(Consider this my own Friday Feminist Fuck You.)

Hamilton, Ontario is home to a lot of people.  It's the ninth largest city in Canada and an hour drive southwest of Toronto.  The people here are proud of their blue collar roots, with the city's nickname, "Steel City," reflecting the hard work of many men and women who are employed in the local steel industry.  It's also called "the city of waterfalls," with over 60 waterfalls that flow over the beautiful and picturesque Niagara Escarpment.  It's also a place I call home (at least during the summer months). 

But it's also a place where the teen pregnancy rate is higher than in the provincial average. According to the city's Social & Health Issues Report 2005 in 2001, 34.6 per 1000 female teenagers in Hamilton became pregnant, compared to the provincial rate of 30.5. It was also higher than the rates of other cities including Middlesex-London, Ottawa and Windsor-Essex.  There were 584 teen pregnancies in the city of Hamilton in 2001.

So that's why I get a little angry when I ride the bus to work everyday and see hanging above me campaign posters created by the Hamilton Sexual Health Network that have the infuriating catchphrase "I'm Worth the Wait."  First launched in 2003, this sexual health campaign encouraged local youth to say "I'm Worth the Wait."  The posters appear on buses, bus shelters, during previers at movie theaters and if that's not frightening enough, local high schools.  The campaign's goal?  "To lower the number of unplanned pregnancies and to lower the number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases amongst Hamilton's youth," said Teresa Hartnett, chair of the Sexual Health Network in a press release that can be found here. 

Well, it's 2008.  And the posters are still around.  They have also conducted parent workshops about "I'm Worth the Wait" as recently as April of last year.  The posters usually feature a photograph of a young, smiling female.  My favourite woman on one of the posters is the blonde, white woman holding a snowboard who also looks not a day younger than 35.  The text beside the woman usually reads as follows:

He wants to have sex. But I'm not ready.
So I told him "if you really love me you won't pressure me."
Move Too Fast and It Won't Last
Sex isn't going anywhere fast. But I am!

I'm Worth The Wait: A popular choice teens make about sex.

Fuck you, Hamilton Sexual Health Network.  And fuck you to your "I'm Worth the Wait" campaign.  My frustration with these posters begins with their ignorance of female desire.  The text always reads "He wants to have sex.  But I'm not ready."  This frames the conversation to mean that sex is something that women give to men and that if they move too fast, the ambiguous "it" won't last.  This is the wrong message sending to the youth of my city, especially young females. 

Asking teens to say "I'm Worth the Wait?"  Fuck you.  What I'm worth, and what local youth are worth is comprehensive sex education; not public transporation rhetoric that promotes a thinly veiled abstinence-only message.  What they're worth is access to accurate and helpful information.  What they're worth is a sexual health campaign that will help to keep them safe.  Not a sexual health campaign that does little to help except further put teens at risk. 

This concept of "I'm Worth the Wait" is in the same vein as virginity pledges, purity rings and another harmful slogan we've all come to know and loathe, "True Love Waits."  I hope that they realize that studies show that teens who are told to "just say no" to sex also don't equate oral or anal sex as sex, putting them at risk to contract STIs including HIV. 

So fuck you, Hamilton Sexual Health Network.  Wake up.  Hamilton youth are worth more than this campaign.  This campaign has gone on for far too long without protest.  Hamilton youth are worth fighting for and I believe as the city's sexual health network, you can do better.  The wait is over.

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1 Comments

June 29, 2008 5:54 PM

[0+|0-]  A male said:

You're right about needing comprehensive sex ed, and abstinence only being BS. But men will separately need the message not to feel entitled to women's bodies, and not to coerce women into sex when the women don't want it.

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