I read the NYT article Cord. I don't think she is arguing against the so-called sexual revolution at all. She is just hypothesizing a link between "hooking-up" and sustaining some emotional damage. I personally don't think it's far-fetched at all. I was a young woman in college a long time ago in a land far, far away, and I saw it lived out daily.

I have to say this much, as a straight man, I've always developed more and deaper emotional attachments to girls who don't put out… or at least made me earn it.

Wanted to add… I also feel that when a woman is brazenly sexual, it gives the impression, whether right or wrong, that she does not care about the consequences of sex, nor does she care to develop a relationship with you. To a man, this is like an open invitation to "hit it and quit it", no harm no foul, which most guys are happy to oblige.

Biologically, I think most women do want to be in a stable monogamous relationship. And when you factor in dangers like HPV (which condoms don't protect against), it's frankly the only healthy lifestyle.

Men are more biologically drive toward promiscuousness. Take into account the simple fact that mens' sexual reproductive organs continue to remain active long after a woman's cease, and you'll see nature wants men to have multiple partners throughout their lives. The decision to be monogamous, for a man, is an intellectual decision, never a physical one.

I don't really see why this would be deemed as something against the sexual revolution. The sexual revolution was about sexual equality and a woman being able to have sex without having to worry about becoming pregnant(the development of the birth control pill). She's not really talking about that at all.
I agree with evil twin. The article is about a link between emotional scars and hooking up casually, and I think that is right on target. Women are just genetically different than men and cannot (usually) just turn off that instinct to somehow link sex and feelings.

Why is it that some women feel that it is a step in the right direction for feminism that women should be able to be "free" sexually and casually hook up? That really does nothing toward bringing equality.

Weighing in:
Recent research dealing with men's fertility has shown that the older men get the more likely their sperm are going to carry genes that cause medical and mental disorders.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02.....ref=slogin

I don't think nature "WANTS" men to have children late in life—nice try. :)

Maria.

Fair point, but it's likely that the degradation of male sperm as a man gets older has more to do with the health of the man producing.

A man who takes his vitamins and gets regular exercise will produce stronger sperm cells than a slack-ass couch potato, and that's always true, no matter what stage of life he is in. We are living in an age of couch potatoes, so tests will overwhelmingly show a degradation of men's sperm as they get older. And of course, there are environmental factors. Does he take medications? Does he smoke, drink, do drugs? Does he place a laptop computer on his lap (known to reduce sperm count).

I'm not saying men should embrace their feral side and knock up as many women as they can. I think we should strive to be better than our base animal instincts. But that's what I mean about it being an intellectual decision to remain monogamous. For a man, it's a question of philosophy or faith. "I know what I'm capable of, but what is the right thing to do?"

Just because women reach a stage in which they are no longer able to reproduce does not mean that they necessarily stop having sex. Many men find that their performance and sex drive change as they age as well. I agree that at times human behavior is based predominantly on hormonal influences. However stating that women are wired to strive for monogamous relationships and men are wired to seek out as many sexual partners as possible is drastically oversimplifying the matter. I am married, and I believe my eyes wander as much as my husbands do. I actually know more women than men who cheat on their partners. Furthermore, the human endocrine and reproductive systems are much more complicated than such a statement allows.

All this talk is making me randy.

I agree with you guys. I don't think that book is anti-feminist at all. The hooking-up obsession that I see happening with girls even as young as my brother (15) is alarming. These girls are not being liberated by participating in sexual acts, they are using sex to get boys to like them. That's the truth. At that age a lot of them probably aren't even really enjoying the acts, but pretending they are because the message they now receive from society is that a woman who is agressive about and enjoys sex is hot and desirable. They're getting their feelings hurt after having sex with guys that they haven't spent the time getting to know or forging any kind of bond with. And most guys don't respect girls that fuck around right away, not saying that's right, but it's the truth. If a girl genuinely enjoys a random, no strings attached hookup and honestly doesn't care that the guy won't call her again, good for her! Unfortunately, that is the exception and not the rule.

Oh, and by the way, unless a man has some type of reproductive problem, he never stops producing sperm until he dies. A woman is born with all of the eggs she will ever have, which decline continually throughout her life.