According to a study released last week by the American Medical
Association, almost three quarters of the women (74 percent)
surveyed revealed that they equate “spring break” with sex and
outrageous behavior. Eighty-three percent said it means heavy
drinking.
Is this what the feminists had in mind when they touted the
virtues of “liberation”? Because if so, they’re hardly the
man-haters of popular imagination. After all, what sounds better to
a college guy, barely out of adolescence, than a vacation featuring
tipsy women ready to engage in “outrageous behavior,” with a little
sex thrown in for good measure?
Certainly, spring break has long been a time when college kids
can head for Florida with their friends, ready for a week or two of
sun, sand and co-ed fun. But today’s vacation is a far cry from the
days of Where the Boys Are, the 1960 George Hamilton movie
that became a cautionary tale about a college girl who gave too
much, too soon while visiting sunny Fort Lauderdale with her
friends. Today, young women cut loose by dancing on tables and
disrobing in public — and perhaps, if good fortune strikes, by
appearing in a “Girls Gone Wild” video — all in the name of a
little harmless fun.
News reports about spring break beg the question: Isn’t there
something profoundly amiss in a society when young women decide
that mixing casual sex, exhibitionism and extreme drunkenness
constitutes the recipe for a really memorable, festive vacation?
Where have these girls gotten the idea that such behavior isn’t
just appropriate, it’s almost expected?
Certainly, in the age of reality television, too much of
American culture celebrates the outrageous and the extreme.
Old-fashioned feminine virtues, like modesty and even (gasp!)
chastity are devalued — they’re simply not entertaining.
But if “boring” is bad, being a “prude” is even worse. Somehow,
over the years, some feminists managed to convince Americans that
women would remain second-class citizens until they were allowed,
even encouraged, to adopt the same “anything goes” attitude toward
sex that had previously been associated overwhelmingly with men. In
the realm of elite — and then popular — opinion, those who
declined to go along were deemed as retrograde as a typewriter in
the computer age. And now, young girls are paying the price,
whether they know it or not.
This spring, as the college men enjoy the fruit of the
feminists’ labors — scantily clad beach bunnies, ready to “party
hearty” — it’s worth wondering who is looking out for the young
women who will return from spring break filled with regret over bad
decisions made after a night of too much alcohol. And even as the
American Medical Association issues value-neutral warnings about
the health risks of excessive drinking and unprotected sex, there
are precious few cautions about the danger of intangible, but
nonetheless real, damage to the psyche, to the heart and to the
soul.
Through their impact on American culture, the feminists may have
been able to influence how young girls think about casual
sex. But despite their best efforts, they cannot change how the
girls will feel about casual sex once spring break has
passed, and the party’s finally over.
