Author Jessica Valenti had one response to the Food and Drug Administration’s fear that distributing birth control would lead to teen sex cults: laughter.
About 100 Northwestern students gathered in Ryan Family Auditorium to hear Valenti, a blogger for feministing.com and author of three books, talk about the “girls gone bad” phenomenon, “prosti-tots” and teen sex cults Monday at Ryan Family Auditorium.
The College Feminists-sponsored speaker has authored “Full Frontal Feminism”; “He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut”; and “The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women.”
Valenti said the overabundance of articles on girls’ sexuality provided inspiration for “The Purity Myth,” which came out in April 2009. She said she read everything from “girls gone wild” pieces to exposés on female promiscuity during spring break and college women’s skimpy Halloween costumes. In addition to the articles, she said, a number of “scare-tactic” books were published about depression or suicidal tendencies among sexually active, unmarried women.
“It’s abstinence during the day and girls gone wild videos at night,” Valenti said of the conflicting images women often feel pressured to portray.
She showed slides of these “scare-tactic” book covers, some of which displayed pictures of women curled in the fetal position. Valenti had typed to the side of the pictures, “sometimes you should judge a book by its cover.”
Valenti said the societal tendency to judge women based upon their sexual activity encourages the belief among girls and women that their self-worth is based on their sexuality.
“Women’s ability to be good people should be based on whether they’re good people, not whether they’re sexually active,” Valenti said.
Weinberg junior Hannah Jaracz, co-director of College Feminists, said Valenti was the best speaker the organization has ever brought to campus. She added they decided to invite Valenti to NU because many College Feminists members read her blog and like that she speaks to a younger generation of feminists.
Jaracz said she doesn’t think the issues surrounding the terms “virgin” and “slut,” as Valenti posed them, are as prevalent on NU’s campus, but added the event was intended to address national feminist issues.
McCormick freshman Matt Dalzell attended the event to accompany a friend, but said he had little interest in the subject matter.
“Feminism is not really my thing,” said Dalzell, who identified himself as a conservative. “It’s almost like there’s no such thing as conservative feminism, or a middle ground.”
He added that, as with any political issue, the people with the most extreme viewpoints are usually the most vocal.
“Personally, I’m not completely comfortable with the promotion of the hook-up culture,” said Dalzell, who said he doesn’t agree with the idea of casual sex.
Feminist activism is most successful when it involves a collaborative effort, Valenti said. She recalled an incident when a group of her blog readers successfully removed a T-shirt for sale on a Web site. The shirt read, “No Means No Unless I’m Drunk.” It was replaced within two hours, Valenti said, by a new one that read, “Little Miss Bitch,” dedicated to “friends at feministing.com.” Valenti laughed it off, and considered it par for the course as long as the site had removed the other shirt.
“If we tell the truth about (feminism), if we’re funny about it, people will embrace it,” Valenti said.[email protected]
