Ok, I really am about to go finish a paper, but I was just looking at Commencement pictures on Smith's website (trying originally to find a picture of Davis Center to link to), and I had to share. There is a picture of the '81 alums in the Ivy Day parade that shows one holding a sign on which is printed "'81: When the greatest risk of sex was pregnancy."
Um. Wow. Ok. I know this is a women's college, and there are fewer occurrences of STDs on women's college campuses than on coed campuses, partly because lesbian sex tends to be a little safer as far as diseases go - but is she serious? Just because you thought the greatest risk was pregnancy doesn't mean it was true, woman - STDs have been around for years and years and years - and especially now that we know way more about sex, disease, and the early 80s than anyone did then, why on earth would you make such a claim?
I think I'm glad the picture doesn't show the face of the woman holding that sign. Ugh.
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What you say is all true, but it is also true that "back in the day" (yes, that was my college era), getting pregnant really was considered the greatest risk. STD's existed, of course, but they were not really on the radar-- no one gave them much thought-- and AIDS was unheard of as yet (at least, in our insulated corner of the world). So what women who were sexually active feared was the "thin blue line" on a home pregnancy test (which was a brand new thing, I might add!).
I get why it was thought of that way back then. I don't get why you'd walk around now with a poster claiming it was really true. shrug.
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