If there’s a problem with college kids today, it’s this: they have no idea who fought in the Spanish-American War, but they can write entire columns on the techniques and logistics of fellatio. For Yale Dailynews, no less!
…Of course, knowing a lot about the Spanish-American War probably won’t earn you a night out at TGIF Fridays and a movie…
Nevermind.
Just so you know, there’s never anything this interesting in the <i>Crimson</i> here at Harvard. It’s all serious opinions on weighty issues, etc., etc. so there may still be hope for our generation.
Oh, I have no doubt there’s hope for your generation (just needed a hook, is all).
Still. Talk about teasing free speeching to its bursting point… And I thought the kids on “Boston Public” were presumptious…
<i>Talk about teasing free speeching to its bursting point… </i>
Well, I think the <b>Yale Dailynews</b> is getting the shaft… You’d expect more heady material from such well educated stock.
Oh, come now…
Ah sincerity…a hard quality to come by in a young lady these days.
30 years ago you couldn’t get them to talk about it, and now you can’t get them to shut up…
Two thoughts:
1. I cannot imagine letting the entire student body (and now Blogistan) that I did something like that. I mean, I’m sure teachers would tell me to go to the “head of the class” and that everyone would ask if I blow-dried my hair. Luckily, I’m a guy, so I don’t have to worry about such things.
2. I’ll bet she got a lot of dates after she wrote that column.
Two things struck me about this article. First, I didn’t go to Yale or anything, but even I know that “snuck” isn’t a word. (It’s “sneaked”) But I guess we know what she was doing instead of learning grammar.
Secondly, the following quote from the column is unbelievable:
“This is all fine and good, but quite frankly, when was the last time you hooked up with someone who respected you, much less loved you?”
So, she has basically asserted that she (and, by inference, most girls at Yale) performs oral sex almost indiscriminately and does not really worry about things like whether the guy respects or loves her.
I sometimes really worry about what is happening to our culture. I shudder to think what the youth of this country might be like a few years from now when I will have my own family and raising kids . I take solace in the fact that cultural shifts, like the wind, are often unpredictable. There’s always hope.
Sex was a lot more fun and exciting back in the day, before fellatio and such( not too mention plain old fucking) were rendered commonplace and tedious. One could also reasonably hope to settle down with a little gal who was not bursting like a cannoli with OPC, even if she went to Yale.
I know you whippersnappers don’t believe it, but Gresham’s Law applies in the sexual marketplace as well as in the monetary arena.
Oh well, at least she’s not my daughter.
She writes an engaging and humorous editorial in a column that is about sexuality and she gets lambasted. I enjoyed the article. I enjoyed its openness and honesty – and wish my alma mater would have printed something so risque. The truth is – this is college culture – this is her readership – and now she has expanded her readership by attracting the attention of blogs across the map. That is her job. Furthermore – she is addressing an issue that isn’t openly discussed – good for her…Her column is “Sex and the (Elm) City” – what do you expect? If Tom Garret did a little research and checked her previous article “What’s Love Got to Do, Got to Do With It?” he would know that Ms. Krinsky does indeed care about love – that for her – sex and love are two things that should not be seperated. She still believes in love – not lust. She believes in education – not ignorance. This may not be genocide in Jenin – but it is news on college campuses – and a great read…
Look, I fairly recently got out of college myself, and my point is merely this – the culture of meaningless hook-ups that prevails is something that I personally believe to be a bad one. Just my opinion.
I would also add that the issue discussed in that article is not that important. In the grand scheme of sexuality, it’s nearly irrelevant compared to something like STDs or pregnancy.
My take on the article is that it is basically raunchiness for its own sake. If she wants to write that, she is free to do so. And I freely acknowledge that the prevailing attitudes among young people (even at “mighty” Yale) would love to hear as much graphic sexual content as possible.
There are basically two takes on this. There is no “right” answer – it’s a matter of opinion. Some laud such things as “honest” or “sexually frank” or even “educational,” and others say that this is needlessly graphic and too accepting of casual, meaningless sexual activity. I am in the latter camp, obviously, but this is a point upon which reasonable people can and do differ. Thanks.
It’s not so much the debasement of youth as the YDN’s inability to publish anything better. “This all fine and good, but quite frankly,” when was the last time you read an issue of the YDN you could respect, much less enjoy? (This is the newspaper that once ran a headline about “sexual morays.”)
An better-written article in a better newpaper (like the Crimson) would be bound to have better thoughts in it as well. Blame the YDN for its low standards, not poor Krinski for meeting them. I suppose all the Yalie hopes-for-the-future cringe at the thought of appearing alongside her.
Not to change the subject, but using “genocide in Jenin” as an example of an important, and accurate, news story is appalling. Yes, “Kevin”, I’m referring to you.
I would be satisfied if my students knew where Spain and America were, and pleased that they knew that “Spanish” referred to a country AND a language. I exaggerate only a little. Someone’s adviser didn’t let her take my Islamic Art and Architecture course when after the adviser suggested it she said ‘what is that like? What does Islamic mean?’ For once an adviser functioned to protect the teacher (me) from the student (the bozo).
Ok, so I didn’t go to an Ivy for undergrad, but has college really changed in the five years since I got out? This story just strikes me as a silly goof by a writer and editorial staff that just wants to special for a few days.
Ever seen that show “Undeclared”, where some of the goofiest kids at school routinely fall into easy sex with some really cute girls? And the critics laud it as “so realistic.” I fully admit that this could be a comment on my past appeal to college women, but I had to “work” to get anywhere. Fellatio wasn’t a party trick or fun diversion women engaged in between good dance songs. I tend to see this article as an attempt on the part of the writer to make her own life and sexual proclivities seem on par with the images portrayed on TV. It’s an attempt to increase the paper’s social standing with a group of people who use Dawson’s Creek as a measure of sexual sophistication.
I don’t think this should be taken too seriously. The self-satisfied grins are almost visible behind the story. You can nearly hear the kids sitting around the staff office saying “oh, man, an article on blowjobs would be awesome. Bet that would piss some people off. Let’s just see the school come after us! And don’t forget to spell it ‘c-u-m’, like they do in Penthouse. They’ll be talking about us forever.”
At least I hope that was the scene, because if the editors were sitting around, seriously debating the publication of an article on semen-consumption as having any real journalistic value, things may really be worse than I think.
Amen to that, Ian. Very well put.
The entire reference to “genocide in Jenin” was to point out that the article wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. Perhaps I need to excercise the ironic part of my brain…
Whenever you hear the boyos lauding a female writing about sex for being “open” and “honest”, it’s a fair bet that you’re being referred to a self-delusional chiquita who’s trying very very hard to convince herself that her sexuality is exactly like male sexuality (or, more specifically, adolescent male sexuality). I read back through her other articles. Was I also a clueless befuddled moron about sex when I was her age? Absolutely. But hey, I was a <i>passionate</i> befuddled moron. It’s a sorry sorry thing to see the young and wild willfully reducing their erotic lives to the drab and chirpily hygienic.
And I hate to break it her admirers here, but there’s nothing unusual or shocking about this pathetic young lady. She’s the same hip, ga-roo-vay chick who was around 20 years ago when I was in school, braying loudly about her skills as a fellatrix. ‘Course when you got her tanked up on a half a bottle of tequila and alone with the girls, a definite wistfulness and curiosity about what it feels like to be treated as something other than a disposable Kleenex would reveal itself (replaced in a couple more years by a definite bitterness and resentment toward the other sex). And her sex life (if you can call it that) seemed to consist entirely of giving blow-jobs. (Kidz These Daze. Do they <i>ever</i> fuck?)
<i>Whenever you hear the boyos lauding a female writing about sex for being “open” and “honest”, it’s a fair bet that you’re being referred to a self-delusional chiquita</i>
Don’t let Den Beste hear you talking like that.
Words mixed with passion always seem to give me problems…My thoughts rarely are verbalized as intended…I get caught up in the moment and often say things that I regret later – and upon looking at my initial comment – boooooy do I regret using the word education without quotes…the Jenin reference could have been spelled out better as well – perhaps by saying instead that this article isn’t worthy of such investigation as reports of genocide in Jenin—which is basically what everybody else has said since…and I definitely didn’t mean to come across so snippy towards Mr. Garret – I simply thought that Ms. Krinsky was being interpreted as heartless – which I felt her previous article revealed to be untrue…and as the comments on this article slowly pass away – a few days from now all of this will flow into exactly where it was intended to go…lethewards. I don’t, however, think the ad hominem attacks “pathetic,” “moron” on Ms. Krinsky are warranted. There was a comment in the sea of strings I noticed on Yale’s site that was posted by one of her friends. It painted a respectable picture of a young adult working towards her education, writing for her school paper, who enjoyed her time out when she could find some free time…I don’t think she is as “pathetic” as some would like. If anyone is pathetic – it’s me for continuing to post on this topic when I keep saying not to take it seriously…I’m a fan of bathroom humor – forgive me – and whenever you sit down and deconstruct bathroom humor for its rudimentary elements – you’re gonna find something obscene…When you “blow” it up into something it’s not intended to be – you’re gonna run into bigger issues…when you take it for what it is – even if that means giving in to your adolescent humor – you’ll laugh. I don’t support random hookups – I just liked the article. I don’t like yellow journalism – I’m just bad with well thought out comments – and I can’t stand attacks on people we don’t REALLY know – so I’m sorry again for the snippiness…Of course – all of this simply sounds rehashed and stale by now—so if you want the freshest of comments – go back to Ian’s – cause that’s where it’s at…I’m done…
An article on blowjobs, and from Yale no less, if taken as a measure of the state of American university students, tells a truly sad tale, and I’m equally sad to be considered one among them. I am a senior at a large midwestern public University where such an article would just as likely appear in our campus paper as it did at Yale. One can only hope that the author did not receive any kind of monetary compensation. One wonders how many Yale men are emailing the author, or calling her phone number, and to how many the author has responded or the number she has entertained. Then again, if this column is any indication, maybe one really doesn’t want to know!