{Let’s Talk About Sex} Tweens, Sex & the Essence Article That Scared the Crap Out Of Me

http://mybrownbaby.com/2011/10/lets-talk-about-sex-tweens-sex-the-essence-article-that-scared-the-crap-out-of-me/

By Denene Millner

A few weeks ago, I dropped my Mari off for her first day of middle school and watched her trot up the long walkway to the junior high building, and then I promptly pulled my car around the corner and cried like a baby with a nasty head cold. An ugly, snotty cry.

I mean, I recognize that our job is to keep our babies from killing their fool selves as they march toward being grown up human beings and that we have to learn to let go a little, but on that day, as she pecked my cheek and bounced away from my car, it was very, very clear to me that, well, I ain’t ready for all that.

But in my quiet moments, when I really consider the kind of mother I am and especially the kind of mom I want to be to my babies, I recognize that I have to get ready. Especially for my Mari, who, at age 12, is hurtling head first into puberty and teenhood and all the stuff that comes with the two.

It’s the “stuff” that scares me—the stuff being the boys and the peer pressure and the self-consciousness and the sneaking and the rebellion and the false sense of maturity. I was a teenager once. I remember the mean girls. The cute boys and their sweet talk. The friends with the basements and the liquor cabinets and parents who turned a blind eye. How we all slathered on our war paint—our mom’s mascara and lipstick—and ran toward the fire, books and grades and what we learned at church on Sunday morning be damned.

Film Addresses Reality of HIV and AIDS

NEW FILM “AS I DIE SLOWLY” ADDRESSES THE DANGER AND REALITY OF HIV AND AIDS

– Urban Life Entertainment, producer of the film, announces its 2011 College Tour –

Nationwide(BlackNews.com) — Urban Life Entertainment, a film production and book publishing company based in Houston, Texas has launched an impressive college tour with their hit movie, As I Die Slowly. It is a movie about choices and consequences. From beginning to end, the movie is designed to teach about the danger & reality of HIV & AIDS. The title itself delivers a stark message and warning because it creates the acronym of AIDS.

The movie’s tagline is: What Happens When a Man Who Has It All, Becomes Entangled in a Web of Lies, Deceit, and Infidelity? Characters Michael Davenport and Joy Davenport are having trouble in their marriage of 16 years. And like many families, it is during these turbulent times that wrong decisions are made.

As I Die Slowlydeals with the subject of HIV and AIDS in an entertaining way, however the message is delivered in a clear and precise manner that is undeniable. Vikki Johnson of BET Networks called it compelling and powerful, and said that it is so thought provoking that she thought about the film days after watching it.

Urban Life Entertainment has secured dates at some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities to screen As I Die Slowly and deliver motivational speeches to the student body. October 14th at Texas Southern University, October 17th Prairie View A&M, November 16th Spelman College, December 1st (World AIDS Day Events) at Wiley College of Marshall, Texas and Morgan State University of Baltimore, Maryland. There are more colleges and universities coming on board daily. To book the film and cast to come to your campus, contact the offices of Urban Life Entertainment.

{Let’s Talk About Sex} How A Single Mom Talks To Her Son About Sex

http://mybrownbaby.com/2011/10/how-a-single-mom-talks-to-her-son-about-sex/

By MICHELLE BOND

When I close my eyes and think of my man taking me in his arms and passionately kissing me, I imagine us in a movie where the camera pans away to the beautiful star-filled sky and the time lapses and we see the bright early morning sunrise illuminating the earth.  Sounds sweet and cheesy, right?

Yeah, well, it’s all roses and romance until this same magical image involves my 14-year-old son and some girl wanting him to make her feel like a woman.  I gasp and my mind goes blind from the thought.

Teen sex is only mildly cute and humorous when scripted in the movies. At the risk of dating myself, I think back to Cooley High, when a fight breaks out at a “make out party.” Or any 80’s movie where Molly Ringwald somehow becomes the must- have girl and always finds the conviction to save herself until the time is right.  These movies set up us parents—and especially single moms—to fail. Because they delude us into thinking our teenage kids are automatically going to know to say “no,” or something comical is going to happen to stop them from doing the do.

Only in the movies, folks.

{Let’s Talk About Sex} The Best Ways For Parents To Get Ready For “The Talk”

http://mybrownbaby.com/2011/10/lets-talk-about-sex-the-best-ways-for-parents-to-get-ready-for-the-talk/

By Denene Millner

My talk with my mom about menstruation went something like this:

Me: Mommy? We learned about periods in health class today. The teacher said we should get this kit. It comes with books and pads and stuff.

My mom: Okay.

Uh, huh. That was the end of the conversation. She ordered the kit for me — it came with three books about puberty and an assortment of pads and tampons — and when it arrived, she handed it to me and we never talked about periods again. I was 13 when I finally got mine; I was at my uncle’s house on a weekend visit, and spent half of Saturday and most of Sunday with wads of toilet tissue stuffed in my panties, too embarrassed to ask my uncle for help, and later, too embarrassed to tell my mother about it. My mom didn’t find out, either, until after she realized I’d used up all the pads in my kit.

She was hurt. I could tell from the look in her eyes.

The HPV Vaccine: Weeding Through the Controversy For the Sake Of My Black Girls

http://mybrownbaby.com/2011/09/protecting-black-girls-from-hpv-with-the-hpv-vaccine/

It was never a question for us the pediatrician would say the girls were due for this vaccine or that one, and we’d hold Mari and Lila and comfort them while the nurses pumped their arms or their legs with the protective brews. It was very simple: Kids get and pass along all kinds of cooties from one to the other; the shots would protect our babies from both contracting and spreading said cooties. Honestly, it never occurred to us to question their safety. The worst thing that’s ever happened to our daughters after getting a shot? The nurse ran out of Princess Tiana band-aids for the girls’ boo boos.

So I feel like a crap mom when I try to explain why I’ve been dragging my feet on giving our pediatrician the O.K. to give Mari a series of shots doctors say will protect her from HPV, a sexually-transmitted disease that happens to be one of the leading causes for cervical cancer. The shots are supposed to be given to girls sometime between ages 11 and 12, before they become sexually active and put themselves at risk for getting the disease. My pediatrician, an amazing doctor and mom who insists she plans on giving the vaccine to her own daughters when they’re old enough, has been at me for two years to give the series of shots three in all, administered six months apart to my 12-year-old, and each time, I’ve hesitated. Said, “let’s wait one more year.”

HIV Specialist Authors New Book – “Keep Your Panties Up”

 

HIV PREVENTION SPECIALIST RELEASES URBAN BOOK ABOUT SAFE SEX, HIV, AIDS, AND STDS FOR THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY AND AT-RISK YOUTH

Bookcover

 

Nationwide (BlackNews.com) — African Americans only make up 12% of the population, but almost half of the new HIV cases are African American. These numbers are very disproportionate and because HIV is such a taboo subject in the African American community many people are not getting the message. This astonishing fact is the reason why Dangerous Lee wrote Keep Your Panties Up and Your Skirt Down: Six Erotic Tales of Safe Sex.