Holy cats, Bob Harris knows Robin/Scrappy? He just got so much cooler in my book.

(Robin, of course, can get no cooler, having reached the top of my personal Cool Food Chain.)

Huh. I have never hesitated to call a man a slut. Did so this weekend, in fact, quite a few times. I'm also fond of the term man-whore.

Over the past 2-3 years I've read three or four parenting/counseling books like Reviving Ophelia, Odd Girl Out, and The Sex Lives of Teenagers, along with I can't even begin to count how many newspaper and magazine articles, and it's kind of disheartening how little has changed in the last few decades WRT adolescents and young adults and the way they see female sexuality.

The double standard about a boy who has shitloads of sex with anything that moves (or lies about it and pretends he has) is great, and a girl who is visibly connected to her sexuality -- anything from actually sleeping around to sleeping with her steady boyfriend to being a virgin who wears sexy outfits to school -- is slapped down for it, hard. And of course girls do just as much of the enforcing and punishing as boys do.

It's something that therapists and teachers and counselors have been aware of for a while, and working to change, but it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference.

Bob is a wonderful guy. How do you know him, Karl?

p.s. thanks for the sweet talk.

Karl is great with the sweet talk.

Ummm, love blondies too.

And I love you, too....

The double standard about a boy who has shitloads of sex with anything that moves (or lies about it and pretends he has) is great, and a girl who is visibly connected to her sexuality

I'm not denying this, for the record. I'm just surprised that men can't be called sluts. I'd have thought the quoted truth would just mean their barrier to entry (I know) is just much higher.

I know of him from his association with Dan Perkins (Tom Tomorrow) at This Modern World, where Bob originally posted his round-the-world travelogue.

I don't know him personally, but I'm a great admirer of his work.

I'm also fond of the term man-whore.

You know, I've found that this term is catching on in the more liberal social circles, especially in my generation (maybe in older generations, too, but I'm also from Mississippi, where liberalizing is always a few years lagging). I've also discovered, sadly, that most of the time it's used jokingly, with very little in the way of condemnation. Of course, I actually prefer that, and wish that the term "slut" would be treated the same way but, well, it's just not. Even by my good friends, very liberal, very open-minded, the future of the country, the word "slut" or "whore" applied to a girl will usually be said with anger and disdain while the word "slut" or "whore" applied to a guy will be as often said with grudging admiration.

I'm touched that you are taking this on.(Although if we had this conversation f2f, I'd be thinking you might use it to get play... sadly men who talk feminism who aren't bitches make me think it's a bit.)