If you think political correctness on our college campuses is a threat to free speech, I have a news flash for you. It’s even worse than that. It’s actually putting the lives of our young people at risk.
Sound a bit over the top? Only if you haven’t read a riveting account by a campus psychiatrist who knows the price our children are paying – mentally, emotionally and physically – for the attitudes that allow the “sexual revolution” to rage unchecked in the halls of “higher learning.”
That psychiatrist, Dr. Miriam Grossman, took a bold step last year when she first published “Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student.” So bold, in fact, that the original hardcover edition (now out in paperback) listed the author as “Anonymous, M.D.” The potential for backlash, personally and professionally, was all too real.
Backlash for what, you ask? Oh, writing sentences like this: “Casual sex is a health hazard for young women.” Believe it or not, such expressions – the embodiment of common sense to just about every parent on earth – represent rank heresy in Dr. Grossman’s profession. You’re expected to hand out condoms and push “safe sex” (or “safer sex”) on students at every turn, but never, ever “pass judgment” on any behavior. One should encourage “experimentation” and downplay any moral and religious concerns as the undesirable traits of a “patriarchal” society. Abstinence is an unattainable ideal, and “tradition” is another word for “repression.”
If only more psychiatrists were like Dr. Grossman:
I see it differently. The young people I know are neither stupid nor enslaved to their urges. They are capable and motivated; many will respond to an ennobling message, reject the prurient messages of our culture and learn new behaviors. Isn’t that what youth is about – questioning, idealism, change? But for this to happen, we must tell the whole story, warts and all. Tell them we’re waging a war against [sexually transmitted diseases]. … Tell them this contributes to skyrocketing health insurance. Tell them their behavior, and their friends’, can make a difference. Tell them the truth!
What do students get instead of the truth? They get websites such as Columbia University’s GoAskAlice.com. It claims to provide “reliable, accurate, accessible, culturally competent information and a range of thoughtful perspectives so that [students] can make responsible decisions concerning their health and well-being.” What it actually provides is X-rated advice that isn’t remotely “responsible” – explicit tips on just about every sexual behavior, no matter how bizarre. To one question about a “threesome,” for example, “Alice” replies: “There’s nothing wrong with giving it a try, as long as you’re all practicing safer sex.”
Nothing wrong, eh? Tell that to the heartbroken young women who come to Dr. Grossman for counseling.
Ask Heather, who despite having “nothing to complain about,” was racked by intense self-hatred. Her feelings were so bad, they were interfering with many activities and making her life difficult. Dr. Grossman found out why: Heather had a “friend with benefits.” In plain language, that means that she had a boyfriend who used her for sex but didn’t want any “relationship” to rain on his good time. Heather agreed to this arrangement, but she couldn’t deny her attraction to this boy and the fact that his rejection of anything other than sex was hurting her deeply.
Sadly, Heather isn’t alone. Yet the PC counselors on today’s campuses have nothing to offer young women like her – other than condoms and recommendations that they considering taking anti-depressant drugs. But as Olivia, another of Dr. Grossman’s patients, says: “Why do they tell you how to protect your body – from herpes and pregnancy – but they don’t tell you how to protect your heart?”
I recently had lunch with a gentleman whose son is a freshman at Columbia. When dad asked him over Thanksgiving the most challenging part of his first months at college, the son replied, “The pressure to declare myself homosexual.” Sadly, such pressure is not unusual. On many campuses, in order to prove that you’re not “homophobic” or have some sexual “hang-up,” you must be willing not just to accept the lifestyles of others, but to be counted among them. Is there no longer a place for truth on college campuses?
Small wonder that Dr. Grossman was moved to write her book. “My profession has been hijacked,” she says. “I cannot do my job; my patients are suffering, and I am fed up.” That’s exactly what parents should say – that we’re fed up with having our children fed a stream of lies about sex. When we have millions of new cases of sexually transmitted diseases cropping up every year, it’s the height of irresponsibility to tell students, as Columbia University’s “Alice” does, that they just need to “have fun and BE SAFE!”
Most parents are either unaware of the “sex with anyone, at anytime, in any fashion, for any reason” culture pervading today’s campuses, or they just don’t want to know. Don’t be one of those parents. For the sake of our children and our grandchildren, it’s time to get involved and make a difference.
The other side is gunning for your values and your way of life. Don’t let them win.
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