Abstinence Idol

American Idol has featured more than appalling singers and future stars this season. It's also become a platform for abstinence advocates.

First, a diminutive social worker, Milo Turk, dedicated his original song, "No Sex Allowed," to Simon Cowell. Turk didn't make it to Hollywood, but Amy Catherine Flynn did. Flynn, a panelist for Students Teaching and Respecting Sexuality, gave a brief, inarticulate speech on abstinence. Bruce Dickson, 19, talked about his promise not to kiss a girl until his wedding day and showed a key-and-heart necklace he shared with his dad.

Flynn and Dickson prompted different reactions. Randy and Paula cooed over Flynn and Simon waited until she left to mutter, "One week in L.A., it'll all change." Dickson drew more mockery. Randy advised Dickson to kiss some girls and Ryan Seacrest's voice-over said, "Maybe if Bruce does come back next year, he'll return less boy and more man."

Daniel Radosh of the Huffington Post said it's because Dickson didn't fit the stereotype of male sexuality: "Dickson is a guy, and while it's still acceptably feminine for girls to be demure, boys are "supposed" to be sexually aggressive. There's something weird about one who's not." Radosh said the abstinence movement reflects this idea, focusing its efforts more on girls than boys and basing its message on the "stereotype of aggressive boys."

Jimmy Hester, coordinator for True Love Waits, told WoW that he sees just as many boys as girls taking abstinence pledges and that girls are "just as responsible for creating sexual activity and sexual opportunity as boys." He added that he knows a 300-pound football player who wears a True Love Waits ring and would take issue with the assertion that it makes him less manly.

Is there some basis for the cynicism Simon showed? WORLD's Gene Edward Veith cites studies that say abstinence pledges only delay sex for an average of 18 months, and 88 percent of pledgers eventually give up the pledge altogether.

Hester said the second study took a sample too small to make an accurate judgment. He relies more on statistics that find sexual activity and sexually transmitted diseases decreasing over the last decade.

Taking the pledge alone is not effective, Hester said: "I tell the students all the time there's nothing magic about signing that card." Hester said "strong adult support" (like the kind Dickson gets from his dad) is key: "When there are significant adults in the lives of the teenagers, the teenager will tend to live out those views and practice those views."