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“Are you a treasure or a target?”: More sex ed FAIL from Ohio

Joe Sonka

For some reason or another, Ohio schools seemed to be inundated with some of the worst abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in the entire country.

Ohio is the home of Elizabeth’s New Life Center, notable for employing Derek the Abstinence Clown, who comes to middle school classrooms to perform and inform kids that using condoms is like juggling machetes. Elizabeth also teaches that abortion will give you breast cancer and “post-abortion-syndrome“, a nice fallback for those unfortunate students who learned sex from a fracking clown and find themselves with a positive pregnancy test.

Ohio also has the creatively named Abstinence Till Marriage program, whose Miss the Mess website happily promoted Rape Culture, informing youth that, as Jill put it, “you can’t rape a slut” (this was before the Netroots shamed them into taking it down, fortunately).

But Ohio also has Operation Keepsake, another multi-million dollar ab-only beneficiary of our tax dollars over the past decade. (I’ll give you a hint what the “keepsake” is: it rhymes with rhymin’)

I recently ran across a quiz on their website called “Are you a treasure or a target”, aimed at young women.

Yea, I bet you see where this is going…

Below is the quiz. I bolded hypothetical answers for each question to see if I was, in fact, a “target”.

1. Micro minis are hot again, but they don’t leave too much to the imagination.  You:

a. Run out to Express and buy one.
b. Compromise-cut off your longer jean skirt to give it a fresh look, but no shorter than a couple of inches above the knee.
c. Who cares about the latest style?  You hate skirts-its cargo pants all the way.

2. You met your crush at:

a. School
b. A teen dance club
c. Through a friend of the family
3. Your crush asks you out.  He seems really nice but you’re not sure he values waiting to have sex until marriage like you do.  You:

a. Ask him straight up.
b. Go with the flow-it will come up sooner or later.
c. Assume he’s a good guy. I mean, he’s cute and dresses well.

4. What do you know about your crush?

a. Not much, except that he’s hot!
b. He looks good on my arm, and he’s been a real gentleman the whole two weeks we’ve gone out!
c. He’s cute, respectful, and fun to hang with.

5. Your parents give you an 11 P.M. curfew.  You think it’s SO childish.  Don’t they trust you?  So when you’re out with your crush, you:

a. Lie about it-tell him you have a 12:30 A.M. curfew.
b. Respect your parents and confidently tell your guy that he should have you home by 11 p.m.
c. Tell the truth, but trash your parents and their “stupid” rules in the meantime.

6. You’re at the movies with friends and you notice a group of cute guys.  You:

a. Walk by repeatedly, tossing your hair, talking and giggling loudly.
b. Walk right up to them and invite them to sit with you and your friends.
c. Appreciate the fact that they are cute and move on.  They might be cute, but you know nothing about them.

As you can see, I chose some pretty “conservative” answers, nothing that could even remotely be considered “scandalous”. But guess what? Wrong. A young woman filling out the quiz this way is informed that they are, in fact, a “target”:

6 – 10: Target…You make decisions based on what others think instead of what is best and healthiest for you.  It’s not a big deal when it comes to picking simple things like shoes, but when it comes to major decisions-like who you date-you could be in a lot of trouble.  If you want to be truly respected and valued for the real you, then you’ve got to know what makes you truly valuable.  Hint:  It’s more than your body, your looks, the friends you hang with, and the guys you date.  If you don’t know what really makes you valuable, then why would anyone else?

Yes, in other words: “if you act like a tramp, you’ll get what’s coming to you”.

“Slut-shaming” and Rape Culture, all wrapped into one.

But the madness from Operation Keepsake of course doesn’t stop there. As is the case with most abstinence-only programs, they intentionally demonize condom use.

BUT… maybe you’re saying that wearing a condom is still better than nothing. Hmm…interesting idea. Tell you what, I’ll go out to the parking lot after school and we’ll have a demonstration about that point. I’ll run out into the street and stand in front of a car. Before I let it hit me, I’ll put on a football helmet because it’s better than wearing nothing.

Now that’s some first class “education” right there! Its no wonder that, after a 15 year decline, teen births rates have gone up the past 2 recorded years in Ohio, along with a skyrocketing STI rate.

With President Obama zeroing out the existing federal funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in his 2010 budget, their days of sucking up our tax dollars to spew this nonsense are numbered. The battle will now come down at the local level, both in terms of state/local government, and these organizations’ ability to raise money in the private sector to stay afloat.

In Ohio, as well as the rest of the country, let’s hope they sink.

(crossposted from Amplify)

44 thoughts on “Are you a treasure or a target?”: More sex ed FAIL from Ohio

  1. One thing I find particularly strange about this quiz is that on question 4 you get a higher score for answering b then c. It’s better, safer, for a young woman to hang out with a guy that looks good on her arm (but whom she may or may not like as a person–heck, may or may not even be attracted to really) than with someone who is fun and respectful. I’d advise a young woman answering a or b to question 4 to think hard about her priorities. If you aren’t having fun with your boyfriend and there isn’t mutual respect in the relationship, what’s the point? And frankly someone saying that what they know about their boyfriend is that he looks good on their arm doesn’t really respect him any more than he probably respects her.

  2. Vomit all over the world.

    The only way that this nonsense makes any sense is if the conservatives were intentionally colluding to get the white birth rate up because of their racism and fears of the brown folks “outbreeding” the white folks as they say.

    A PSA I saw on the TV last night featured a father humorously miming trying to get past an imaginary brick wall to get to the kitchen table, where 11 year old-ish daughter is seated, to talk to her about sex. He finally gets there. The voice over at the end in the girl’s voice, as father and daughter are seated together at the table in artsy long shot:

    “Talk to me about sex. It’s okay- you don’t have to talk about the parts and stuff. Just tell me to wait.”

    REALLY?! REALLY?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  4. Wow. Just wow.

    That is incredibly insidious. It takes what in another context would be sound advice for young women (demand respect from those you date, your worth is not determined by your looks, don’t base your choices on what other people say, value yourself, etc.) and uses it as a tool for undermining the health and safety of the young women the organization claims to protect. Yuck. This is just vile.

  5. Ok number 4 is disturbing. I can get most of the rest as to which is the “right” answer but how is a guy being respectful, cute, and fun be worse than a guy being arm candy and “a gentleman” (in my experience they are like the little yappy dogs likely to bite you when you least expect it). And how is following the trend in 1 by slicing your skirt up less conformist than not wearing skirts? That doesn’t make any sense when compared to the judgement answers.

  6. So how is it even possible to NOT be a target according to this quiz? Never wear pants and only talk to males that your parents introduce you to? (I refer to questions 1 and 2, naturally)

  7. @2&3: I’ve heard similar PSAs on the radio here in Oregon. They emphasize that you don’t have to say “penis” or “vagina.”

    I heard one of these when I was with my mom (who started my sex-ed at 4) and mentioned that if you can’t say those words, you shouldn’t be a parent. She started shouting “Penis! Vagina! Vulva! Foreskin! …” at the top of her lungs. I <3 my mom.

  8. “So how is it even possible to NOT be a target according to this quiz?”

    It may not be. You know, moving goalposts and all that jazz.

    “Before I let it hit me, I’ll put on a football helmet because it’s better than wearing nothing.”

    I suppose it’d be beside the point to remind the organization that it would be way better than nothing? There’s a reason everyone pushes helmets and pads for cyclists, skateboarders, etc., and it’s not because we’re all in Big Safety’s pocket.

  9. When I see “keepsake” and “hymen” in the same sentence, I can’t help but think of the foreskin-in-album scene in Meet the Fockers.

    Also, what preying mantis said.

  10. Babs, what city/state was this? Or is it a national PSA?

    *is not Babs* I’ve seen it a lot, and I’m in lower New York.

    BUT… maybe you’re saying that wearing a condom is still better than nothing. Hmm…interesting idea. Tell you what, I’ll go out to the parking lot after school and we’ll have a demonstration about that point. I’ll run out into the street and stand in front of a car. Before I let it hit me, I’ll put on a football helmet because it’s better than wearing nothing.

    But if you’re married to the driver, the car will just go right through you!

    If you don’t know what really makes you valuable, then why would anyone else?

    You’re smart, funny, and interesting, but you’re only valuable if you have a hymen.

  11. “You don’t have to talk about the parts”?!

    I raised my niece for 7 years. I started training her to call a labia a labia as soon as she starting talking. Sex ed started at 4. At age 5, I got a call from the school about her “language”. I went down to school all mad, thinking my niece had said “fuck” or something, and then burst out laughing when they told me “language” was “penis”. Apparently, she had told a little boy that he had a penis and she had a vagina.

    Such language!

  13. “Apparently, she had told a little boy that he had a penis and she had a vagina.”

    Honoes! Actual anatomical terminology!

  15. I knew of a lady who took her daughter to a seminar called ‘Are Your Trash or Treasure’? The jist of it, according to the young man delivering it, is that a boy will divide you into one of these categories, based on your behaviour, and YOU DON’T WANT TO GET CAUGHT ON THE TRASH SIDE!!!

    I weep.

  17. Question 1 is very revealing. You get 3 points for not wearing the mini–but STILL wearing a skirt, just a more modest one, and only 2 points for “not liking skirts, only cargo pants.”

  18. Of course you’re a target, you’re a girl!

    After all, I looked over the site, and I couldn’t find any similar questionnaire for boys (how about “are you a boyfriend, or a rapist?”) So it’s obvious that the only people who they’re really interested in “educating” are girls. They’re targeting girls with this website.

    Sure, they have a few “throwaway” articles for men, but even those are pretty paltry. In an “interview” with some abstinence only boytoy, they ask him if his high alcohol consumption (8 to 9 drinks in a sitting) led to sexual activity (it didn’t, because he’s a manly abstinence man!). Whereas the girl’s story (really, she’s a woman), it made a point that in order to keep herself abstinent, she must avoid alcohol because otherwise she’ll get tricked into it… you know, taken advantage of.

    The other thing that’s striking about the site is that the woman they interviewed has something like 4 kids even though she claims to have used birth control (the pill and condoms). Except that she calls the condoms “a piece of plastic.” Which means either she didn’t use them at all, or she used improvised condoms, like saran wrap or something.

    So much misinformation….

  19. Wow. Just wow.

    That is incredibly insidious. It takes what in another context would be sound advice for young women (demand respect from those you date, your worth is not determined by your looks, don’t base your choices on what other people say, value yourself, etc.) and uses it as a tool for undermining the health and safety of the young women the organization claims to protect. Yuck. This is just vile.

    My thoughts exactly!!

  21. You make decisions based on what others think instead of what is best and healthiest for you.

    The irony, it burns.

  22. The PSA Babs was talking about must be a national PSA, because I’ve seen it a few times and I’m in Northern California. I thought the message of the PSA was good at first (the part about parents talking to their kids about sex) but when the girl says “Tell me to wait,” I really couldn’t believe I was hearing that in a commercial.

  23. Okay, this ticks me off to no end in large part because it is not only harmful in general but it blatantly enforces the notion that the only correct sexuality is that put forth by certain Christain sects and is based almost entirely on the principles for women found in those sects and is being funded by tax dollars. It absolutely reeks of those Christain sects that believe : only courtship is appropriate, not casual dating. Skirts are modest and women should not wear pants because it promotes slutification (no joke, several people on modesty sites have actually blamed “slutification” on women wearing pants), etc.
    This is just straight up disgusting. How the hell is an organization that tells women to remake their clothing to follow a trend as oppose to wear pants getting tax funding? Not only does it play into the idea women should be concerned with fashion trends, but it is pretty obvious where their skirt bias is coming from. Ugh, if not for funding, “slut”-shaming, and rape apologies I would chuckle, maybe, except that these kind of quizzes are designed to make all women who wear pants, disagree with their parents, and act on attraction with so much as a date feel like horrible human beings.
    “Target…You make decisions based on what others think instead of what is best and healthiest for you.”
    In other words, the only “healthy” decisions are the ones that refelct our principles. Anything else and you are a brainwashed slut with no since of value or worth, and no right to complain when others treat you accordingly.

  24. Abstinence only–sexual girls are whores, but sexual boys have magic dust sprinkled on them by the purity fairy.

  25. (Don’t those answers get you 11 points, putting you in “Danger Zone,” not “Target”? I just tried the quiz myself, and answered the same on all the questions except the last one, and each of the first 5 answers was 2 points, and your last answer was 1 point.)

    And, yeah, that quiz is really problematic. On the first question, choosing a more modest version of the popular style gets you more points than wearing what you like. The second question, more points for meeting someone through a friend of the family then by meeting him at school — I suppose their logic is that you trust an adult to know that he’s a good guy, but wouldn’t you know someone from school much better and be able to judge that for yourself? I have no idea what’s up with the fourth question — why is being a “gentleman” better than being “respectful”? As for the sixth question, how to they expect people to get to know other people if they don’t talk to people they don’t know? Oh, right. Meet dates through a family friend.

  26. how to they expect people to get to know other people if they don’t talk to people they don’t know? Oh, right. Meet dates through a family friend.

    In other words, you KNOW he has Daddy’s stamp of approval because Daddy’s the one who introduced you to him.

    And if he turns out to be a rapist, well, you wouldn’t want to tell Daddy about it and hurt his feelings about him picking out the right guys for you. Better to just repress. Besides, were you really raped, or were you asking for it?

  27. They bash condom use and helmet use all in one. Because wearing a helmet would probably help in the even that you do get hit by a car. That’s why people who ride bikes in the street wear them.

    And as a woman who doesn’t date, shoes are right up there with my dog and car in the list of things I care about most.

    And Express doesn’t sell micro minis. These people don’t have any of their facts straight, do they?

  28. Dunno if this has been mentioned on the site before, but this article reminds me of the horrific “No Ho Pledge” that was on the XXX Church, a Christian “anti-pornography ministry.” They seem to have taken it down off the main site, but I found a copy here. Good gravy, it makes me throw up in my mouth to think that this is the shit that youth ministers are teaching teen girls today.

    To be honest, the whole XXX Church main site is pretty ripe with the misogyny, pledging to save those poor, lost little porn stars from their sinning sexin’ ways. Plus, the whole hipster posturing thing reeks of ye olde camp counselor “look, guys, I’m cool too!”

  29. This is absolutely rediculous. Operation Keepsake’s comparison of the uselessness of a helmet in a car accident to the supposed pointlessness of a condom during sex is preposterous. Obviously this group believes that the 15% chance a condom will not work is a lot greater. Making up facts to scare students is idiotic, seeing as all Ohio students must take Health Ed when they reach highschool and will soon enough see through the lies of Operation Keepsake and their “abstinence clown”.

  30. Pingback: What’s scarier than a clown itself? A clown that teaches ab-only sex ed. « The Gender Blender Blog

  31. Not sure how, but I didn’t get a target…. but I was confused as to why cargo pants are more slutty than wearing a skirt? Oh wait… they let me move and run around with the boys.

    With the condom and helmet parallel, wouldn’t a suit of armor made a sturdy metal (or maybe a mobile suit) be more comparible as far as COVERING said entirety? Or do they just want people to think that a condom only covers the head?

  32. The horrid PSAs you all are referring to are most likely for the http://www.4parents.gov/ website, which is a division of the Dept. of Health and Human Services no less. I have to restrain my incredulity at the idea of a government agency spreading this crap and my urge to gag every time I see/hear one of those ads.

  33. I’ve hated the abstinence-only education my whole life. My parents had a set of children-level sex ed books that were on our bookshelf since we were born. They were colored in before we could read, the pictures were looked at through childhood, and eventually they were read cover to cover. I was six the first time I can remember actually reading them. When we started middle school, our mom took us on a car ride, just her and the one starting, and talked to us about sex. She told us that she didn’t wait until she was married but she hoped that we would, but please at least wait until it was right for us. She told us that no matter what we could come to her. My sister finally did go to her in her late teens to ask for birth control. I’m 22 and I’m abstinent, but not because I don’t know anything else. It’s my choice. And that was the message my mother sent me. Whether I chose to have sex or not to have sex, it was my decision. And no choice I made would make it ok for anyone else to take that choice away ever. And that is HEALTHY sex ed.

  34. Well said, Dena. My mom also talked to my sister and I openly and told us it was our choice. I’m 19 and abstinent by my own choice as well. And if I do happen to meet someone? I’m informed. My sister was also comfortable enough to ask for birth control in her teens…heh, it’s almost the same situation! Obviously this is healthy sex ed.

  35. I scored a 12, toward the target end of “danger zone”.

    I think this quiz is probably aimed at a slightly younger crowd (I’m 22 and out of college), but this still makes no sense. What’s wrong with wearing pants, meeting people at school or other public places, or being frank with your partner about important decisions like sex? They’d probably label me a massive hoe for my large number of male friends and dirty sense of humor.

    Wrong. I’m still a virgin, though it has nothing to do with abstinence pledges.

  36. This quiz supports predatory sexual behavior by Christian boys since it is advocating the idea that girls make themselves targets rather than supporting the idea that those who do the targeting are responsible for their own behavior which includes targeting others sexually.

    It also helps explain why many people who consider themselves sexually moral don’t want to see boys and men convicted when they rape girls or women who do anything which puts her in their perceived target list. The fault for the rape of a target becomes hers not his.

    This quiz should be titled:

    Will Christians like us view you as an acceptable target for rape or will we view you as a treasure who we will cry for if a boy or man strays from the acceptable target list?

  37. This is ridiculously appalling. I’m ashamed to say that I am indeed from Ohio. At the same time I feel relieved to say that I am from the northeastern Ohio and I in fact taught in my sex ed that the safest way to avoid all STDs and unwanted pregnancy was abstinence, but at the same time our class talked heavily about the use of every type of birth control there is.

  38. “If you don’t know what really makes you valuable…”

    Yup, it’s not your intelligence or personality or talents or passions or work ethic or humanity, it’s a little flap of skin between your legs. A little flap of skin between a girl’s legs is infinitely more valuable than the rest of her! Obviously!!! I mean, without it, she’d just be worthless trash… Misogyny? A-huh-wha? What’s so misogynist about treasuring our little angels?! You feminazis just say that about everything. You just love playing the victim, don’t you!

    I ended up in the Danger Zone. I would’ve been a Target, except I have too much social anxiety to be as forthright as I’d like. I had no idea that being less assertive made me harder to date rape; thanks, Operation Keepsake!

  39. I was one away from being a ‘treasure’ — curses! So close! Of course, as someone who has a very low level of interest in OMG boyfriends! and is, like, twice the age of the intended audience, I’m not surprised.

    The funny thing — well, there are lots of funny things there, but the funniest was at the bottom. And I quote: 7. If you’re not being respected-Break it off!!!

    If by ‘it’ we mean an offending member, great! (I don’t think that’s what they mean.) But can’t ‘break it/something off’ also mean to have sex?

    I’m confused.

  40. “It’s not a big deal when it comes to picking simple things like shoes, but when it comes to major decisions-like who you date-you could be in a lot of trouble. ”

    Did anyone else read this as “silly women, trying to make decisions about your own lives. Just worry about if your shoes match your handbag – because see, you can’t even do THAT right – and leave the decisions up to ___” ?

  41. 7. If you’re not being respected-Break it off!!!

    Of course, in “Treasure or Target” World, “respect” includes trying to stop you from hanging out with male friends, covering your eyes at sex scenes in films you’re watching, and policing your manner of dress. In the real world, that’s a lack of respect.

    (I’ve never heard “break it off” used to mean have sex, only to end a relationship.)

  42. Pingback: What you should have read, but might have missed, last week. « ’NYC Unrated & Unfiltered

  43. Looks to me as though the “Treasure or Target” quiz has been taken down from their website! And here I had such high hopes of using it in the classroom to illustrate the slut-shaming of abstinence-only.

  44. Can someone please find the Treasure or Target quiz now that they appear to have taken it down? I usually consult the Internet Wayback Machine for this but it’s not working to my benefit right now – pooh.

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