While procrastinating online last week, I received a chat invitation from l00king4l0ve12154. Out of curiosity and lack of a column topic, I replied. What started as a conversation with a lonely, unconfident male ended with a message that the whole interaction was a computerized joke.
While I’m not sure whether Mr. L0ve was a desperate internet stalker or an automated prank, he got me thinking about today’s socio-sexual landscape and our generation’s unique, er, position in it.
Two recent books about male and female sex roles have received a lot of media attention, but they paint different pictures of the modern dating scene.
In “The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists,” Neil Strauss reveals the Internet network of pickup artists. He goes beyond basic pickup lines and outlines a seduction strategy, akin to warfare, where the women are “targets” and the people she around her are “obstacles.”
Armed with psychological games, magic and manipulation, men are becoming social robots like my newest AIM buddy.
Meanwhile, in “Female Chauvinist Pigs,” by Ariel Levy women are portrayed pioneering a culture of “raunch” sexuality. She outlines the new sexual norms among women,which have apparently shifted to “Girls Gone Wild” partying and “Sex and the City” values.
Thongs are getting smaller, boobs are getting bigger and girls are getting easier.
Something doesn’t quite fit. If women are becoming more promiscuous and sexually liberated, why do men have to work so hard to get them into bed?
Ultimately the answer extends to the overall power struggle at play. In “raunch” culture, women are leveraging their sexuality in an attempt to transcend traditional female roles and harness their power in the bedroom and in society. In “The Game,” men figure out how to use their power to get laid.
In defense of the sex-for-power model, men are able to use their sexuality to gain power because their sexuality is based on alpha-male dominance rather than revealing clothing.
In the end of “The Game,” Strauss realizes men don’t choose women, they just give women the opportunity to choose them. (Sigh.)
So maybe women naturally hold all the cards.
They just need to learn how to play the game.
Amanda Junker is a Medill senior. She can be reached at [email protected].
