It is just after 5 p.m. in what was once one of Latin America’s most sexually conservative countries, and the youth of Chile are bumping and grinding to a reggaetón beat. At the Bar Urbano disco, boys and girls aged 14 to 18 are stripping off their shirts.
The place is a tangle of lips and tongues and hands. About 800 teenagers sway and bounce to lyrics imploring them to “Poncea! Poncea!”: to make out with as many people as they can.
And make out they do – with stranger after stranger, vying for the honor of being known as the “ponceo,” the one who pairs up the most.
Chile, long considered to have among the most traditional social mores in South America, is crashing headlong against that reputation with its precocious teenagers. Chile’s youth are living in a period of sexual exploration that, academics and government officials say, is like nothing the country has witnessed before.
“Chile’s youth are clearly having sex earlier and testing the borderlines with their sexual conduct,” said Dr. Ramiro Molina, director of the University of Chile’s Center for Adolescent Reproductive Medicine and Development.
Next month we will be reading about the Herpes virus epidemic sweeping over Chile.
Is that your wish?
Don’t be obtuse #2. I’ve never heard of any good consequences from widespread promiscuous sex, but lots of things like #1 mentioned. STDs and such are the natural consequences of such behavior, it’s one of the reasons sexual promiscuity is taboo in traditional societies and in religious belief. What is described in the article is obviously something to lament. Right?
Any objective analysis of such conduct would decry it as unhygienic and fraught with the danger of communicable diseases. This activity by the youth is likely done in ignorance of the possible consequences. It is a public health issue and should be unequivocally discouraged.
I do not “wish it†upon them or anyone. Regardless of my wishes, their activity is likely to bring it about. It is not innocent fun. It is dangerous…not to mention immoral. Those facilitating and enabling this activity should be held accountable.
Oh, good. How lucky for them, that they are becoming like the US.
A society that will not require self-discipline from its members (such as America) will inevitably become a Dionysian society. One cannot enforce self-discipline by using the law; it must come from the family. Here is it that the well being of the family and its children meet the services of the church exactly, for the need of the former for performing this difficult task (made more difficult by a society that teaches that consuming is life’s great good) is met by the church’s doctrines which teaches that higher goals can be met if and only if the congregant practices self-restraint. But the churches can do nothing if the parents do not understand the need. Larry
It is not the facilitators who must be held accountable is it is remedying the situation that you desire. The parents must be held accountable, and who will dare do that? Larry