The Boston College Students for Sexual Health’s (BCSSH) new initiative to help host “responsible parties” is misguided despite good intentions.
Behind the idea to supply condoms to parties on campus discretely by taping them to the bottom of Solo cups lies a dangerous, hypocritical oversight on the part of BCSSH leaders. The group insists that any student who wishes to host a “responsible party” post flyers on the walls which state that consent cannot be given under the influence of any alcohol or drugs. Considering that Solo cups are used almost exclusively to distribute alcohol at student parties (a fact acknowledged by the BCSSH in their blog post), the initiative fails both in teaching and encouraging so-called “responsibility.”
On a deeper level, the juxtaposition of alcohol and contraception not only runs totally counterintuitive to the university’s recent positive steps towards curbing students’ tendencies to hook up, it actually buttresses and strengthens the hook-up culture. The distribution of contraception in this fashion moves beyond the idea that “sex will happen whether or not the University acknowledges it or not” to actually encouraging sexual interaction.
The quality of campus discourse on sexuality remains consistently low, especially with the rise of initiatives like those sponsored by the BCSSH. Vague notions of “responsibility” are now the sole standard to which students are held accountable. The longterm impact of one’s immediate decisions is never discussed.
How do one’s sexual habits affect one’s character? The virtues necessary to be a faithful, mature mother or father, husband or wife are not obtained overnight. They are virtues that demand more than merely being able to put on a condom correctly. Yet groups like the BCSSH have a tendency to dismiss the call to a higher standard of behavior as “old fashioned” or “out of touch” with today’s youth.
From Ignatius reforming the Church from within to Archbishop Romero being murdered for speaking up for the poor, Jesuits have given witness to the fact that to truly be fully human demands more than just the minimum. Anyone can be taught to put on a condom: the minimum with regards to sex. It takes a mature, wellrounded, intelligent, moral human being to prepare his or herself for a loving relationship sealed in marriage. Which type of person does Boston College want to produce?
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