what is abstinence?

Answer 1

Ask you parents of guardian.

Answer 2

Abstinence in the sexual sense of the word means not having sex.

Advocates of this concept suggest that people should remain virgins until they are married. The benefits include fewer STDs, no pregnancy outside of marriage, and among religious people it is considered a less sinful way to live.

The idea is essentially BS. People are going to have sex, and preaching not to is utterly pointless. The Bush administration have pushed this agenda in schools for many years and it has proven to be utterly ineffective. A lot of the benefits that abstinence is supposed to have, simply don't happen. Teens end up becoming sexually active, but have not been properly educated on methods of contraception and how to reduce the risk of STDs.

Teaching abstinence in schools tries to convince people to remain virgins until marriage, but does not equip the teens with vital information. As a result, when they decide to have sex (and they often do), they make costly mistakes often ending up pregnant or infected with some STD. It has also been shown that guilt from abstinence programs increases the likelihood of non-vaginal sex including oral and anal sex. While this will reduce the risk of pregnancy significantly, it does not decrease the risk of STDs.

Abstinence programs simply don't work. All it does is promote ignorance, and persuade sexually active teens to pretend that they are not. Instead of seeking medical advice, and becoming properly informed and educated, such programs create secrecy and guilt feelings.

The concept of no sex before marriage is some idiotic relic from the 50s, used partially to oppress women. The idea is akin to buying an expensive car without ever taking it for a test drive.

Answer 3

Abstinence is a voluntary forbearance from indulging a desire or appetite for certain bodily activities that are widely experienced as giving pleasure. Most frequently, the term refers to abstention from sexual intercourse, alcohol or food. The practice can arise from religious prohibitions or practical considerations.
Abstinence has diverse forms. In its oldest sense it is sexual, as in the practice of continence, chastity, and celibacy. Commonly it refers to a temporary or partial abstinence from food, as in fasting. Because the regimen is intended to be a conscious act, freely chosen to enhance life, abstinence is sometimes distinguished from the psychological mechanism of repression. The latter is an unconscious state, having unhealthy consequences. Freud termed the channelling of sexual energies into other more culturally or socially acceptable activities "sublimation".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstinence

Answer 4

The act or practice of refraining from indulging an appetite, as for food. This term is most often used in relation to sex, however.

Answer 5

abstinence, means to give give up, or refrain from doing something

Answer 6

For a start, it doesnt have to have anything to do with sex. Abstinence means to do without, go without, - can be anything at all. Go without drink, food, kisses, etc.etc. anything at all. You go or do without it then you are 'abstaining' .

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstinence

Answer 8

This just means that you do not have any sex in any form before marriage. That you stay a virgin.

Answer 9

It's refraining from sexual relations. Or, abstaining from them.

Answer 10

It means not partaking in something. As in not partaking in sexual activities.