Generation Scold*

Candace - 050210 - desat

My body is a stiff wreck after helping a friend and her partner move ten blocks in SF yesterday.  So much for the yard work I will need to do.  I may be lucky to get a few flowers planted though.

During my Sunday morning ritual at a coffee shop, I did some reading at Slate titled Bring Back Boobquake by Hanna Rosin and the backlash against it by some feminists.  That article linked to another titled Generation Scold* by Jessica Grose  In it, the author presented the notion that the generation known as the "millennials" heap scorn upon those who are bit too sexually promiscuous for their tastes.  This open scorn of anyone is a shift in gender definition that may help equalize the perceptions of sex, but also take the adventure out of it.

Candace - 050210 - BW

In many cultures, the man who gets the most girls is seen as a stud by his peers and playboy, at worst, by everyone else.  Hooking up with as many women was lauded as a alpha male virtue.  The opposite was true about the perception of women.  If a woman had many sexual partners, she was a "slut" or worse.  Being sexually promiscious held negative attributes for women.  This was the big double standard of sexuality, men became heroes, women became tramps.  

With the maturing of the millenials, this is changing.  Both the male and female with multiple partners are seen as sluts and are looked down upon as part of the hyper-sexuality running through our culture.  As the story states, this generation grew up and were disgusted by the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal as well as other influences that formed these beliefs.  This shift may lead the end of the double standard, but at what cost?

This makes me wonder if the taboo of sexuality and openness of enjoying the sensual gifts we have is going to shrivel.  Will both genders suffer for this?  I do not hold anyone who is sexually open up higher or down lower in my perception of them.  They are who they are.  I may judge how they treat the people they are with and admonish them for hurting people with sex, but just having multiple lovers is not a plus or minus for me.  My hope is that they are happy with who they are, what they are doing and are careful.

Photo note - experimentation with a close up crop of big image of Candace.  I like her eyes in these and I like how she looks like she is laying down in the cropped versions.  The original is below.

Candace 050210