OK, I'll admit that I only started watching this movie because I was bored, nothing else was on, and I'm a Jennie Garth fan from her 90210 days, but once I started watching it I was hooked. At first I kept checking the TV guide to see when this movie came out, part of me couldn't believe that it was just made last year in 2007 -- attention to HIV and AIDS sadly seems so yesterday. When I was in the 8th grade we put condoms on bananas, watched Salt n' Peppa's "Let's Talk About Sex" video in class, and talked about people like Ryan White and Magic Johnson. I don't know about my peers, but it definitely made an impression on me. I'm 29 now and I can't believe how safe sex seems so passé. One would think that as more time passed this issue would continue to be one people would talk about, but it appears to be the opposite. People may talk more about sex thanks to shows and movies like "Sex and the City," but these only provide "shocking" entertainment for some and usually never addresses the consequences. In our country's conservative climate I almost feel as if we are back in the 80's where people are completely in the dark when it comes to factual information about HIV and AIDS. What's even more disturbing is Hollywood's rampant trend of young pregnancies, presented in a glamorous fashion. Everyone knows that teens are going to have sex (so let's stop pushing abstinence), but now having unprotected sex in order to get pregnant seems almost in vogue in today's media and no one is talking about STDs anymore.
I thought that this film was a very realistic and modern take on what seems like the forgotten HIV/AIDs discussion and I would think it would appeal to today's teen. They did not tip-toe around the subject of sex, or portray the girls who engaged in sexual activity in a negative light -- it was honest and very up to date, in my opinion. I think that schools should stop pretending that kids cannot handle this information or that they live in a bubble where sex or STDs do not happen. This film should be shown in sex ed classes to get an important discussion going.
