Discussion paper presented at a meeting, “Family Planning New Worlds” organized by

the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health of the John

Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. December 10, 2002.

I thank Dr. Laurie Zabin for presenting alternative frameworks to analyze adolescent

sexuality and drawing away from the usual perspective that casts the adolescent as the

problem, spurred by his (and increasingly, her) raging hormones. Her paper shows how

important it is to problematize the way societies interpret the sexualities of young people,

and to seek new ways of understanding these sexualities in the context of history and

I wanted to elaborate on Dr. Zabin’s points, using examples from Asia (mainly the

Philippines) to talk about the dilemmas and pitfalls that come with social conservatism,

often expressed through an invocation of a mythical past when adolescents were asexual,

obedient, compliant. In doing so, I want to show that conservatism is not limited to the

moralizing of religious fundamentalists; in fact, the more dangerous forms of social

conservatism are the ones we carry unconsciously, part of a

We are not hearing the voices of people who may in fact be involved in “PMS” but who

successful family planning and HIV prevention programs that include frank discussions

are doing very well, able to make choices and to be responsible for their choices.

mainly in its translation into moral panic and political lobbying to block sex education,

careers at the age of 13 and 14. My point is that until fairly recently, “adolescence” was a

Some topics in this essay:
Dr Zabin’s, CARE Thailand, Vietnam Catholic, Prohibition Era, Philippines Catholic, Jesus Christ, Catholic Islamic, Asia China, Dr Zabin, Gammeltoft Nguyen, social conservatism, moral panic, sex education, reproductive imperative, age marriage, minimum age, premarital sex, national youth, 1989 minimum age, economic social, traditional values, front catholic church, secretary social welfare, minimum age marriage,