drone strikes against American citizens. When asked whether the US government could drone strike a US citizen on US soil who was not an imminent threat, most of us thought the President would promptly reply, "No!" but he didn't. Here, when asked whether a child which has been born alive and in need of medical care would be provided medical care, she doesn't give the obvious answer, "Of course." She gives a far more outlandish answer...it's up to the doctor and mother whether a living human gets medical care or is euthanized on the table.
)
On the pro-Planned Parenthood side you have people praising it as an amazing company which saves women's lives and provides necessary health coverage for women.
Unfortunately, that's not where things end. They do so much more than just provide "essential health care services for women."
If all you want to do is provide health services and education for women...
YOU DON'T CREATE TUTORIAL VIDEOS ON BONDAGES FOR TEENAGERS!
If all you want to do is provide health services and education for women...
YOU DON'T CREATE HOW TO TAKE SAFE NAKED SELFIE VIDEOS FOR TEENAGERS!
If all you want to do is provide health services and education for women...
YOU DON'T HIRE A GIRL WHOSE LIFE MESSAGE IS EVERYTHING IS OKAY IF IT'S CONSENSUAL to educate teenagers! (I might ad that it's extremely creepy that they hired someone so young-looking to talk about all forms of sex)
If all you want to do is provide health services and education for women...
YOU DON'T HIRE A LOBBYIST TO FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO PERFORM POST-BIRTH ABORTIONS!
If you don't know what that last one is in reference to, watch this video from a Florida hearing on new abortion laws. When asked if a child is born alive after a failed abortion what Planned Parenthood would do, she says the decision should be up to the doctor and the mother. This leads to a six minute conversation which reminded me of the controversy from a year ago about drone strikes against American citizens. When asked whether the US government could drone strike a US citizen on US soil who was not an imminent threat, most of us thought the President would promptly reply, "No!" but he didn't. Here, when asked whether a child which has been born alive and in need of medical care would be provided medical care, she doesn't give the obvious answer, "Of course." She gives a far more outlandish answer...it's up to the doctor and mother whether a living human gets medical care or is euthanized on the table.
)
Whatever Planned Parenthood started as or was meant to be, it has morphed into something very different. I don't in any way want to discredit the good that they have done for some women, but that doesn't justify the rest of their actions.
It's difficult to not see devious motives behind all of this when your business model requires people to be having lots of sex, and you're creating tutorial videos for teenagers with an underlying message that all sex is okay at any time as long as it's consensual.
It's difficult to not see monetary motives for hiring a lobbyist to fight for post-birth abortions and removing all abortion restrictions when you make over $150,000,000 on abortion services each year.
There's a reason that many of us are greatly dismayed when our President attends Planned Parenthood rallies and declares, "God bless Planned Parenthood,"and that $500,000,000 in tax dollars go to a company producing BDSM tutorials for teenagers, and lobbying for post-birth abortions.
They're a business which needs 14 to 24 year olds having lots of sex to stay open. How do you do that? You normalize all sexuality, and all forms of abortion (even post both). In that light, none of this is shocking at all.
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It's difficult to not see devious motives behind all of this when your business model requires people to be having lots of sex, and you're creating tutorial videos for teenagers with an underlying message that all sex is okay at any time as long as it's consensual.
It's difficult to not see monetary motives for hiring a lobbyist to fight for post-birth abortions and removing all abortion restrictions when you make over $150,000,000 on abortion services each year.
There's a reason that many of us are greatly dismayed when our President attends Planned Parenthood rallies and declares, "God bless Planned Parenthood,"and that $500,000,000 in tax dollars go to a company producing BDSM tutorials for teenagers, and lobbying for post-birth abortions.
They're poisoning souls in the name of women's health and patting themselves on the back for doing it.
They're a business which needs 14 to 24 year olds having lots of sex to stay open. How do you do that? You normalize all sexuality, and all forms of abortion (even post both). In that light, none of this is shocking at all.
They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best! - Romans 1:31-32 (The Message)
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