Now, I get upset over the proclaimed, G-d-fearing virginity of today's Disney starlets (see below), but it's nothing new. I, in the midst of a book about Britney Spears (that now appears to be more of a general glance at female sexuality and pop culture in the aughts, through a Spears lens), know full well that our generation of bubblegum, Disney-born pop-sters splashily claimed virginity (falsely) at the start of their careers, only to splashily claim their sexual potency in later work. I imagine that more explicit albums and a series of drug and sex confessions are around the corner for Miley and co.; there have already been rumblings, suspect MySpace photos. Imagine making a graph, an illustration of this funny game: 1998-2003 "virginity," 2003-2007 "sexual expression," 2007-2010 "virginity," 2010-- "sexual expression." The flux is hilarious. And damning.Disney-Virginism is bleak stuff, but I am equally dyspeptic over this, a Brooklyn bartender's "sex diary" published yesterday on New York Magazine's Daily Intel. I bet the diarist thinks that her missive reads like neo-feminist "sexual liberation." But it reads like problems! The whole damn thing is self-conscious and screwy and sad, "anime porn" and "scenesters" and "Friend one-ups me with a story of a coked-up five-hour BJ resulting in her not being able to close her mouth for two days. My regaling her with tales of a foursome doesn't beat it. Damn." Her friend sucked a dick for five hours?!—that's not funny. Just read it; you'll spot the inherent flaws pretty quickly.
I hate to think that women are so busy propelling Madonna-Whore Complexes in men and themselves. I'm not perfect, but I don't go around declaring my purity (ha) or bragging loudly about my slutness (I mean, I used to, but I'm grown now). Neither extreme is liberated; both are patriarchally-determined. I've found that, whatever came before, however lucky we were to be born after Roe v. Wade and equal opportunity and free love and greater civil liberties regardless of color, each person must choose to exercise those freedoms. We still fight the Culture Industry (and its stringent, violent gendering and aspirationalism), we do not inherit lessons, we learn them in real time, somewhat like our predecessors (with better odds).
