Harvard Abstinence Club Misses Opportunity For 'Nuanced' Conversation About Sex, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 13 Nov 2009 - 2:00 PST

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Provoked by Harvard University's "pro-abstinence club" -- called True Love Revolution -- "brainy women are defending their right to have sex with whomever they want, whenever and however they want," Newsweek columnist Lisa Miller writes. Miller says that the abstinence group, founded in 2006, recently drew "fresh ire because it added to its mission statement, which had formerly supported sexual abstinence as a lifestyle choice, a platform that seemed calculated to ignite a culture war on campus." The amendment stated that "sex outside of marriage is 'harmful to both parties'"; "embraced 'traditional marriage' (that is, not gay marriage)"; and "argued that choosing abstinence is 'true feminism' in that 'it recognizes the natural characteristics, strengths, and abilities of women and seeks to affirm them in this identity,'" she writes. According to Miller, "TLR's claim to 'true' feminism draws special fire because it raises questions about the goals of the sexual revolution: Does female liberation mean being able to say yes? Or does it mean saying no?"

While Miller believes that TLR's platform is "seemingly cribbed from the Christian conservative playbook," she writes that the group "is on to something" with "its articulation of students' dissatisfaction with sex and sex talk on campus." She adds, "Although the actual amount of sex college students are having may not be as high as parents fear, ... students say the hookup culture is dominant and oppressive." Citing the conclusions of the 2008 book "Sex and the Soul" by Donna Freitas of Boston University, Miller writes that "college students are not given an opportunity to tell the truth about what they want out of sex and relationships ... without drawing the derision of their peers and even their professors." Miller continues that TLR "might do better, then, to leave aside the divisive and wrongheaded 'one man, one woman' language and help guide students through this modern sexual wilderness" (Miller, Newsweek, 11/16).

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