Scott Bowman
Denise Beck
W131
July 14, 2010
The Three White Knights of Sex When did sex become so open and recreational, and whose idea was to do that? Throughout humankind, sex is a huge part of our lives. If it weren't, then humans wouldn't probably exist today. It seems the past decade or so, sex, once an intimate and meaningful way of sharing the love of a married couple, turned into something like a hobby or a game. There are three articles that try to answer this question, and even go as far as saying whose fault it is. The first author, Dr. Jean M. Twenge, attempt to explain why Generation Me acts this way through the use of data and observations she collected. The second author, Vigen Guroian, uses the means of personal experience of his generation and compares it to his observations. Finally, the last author, Mragaret Morganroth Gullette, takes a strong stance in a feminist viewpoint that makes the text hard to follow and taken seriously. Although all articles have an agreement that this new idea about sex isn’t a wonderful thing, Twenge blames the older generation, while Guroian blames colleges and Gullette blames the media and men. For the most part, I agree with Twenge, however, college and the media play a strong role in the influence of sex, but men aren’t as responsible as Gullette lead on. To summerize, Twenge begins the section with the term “hooking up” as a term used for people that get together, have casual relations, then possibly never see each other again. The next topic Twenge goes to is the shift in general attitudes about sex, for example, the average girl to lose her verginity is 15 as aposed to 18. She puts the entire blame on the baby boomers because of the fact they had quite a lot to do and such a small amout of time to do it in. Twenge goes on about sex isn't even discussed in the household, and when parents found about how thier pressious son or daughter found about sex, they would be very surprised and shocked. She ends the section talking about how the current trend of a more structive and restricted lives, yet the factor of hooking up seems a bit on the darker side; however, it won't be very much a problem, because it is a very self-destructive and unstable. Guroian begins his artical with a little story about his college days, and how back then there were several things like “easy” girls and how the word “dating” is moe then just going after a girl because it seems easy to have sex with her. Guroian goes on by saying that sex is no longer much of an effort anymore, and that is more so the colleges fault for not being able to regulate such activity. He then states the term “hooking up” is more or less like a way to find a random person to have sex with. One of his final points is that colleges are using substance control as a distraction from the main concern, and that in order to succede, they need a total reform of college life. Gullette starts off with a personal experaince on how dating was terrible. She then continues by saying that many feminists believe that a lot has changed since so long ago. There are several areas of concernec for feminists. She states that body image is one because magazines portray girls in such a unreachable stereotype that 35% of girls between the ages 6 and 13 have been on a diet. Ignorance being next on her agenda, few schools have sex education, and most of them shown stereotypical image of both genders. Fears being after that, several are into play here such as the word “slut,” STDs, and unwanted pregnancy. Cooercian, many girls had a bad first time, which leads to them not desiring sex. Then finally, Gullette explains about violance. Thirty wemen and progressive college girlfriends reported being pushed, hit, and verbally abused by their boyfriends, yet they still claim to being in a good relationship. Twenge expresses a verity of things in this section. For one, she appeals to both pathos and logos. She says things like actual accounts of various students and personal experiencance from them to appeal to the pathos, and she uses data from articles about how teens are losing their verginity at a younger age for logos. Her ideas are very clear, she states in one sentence on how the boomers are largly responsible for this whole mess, and even gives support on why that is. This is mostly for the older generation to read, simply because it has a viewpoint of someone on the outside looking into a snowglobe, trying to understand how it works, so it makes sense that someone would experience the same way would try to read this book. Her source is credible and believable. She comes out and says that she is a doctor, and she has been researching this for quite a while now, not to mention she uses sources such as the New York Times. One thing she did was she asked her students. She recieved a valuable sample from real scenarios. She asked questions, and then answered that question, usally with data or some of what her students say. Gurion, is a bit different the Twenge when it comes to style, but different isn't at all terrible. For one, he's very logos in his writing. He tries to beat down every point with cold hard logic, such as colleges aren't succeding because of it's current structure. His ideas are clear; he seems to ramble a lot, but ultimatly its always reletive to the point, which is stated clearly near the top of each section. Parents would be the most likely audiance for this peice, he uses phrases like “our kids needs too,” whic implies that we have kids around college age that we have to think about. His points seem valid and believable, though he's not in college now, he uses his personal experience as a template so that he has something to compare to when he observes the habbits of the current generation. He tells this like he's telling a story, though he has main arguments, he would tell how things where done in his day, as if he was trying to make us relive his past. Gullette is drastically different the both Twenge and Gurion. She uses pathos more then the other two. She uses scenarios quite a bit, trying to make it look a certain way, which generally plays on the heart strings. Her main points are clearly stated, but her delivery is a bit lacking. It felt as though she was trying to back up points with random stuff. This is definatly for other feminists, she assumes that the reader know what she's talking about. Her sources are there and might be credible; however, these aren't as well known as the New York Times, so whether or not these sources are telling the truth is taken into question. Her formula is that she has point number, then she has a paragraph to support it. She goes back and forth about how lesbians aren't getting treated equal and then quickly switches over to the word “slut,” this may cause a lot of confusion. These three authors have some commen ideas, but as well as some clashing themes. One huge main idea is that Twenge, Gurione, and Gullette know is that there is a problem, and the problem is that sex is becoming a casual experience rather then something special. Twenge may think it's a problem, but she is a bit more conservitive, she believes that this will all disapate soon enough, due to the destructive nature this causes, while Gurione and Gullette argues that this requires to be delt with instead of this hooking up destroying itself. They all do agree, in some way, that hooking up is something that is a defining problem. Twenge argues that what set off this chain reacion was actually the previous generation. Gurione debats that it's not the previous generation that cause havok on this generation minds, but it's rather it's colleges that aren't keeping a close eye on thier students. Twenge's has a broder audiance the other two. Even though her main focus is parents with children, alot of people that don't have children, but are curious about the current generation, they are welcome to give it a read. Twenge has a lot of examples, such as the real live stories that some of her students wrote as well as data from credible sources such as the New York Times. I agree with Twenge for most part, that we as a generation, are indeed more open about sex. Though I agree with Gurione and Gullette as well. Colleges needs to consider that they have a duty to help reduce that amouth sex that they have on campus. Though, I can't see how someone could regulate though. Gullette says that media and men were largely responsible. Now, I'm not convinced that is entirly true, simply because, the media has put high expectations on girls, and the majority can't reach that goal; however, men doesn't have the same impact as the media does. For example, the media has only one mindset, and it to sell the product, they will do anything to get that money, where as men, usually aren't in it for the money. I won't say there aren't any horrible people though. One thig that these texts have pointed out to me is the flaws of this generation, such as the idea of hooking up. I can see this contriversity about sex being such a lesuire activity a huge problem. That is a horrindous idea because there is no love when you hook up and it implies that you will have sex with a complete stranger. Also, I never thought to put the blame on the baby boomers, but it makes sense. They were the ones that cleared the path for our generation, so it's mainly their resposibility to make sure that were raised and taught right. Finally, Twenge had a more valid point, all this evidence to back her up as well as real live accounts made it seem more credible. I only have one question, what can we do to fix this? In conclusion, this game of casual sex and hooking up is a very dangerous on. It's filled with terror, suspense, and adrenaline. Though, someone that is looking for that cheap one-night stand can get what they wish, but it seems like meaningful relationship are becoming a thing of the past. I am confindent about the future though, as Twenge said, the behavior of hooking up is very destructive and cannot last, and as kids learning sex at a younger age, I wonder, is there such a thing as being a kid anymore?

Work Cited
Twenge, Jean M. PHD. Generation Me. New York: Free Press, 2006.
Guroian, Vigen "Dorm Brothel." Christianity Today 49.2 (2005): 44-51. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 Nov. 2009.
Gullette, Margaret Morganroth "Then and Now: What Have the Sexual "Revolutions" Wrought?." Women's Review of Books 25.1 (2008): 22-23. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 Nov. 2009.