The fight over abstinence at Harvard.

[ccharles000]

At Harvard, it's sounding a lot like the '70s again. Thanks to the provocations of True Love Revolution, the university's three-year-old pro-abstinence club, brainy women are defending their right to have sex with whomever they want, whenever and however they want. "To say that a consensual sexual act is degrading to you is the complete opposite of feminism," insisted Silpa Kovvali when I spoke with her last week. "For women to take control of the sex act can be an incredibly empowering experience." Kovvali, a computer-science major, was echoing an editorial she recently published in The Harvard Crimson.

TLR, as it's called, has irked and unnerved campus progressives since its founding in 2006. On Valentine's Day 2007, TLR representatives put a chocolate in every freshwoman's mailbox with a heart-shaped card that read: "Why wait? Because you're worth it." Feminists on campus went wild, accusing TLR of promoting a retrograde view of sex and relationships. Recently the group has drawn 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 new statement asserted that sex outside of marriage is "harmful to both parties"; it embraced "traditional marriage" (that is, not gay marriage); and it 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." The back and forth in the Crimson and on various university message boards continues to be acrimonious. 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?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/221456

[Muttocracy]

1. my question - are they supported by student fees at Harvard? nt

[FrenchieCat]

2. My daughter got married while attending Harvard.....two years ago this month.....

and she just graduated this past June.
She married a fellow Harvard student.
They told both families after-the-fact.
But I'm the one who taught my daughter to respect her body,
not some Harvard Club! I would hope that this would be the message
no matter how liberal one is......do what you want, but only if YOU truly want it.

[jmm]

3. Female liberation doesn't mean saying yes or no.

It means having the freedom to make the right decision for yourself. There are an increasing number of groups such as feminists for life and these people who try to masquerade like they're for women's rights when really they are covering up the same old fashioned sexism in a new language.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Why can't both groups just say "Hey - if it works for you, that's great!" That's REAL feminism.

And that's REAL sexual maturity, too.

Celibate ones - good for you, but stop pushing your agenda as the only possible way.

Non-celibate ones - good for you, but stop pushing your agenda as the only possible way.


True feminism - and true liberalism - is letting people make THEIR OWN decisions, and RESPECTING those decisions, even if contrary to the decision one makes for oneself.

I mean, really - both groups need to grow the fuck up.

[dalaigh lllama]

7. +1

Exactly!

[intheflow]

9. This is very enlightened, Grasshopper!

And right on the money!

[defendandprotect]

13. Because it isn't about two sides . .. it's about one side claiming "god" says . . . !!!

THAT'S WHY THE FOUNDERS GAVE US SEPARATION OF CHURCH & STATE . . .

Most people are intimidated when "god" says something --

you can argue with a human being . . . but not with "god" evidently --

nor with the "book" of Babble.

[anonymous171]

15. What the founders said is irrelevant in this matter

It is a private institution.

[defendandprotect]

16. It's a religious movement -- students have a right to reject it as such...

Organized patriarchal religion doesn't exist without efforts to subjugate and control females,

and especially their sexual activity -- and reproduction!

From the link . . .

And though it is not a religious group, it has religious underpinnings, and it might look to religion for some of the most thoughtful (and, perhaps, useful) analyses of how liberated women and men can reasonably opt out of sex—or, at least, the kind of sex they don't want to have. Christine Firer Hinze, a theologian at Fordham University, believes that choosing abstinence can carry a strong countercultural message and a vision of personal fulfillment beyond immediate gratification. "A religious viewpoint can point you in a direction that says wholeness, integrity, enjoying life, even being a sensual person, can lead to a kind of fulfillment. Kids don't hear this anymore." Teaching kids that saying no can feel as good as saying yes—that's a revolution.

[xchrom]

5. it seems to me that if women ever truly own their bodies

at the very least we will 'tsk' tsk' what ever it is they do with their bodies.

vaginas seem to be worth endless commentary.

[defendandprotect]

6. Americans need to pay more attention to this "god" talk crap and get it out of our

government and universities!!!

[anonymous171]

8. Harvard is a private institution. I don't really care what they do there

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. Not only private, but our country's first college, founded by Pilgrims

to be a place to train and educate Christian ministers.

As were Yale, Princeton, Drew, and a host of others over there in the elite liberal east coast.

[DFW]

11. Hey, MY east coast college was founded by Ben Franklin!

And he had a rep for being quite the wild one with his sex life.

But that was not the reason I went to college, and if it's the central theme of ANYONE'S academic life,
they have a screw loose, as far as I'm concerned. That's infiltration for the purpose of pushing your
agenda onto others. Go to the university of Qom, if that's what you're all about.

[defendandprotect]

12. That's like saying that Fox fake news doesn't effect your life . . .

or that your tax dollars are taken for wars and to support "faith-based" church

organizations doesn't impact your life in some way.

Politics effects your life every way every day -- and religion is politics.

[Lyric]

14. But why aren't the putting chocolates in the guys' mailboxes?

Why is it that "abstinence" is always hyper-focused on women, with men included mostly as an afterthought that nobody really takes seriously? Why are they only targeting women? Don't they believe that abstinence is important for men, too?

So tiresome. And to think, all of those idiots were actually admitted to Harvard. The Ivy League just ain't what it used to be.

[Nikki Stone1]

17. "Wild"? "Ire"? Newsweek is definitely picking sides.

You don't think the aggressiveness of the abstinence cause is based in anger? ;)

[MrScorpio]

18. It's neither healthy or smart for a bunch of young, sexually active women to repress themselves

These will not be happy campers at all