Why is it that the only thing scarier than teenage girls being coerced into having sex seems to be teenage girls choosing to do it? With North Carolina lawmakers considering a bill that would require parental consent for medical care as basic as birth control, the Obama administration still fighting to restrict access to emergency contraception, and abstinence-only sex ed still the law of the land in most states, things aren’t egetting any easier for the 70% of young women who are sexually active by the time they hit 19.
On Saturday’s Melissa Harris-Perry, the host and her guests talked about young women, sex, relationships, and the role shame plays in policing the sexuality of both young men and women. When we teach children that their worth is only physical, it can wreak havoc, as Elizabeth Smart described earlier this week in a speech at Johns Hopkins University.
Watch the full discussion and tune in every Saturday and Sunday at 10 a.m. EST for new episodes of Melissa Harris-Perry.
Meredith Clark
Meredith Clark is a freelance writer and editor. She was previously a senior news producer for "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj," a reporter with MSNBC.com, the digital politics and culture editor at Glamour and a senior news and politics editor at Refinery29. She has written for Vulture, Rolling Stone, Self, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast and Bustle.