From rampant slut culture to old-fashioned feminism?

Girls are looking like sluts, says Alfred Lubrano:

We live in a world in which oral sex is now second base.

In which girls dress like porn stars.

In which the kids you see at the airport this weekend heading for spring break will wind up topless in Girls Gone Wild, Fort Lauderdale '07 videos.

Are you cool with this?

Frustrated American Christians aren't. They want girls to sign purity pledges in which they promise to stay virgins.

They're against mandatory immunization of girls against sexually-transmitted viruses that cause cervical cancer because they're afraid it'll encourage promiscuity.

Just after I'd finished reading this, I clicked on a Drudge headline reading "Women covered up skimpy clothes at Bill Clinton fundraiser... " which touts as an "unusual detail" the fact that women meeting Bill Clinton are given a gentle nudge in the direction of modesty:
Not everyone came ready to sweat.

"There was more makeup in that spin class than I had ever seen in my life," said Charla Krupp, a writer who attended the event. "Everyone looked like they had just come from the beauty salon."

Among the unusual details of this most unusual fund-raiser is that everyone was given a long-sleeved white cotton T-shirt to wear over workout clothes. Usually people wear as little as possible for spinning, which involves riding a bike in standing and seated positions, and at alternating levels of resistance, while music plays.

"People tend to wear sexy spandex outfits with midriffs showing," Ms. Krupp said. "But in deference to the president, we wore these shirts that said, 'Exercise Your Vote.' "

Obviously, there's to be no hint of slut culture anywhere near President Clinton. It's all behind us. Women need to get the message.

Unfortunately, not all women are getting it fast enough, and, why, it's so bad that it's making everyone crazy.

Back to the Lubrano piece.

Rampant slut culture is making everyone crazy.

Society, to paraphrase a line from a Nathaniel West novel, is a vessel being slowly filled with cold, dirty water.

In her book Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, Ariel Levy says women have stopped fighting misogyny and are now part of the frat party of pop culture, where men run the show.

Girls raised on music videos and the Victoria's Secret catalog attire themselves like a 16-year-old boy's midnight fantasy. Then they attend parties where they dance-grind against boys, engage in heterosexual girl-girl make-out sessions to turn boys on, and hook up with guys for soul-free sex.

Post-feminists all, young women say it's empowering to be a ho, a personal choice.

But all they're doing is men's bidding. What ever happened to old-fashioned feminism, when women decided to become their own people, and not men's handmaidens and sex puppets?

What ever did happen to old fashioned feminism? When women were their own women, and not dependent on men, or coat-tailing on men, or replacing men with big government? All good questions.

Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton wasn't at the spandex-free fund-raiser -- which (to be on the safe side, perhaps?) was closed to reporters and photographers. Back to the Times:

Several other women leaving the fund-raiser -- which raised more than $70,000 and was closed to reporters and photographers -- were a little dazzled.

"He was incredible, he was engaging, exciting, warm, brilliant, phenomenal," said Pam Bierman, a marketing manager from Pinebrook, N.J., who was still wearing her long-sleeved T-shirt. "It only gets you more excited to do more."

Her friend Sheri David, the owner of a marketing firm who lives near Lincoln Center, added: "There's no question why he's the most popular former president. But again, Hillary's the front-runner. It's now our time, women's time, to have a vote."

I'm so glad Bill is there to encourage them in the transformation from slut culture to being their own women!

(And vote for his wife, of course.....)

UPDATE: My thanks to Glenn Reynolds for linking this post, and welcome all!

I couldn't agree more with Glenn that if the slut culture goes away, the terrorists will have won. In the medieval terrorist mindset, making women cover themselves is inextricably intertwined with considering all women to be sluts. Seen this way, slut culture is at once modern and civilized -- an act of brazen defiance against terrorism.

Whether slut culture is coming or going is in Bill Clinton's case another matter. In an earlier post, Glenn linked Tom Maguire's nostalgic reminiscences about Bill Clinton's breast best of the leftie bloggers luncheon, and feminist fallout therefrom.

Bill-and-Hill's handlers may be trying to avoid any hint of a repeat.

(I'd say "the breast is yet to come," but unveiling such predictions is tacky.)

posted by Eric on 03.24.07 at 10:17 AM





TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://classicalvalues.com/cgi-bin/pings.cgi/4798






Comments

All this "Girls Gone Wild" stuff has more to do with Demographics than culture.

Simple enough to change. Import more men until the M/F ratio is sufficiently balanced.

M. Simon   ·  March 24, 2007 10:39 AM

I love Sheri David's comment, which is proof that I.Q. test should be required to exercise the franchise. Anyone who would base their vote on a candidate's sex disqualifies himself from serious consideration.

Brett   ·  March 24, 2007 05:11 PM

I love Sheri David's comment, which is proof that an I.Q. test should be required to exercise the franchise. Anyone who would base their vote on a candidate's sex disqualifies himself from serious consideration.

Brett   ·  March 24, 2007 05:12 PM

Bill is a legend in his own mind and the mind of some very stupid people.

He got about 36% against Bush Pere, and 49% against that old impotent Republican, Dole.

Bush the Younger beat Clinton in the popular vote in both elections.

Imagine.

That's why I gotta love the Dems. They think Bill was popular.

Joel   ·  March 24, 2007 09:46 PM

As a former feminist, I just have to laugh. Women have always defined themselves in relation to men, never more so than during the feminist glory days. Just as Dems now completely define themselves in relation to Bush.

Yeah, I used to be a Democrat, too. I have no faith in women or Democrats anymore, and it's impossible to underestimate either group.

Peg C.   ·  March 24, 2007 09:59 PM

Hold it! Can we go back to that part where "... people wear as little as possible for spinning, which involves riding a bike in standing and seated positions, and at alternating levels of resistance..." again, please?

That's MY political party! Which one am I?


Crusty   ·  March 24, 2007 10:00 PM

Yeah, that culture either isn't going anywhere or hasn't begun. I chronicle and profit from the voluntary uploads of hundreds of out-of-control teens, and you'd think a parent or two might figure it out and put a foot down. You don't buy them thongs, you don't buy them webcams and private computers, and you don't let them listen to slutty music.

Or let them, and contribute to my retirement fund. Either way. Click my link if you doubt it.

Kewtr   ·  March 24, 2007 10:16 PM

The NYT loves to layer on levels of meaning, so it can be hard to fathom the underlying editorial in their news pieces. In this case, my take was that the Clinton people didn't want any pictures of him mugging with spandex-clad babes to turn up in the papers. No need to reinforce existing perceptions and the like.

John F.   ·  March 24, 2007 10:31 PM

Dammit, I missed the Summer of Love! I DEMAND my rampant slut culture!

Although, come to think of it, wouldn't rampart sluts be more likely to be found in the Advocate?

richard mcenroe   ·  March 24, 2007 10:41 PM

Sluts to the Left of me, jihadists to the Right.

Here I am, stuck in the middle and prude.

Jonathan   ·  March 24, 2007 10:49 PM

According to Mark Steyn , 25% of unmarried women in 18th century London were s, of whom the average age was 16. We are, relative to history, a long way from being a 'slut culture' (except, perhaps in the area of ography which is widely accessible due to advances in technology). 'Raunch culture' is probably a more appropriate term; we aren't so much obsessed with human uality as with an airbrushed facsimile of human uality without all of the embarrasing rolls and blemishes.

The idea that the fact that the misogyny of the taliban is wrong makes the distortions of raunch culture right is nonsense; ala Chesterton 'There are a million angles at which humanity falls and only one at which it stands'. 'Women are like raw meat which must be covered from hungry dogs' is misogyny, 'Women are two and an orifice' is misogyny.

BenK   ·  March 24, 2007 11:21 PM

I love the fact that you all are wasting time on "slut culture"...it just shows how totally you miss the point.

You can't handle the fact that women can f*** anyone they want...and "get away with it." They're sluts and there's nothing you can do about it.

FTrain   ·  March 24, 2007 11:54 PM

If I remember my Aristotle correctly -- and I'm pretty sure he was one of the sources of classical values -- virtues are not the opposite of vices but the balancing points between two different vices.

So, the virtuous position would be one between slutism and jihadism, not the mere opposite of jihadism that Glenn Reynolds/Instapundit seems to imply.

Ted Joy   ·  March 25, 2007 12:00 AM

Agreed with BenK, and let me add my own two pennies:

1. Bill Clinton is possibly one of the most powerful (and horn-dog) men in elite liberal circles. You'd be surprised at how many women would have sex with him, no questions asked. Why?

It's the power, stupid (to borrow Clinton's Line).

Women are attracted to powerful men, and feminism (rejection of families and family-oriented men for status) only makes that tendency worse.

2. Raunch culture among women is driven by competition for status among women. Period. Part of that is competition to see who can be "sexiest" which raunch culture feeds into, and the other part on how many hot/high-status guys women can keep on a string.

No one is pointing a gun at girls heads and making them take off their tops or wear slutty clothes, tacky tats, etc. WHY do they do it?

It's the element of competition among women which they always deny but is always there (any group of women, there is a hierarchy just like with guys). A lot of what women do is not even connected with guys, but with other women's perception of their status.

Jim Rockford   ·  March 25, 2007 12:01 AM

Men regularly go to the ends of the earth for women. I have learned to cook fine gourmet meals, engage in sweet backrubs, to write the most dirty, erotic things in e-mails, and regularly spend hours at the gym, all to please my woman.

Now, women are doing what they can to please men? And this is a bad thing how? I really don't get it. Men who want to be pretty and do what they can to be desirable are "gay" and women who want to be pretty and do what they can to be desirable are "sluts," and nobody's aloud to have fun. If these women are getting pregnant and miserable and falling apart, then I see the problem. But alot of them, possibly even most of them, aren't. I see nothing wrong with what they're doing.

Daniel   ·  March 25, 2007 05:55 AM

Daniel 05:55AM: "and nobody's aloud to have fun."

"ALOUD?"

Sixteen or seventeen? Any bets?

Antonio   ·  March 25, 2007 06:11 AM

Isn't that what D'Sousa is saying in his new book.

and look how they savaged him!

lonetown   ·  March 25, 2007 06:17 AM

"People tend to wear sexy spandex outfits with midriffs showing,"

Does this woman not work out? Those outfits are usually worn in a class of women and are COOL, as in lets heat out.

Oligonicella   ·  March 25, 2007 08:42 AM

South Park satirizes rampant slut culture, hilariously, in the Season 8 episode "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset," featuring Paris Hilton. Very, very highly recommended.

velouria   ·  March 25, 2007 09:50 AM

Slut culture aside (and I'm really not too concerned about what is essentially a fad), if my daughter or granddaughter were going to meet Bill Clinton, I'd insist they wear burqas.

RebeccaH   ·  March 25, 2007 11:03 AM

Then they attend parties where they dance-grind against boys, engage in heterosexual girl-girl make-out sessions to turn boys on, and hook up with guys for soul-free sex.

Dammit. Born 30 years too early. Although I think we had casual hookups when I was younger too.

But I'm a little confused about these heterosexual girl-girl makeout sessions.

Charlie (Colorado)   ·  March 25, 2007 11:24 AM

Daniel 05:55AM: "and nobody's aloud to have fun."

"ALOUD?"

Sixteen or seventeen? Any bets?

On the other hand, he could be much older, old enough to have this album on the brain.

Getting back on topic, I can't believe no one's yet picked up on an obvious alternative explanation for the spandex-free Clinton fundraiser: Had they gone with spandex, Bill Clinton would probably have spent half the event ogling them. (The Amy Acuff incident, anyone?) Keep in mind that was Hilary's show. Why would she have these women cover up as a jab against slut culture when the event wasn't even made visible to the public? I smell pretext.

Joshua   ·  March 25, 2007 11:26 AM

Can someone please direct me to this mythical land the conservative grouches are always fulminating about, where phalanxes of stunning women wear scanty outfits everywhere and are always hot and ready for casual no-strings-attached sex? Try as I might, I can't seem to find it anywhere. Either the guys who write these articles live in the middle of a hedonistic Utopia inaccessible to the rest of us, or they've gotten hold of some really good perception-altering drugs.

Infidel753   ·  March 25, 2007 01:13 PM

The Slut Culture is a refection of the fiercely competitive nature between females who are desperately in need of a sugar daddy.

syn   ·  March 25, 2007 03:25 PM

Raw meat happens. :-)

Sissy WIllis   ·  March 25, 2007 04:35 PM

Especially if it is red aloud.

:)

Eric Scheie   ·  March 25, 2007 11:40 PM

Boy, reading all that stuff of Lubrano's makes me hot.

Maybe the organizers of that fundraiser were worried about Bill's health. He HAS heart disease after all. It would be kind of a bummer if he stroked out while raising funds for Hillary. Or maybe she wanted to make sure that's all he's raising.

AST   ·  March 26, 2007 03:25 AM
"I couldn't agree more with Glenn that if the slut culture goes away, the terrorists will have won. In the medieval terrorist mindset, making women cover themselves is inextricably intertwined with considering all women to be sluts. Seen this way, slut culture is at once modern and civilized -- an act of brazen defiance against terrorism.


I find the equation of modesty with Sharia law to be wholly offensive. The fact that I don't want my daughter to go around dressed like some street walker doesn't mean I want to chain her up at home wearing a tarp. The fact that I don't think it is in her best interest to hook up with random guys at a party doesn't mean I'll have her stoned to death for kissing her boyfriend.

I suspect there's a happy medium somewhere between the burka and the exposed thong. Just a theory.

Greg   ·  March 26, 2007 08:15 AM

What about men in this slut culture? Why weren't they targetted?

MRG   ·  March 26, 2007 07:58 PM

cancer cervical pain http://www.spbgu.ru/blog27013 >cancer cervical have

situ cancer cervical   ·  April 11, 2007 07:15 PM

Post a comment

You may use basic HTML for formatting.





Remember Me?

(you may use HTML tags for style)



April 2007
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30          

ANCIENT (AND MODERN)
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR


Search the Site


E-mail




Classics To Go

Classical Values PDA Link



Archives




Recent Entries



Links



Site Credits