Young Innocents

It was May of 2004 when the New York Times Magazine put “Friends, Friends with Benefits, and the Benefits of the Local Mall” on the cover, and the sexual habits of teenagers became the nation’s latest preoccupation. The writer, Benoit Denizet-Lewis, showed up on Good Morning America to help us understand “whatever happened to teen romance?” and adults across the country added the phrase “hooking up” to their vocab lists.

At least, it was after that particular article that I started paying attention. So as “The Cuddle Puddle”Unhooked, and we find ourselves asking questions like, “Is there a sex crisis on college campuses?”–it’s become pretty clear that this is a trend. But let’s be sure to identify two separate trends here: one, the (possibly) evolving sexual culture in high schools and, separately, colleges; and two, the frenzied manner in which the media and the adult world have investigated these patterns. followed, and, more recently,

Of course, it’s not actually the first time young people’s sex lives have come under scrutiny. Really, when have adults not been obsessed with kids’ sexuality? Sex education is a long-contested issue, and wherever they live young people’s sexual activity is regulated. Teenage sexuality scares and titillates grown-ups; it scares them because it titillates them, and vice versa. But in recent years, the claim on the part of journalists and terrified parents seems to be that something has changed. Sure, teenagers got busy twenty, thirty, and forty years ago, but it was apparently different then–less casual, perhaps, or less commodified.