The Guilfordian

Issue date: 2/18/05 Section: Features

I've always been intrigued by a notion I came across while reading some of the works of 90's feminist Naomi Wolf. She wrote that for a woman to have sex in our culture does not make her a slut: talking about it and enjoying it does.

Let's examine this idea; do you remember the girl from your junior high school that wore fishnets, tight clothes, and thick, black eyeliner? She was the slut before ever having sex.

I was intrigued by her - this archetype who was the scapegoat for our age group when we were all ashamed about our budding sexuality. Whatever desire we had for anyone around us, we blamed her. By laughing about the blowjob she gave behind the bleachers, we were all a little bit safer, cleaner, purer. How frightened we were.

Have we grown up since then?

Where down the line did we realize that sex felt good and that we actually wanted it? Why do we still blame the slut for liking what we all want?

I must expand upon an idea brought up by Camille Paglia in Sexual Personae to explain this further: women's genitals are essentially hidden, holy, a mystery.

There is a secret to her sexuality, which man inherently wants to discover. Out of his frustration with being unable to perceive her genitals and sex the way he can his own, he is led to constant anxiety over her sexuality, and a constant desire to either understand it fully or destroy it completely.

Now, back to sex at Guilford. I believe now that we are college age, we have a better idea of what sex is and we do not need the slut as a scapegoat the way we did when we hit puberty. Back then, we thought masturbation made us blind and that casual sex rendered one forever damaged and revolting to the opposite sex. Now we know better; most of us aren't too afraid of sex - we are experimenting and getting comfortable.

College-age men are realizing the power that women have over them sexually and that makes them angry. College-age women are beginning to see that some girls utilize this power more often or effectively than they and that makes them angry.

No one wants to relinquish their power and no one wants to feel weakened, especially when it comes to sexuality.

So, we have this girl who is having the sex the rest of us want, and she is not ashamed to talk about liking it. We brand her a slut because she represents the person with the strongest grasp on the aforementioned mystery and holiness of female sexuality.

She is most closely attached to the life giving force and sexually powerful energy that everyone else desires to claim as their own. But it is not theirs; it belongs to the sexually assertive and powerful woman.

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