If addiction to sex is anything like alcoholism, it's clear that Cheever is just a dry drunk.

So glad to note I wasn't the only one who rolled my eyes at that so hard I thought I might have sprained an ocular muscle.

Though I suspect that in the Philly 'burbs, Ms. Paglia almost threw her neck out nodding.

Well,Cheever is a woman whose main claim to fame is that she had a famous father. As a matter of fact, the way to break into publishing is to write a memoir about your famous father.

When I'm out with old farts they're always leering at the young women, but I don't really see how that empowers young women.

If you read the article, Susan Cheever's comment, in context, makes perfect sense.

Just because you don't agree with something doesn't mean that it's not true. I won't use the crude term, but the initials are P.P. and it has ruled the world since men and women arrived on it. Although, I take nothing in the Bible literally and very little of it seriously, the Adam and Eve myth has powerful symoblic meaning. Who got Adam to eat the apple and doom us all? A young woman!

Young beautiful women most certainly do have the power to make heterosexual men of all ages behave like idiots.

And peace to the BroadSheet TrollePosse(tm), so do young ok looking slightly bad rich boys make women behave like idiots.

I am not sure that the power to make those around you behave like idiots amounts to any real power, power in any meaningful sense. Power in a meaningful sense means how many people you can get to agree with you over something extraneous to their lives, quantity over quality really, and looks won't help you there.

Just sayin.

to take the flak...

The power she speaks of is a woman's unconventional power. No, it will never lend itself to flattering profile in the vein of a man's power, but I can see her point. I think all men, at least at one point, feel a genuine envy for that kind of power, for it is mystifying, natural, and completely beyond a man's ability to possess.

I am not sure that the power to make those around you behave like idiots amounts to any real power, power in any meaningful sense.

Nope. Not power in any way, shape or form.

Even worse, it leaves you with the impression that the opposite sex is made up primarily of idiots, which isn't constructive.

I did read this in context in this morning's paper. And I still rolled my eyes. The power to make men who are attracted only to a nubile body, as opposed to the whole person, drool in your direction and perhaps dally with you for an hour or two seems to me a pretty limited power, as it does not actually do much other than maybe make a couple of people get naked and sticky. Not too powerful in my book, compared to the ways that women (including, yes, beautiful 18 year olds who may be more than their looks) can have actual power -- the kind that produces new thoughts, new actions, great art, changed lives...you get the picture.

In context -- the context of the real world -- this statement is ridiculous.

It would be fun to discuss this at dinner, gaudiori, and then move on. Think of Sasha Grey, who rules now, in her way, in her domain, at 19. One cannot help but wish her well (your eyes could now be whirling in your head). And think of Susan Cheever, who I had wished to defend, and the simple psychology that has apparently driven her life to this point, for all her efforts still haunted by her father's thoughtless comments. Over all of this, with reference to context, think of Robert Rauschenberg, in a Robert Hughes interview, who told us, more eloquently than I can paraphrase, that the message the viewer of Art takes with her depends on what she has brought.

In context -- the context of the real world -- this statement is ridiculous.

Oh, yeah. I so agree!!

Sexuality, sexual desire, sexual drives and needs--these have virtually no roles at all, in, as you so cleverly phrase it, the "real" world.

Lucky for us dumb readers that there are sharper eyes about to catch such ridiculous statements in the context of the real world.

Sic.

Young women's sexual allure is a form of power, but it's not the only one as Cheever implies. Maybe the fact that she believed this is what led her to screw up her life.

What I see in the quotation, in the original article, and in scottj31's rendering of it, is the idea that the surface has its own depth, its own effect on a person's life. Just like being able to sing beautifully may determine your path, having a wonderful sexy body can do that too. And if it is your path to social power, social influence, economic independence and so on, than it is your path, period. No better and no worse than others.

I certainly admire, even more: I envy the power some people have of sexually mesmerizing others. Be it nature or nurture (as always, probably both), it tends to be the case pretty women are the mersmerizing force, and men are the mesmerized ones (though situations with the opposite polarity are far from uncommon). The woman in question is usually young--the natural curiosity about everything, the easy smile at a newfound pleasure, the child-like, open-eyed desire for new experiences certainly help. But I am sure all men will agree that there are some 35-year-olds who put most 18-year-olds to shame in that department.

Anyway... so what? I am reminded of the Greek concept of ἄρετή, or "arete", literally something like "nobleness" or "goodness", but actually referring to that characteristic in a person that is both the center of his/her essence, that which makes him/her stand out from others, and that which will ultimately lead to his/her tragedy. Achilles was a warrior; his ferocitas, or courage + warrior instinct, was what made him stand out, that made him go beyond the plane of the merely human and allowed him to come closer to the Gods; but it was also ultimately the source of his death. He lived by the sword and died by the sword. A woman who has great looks and who enjoys her effect on men may actually come to her demise through that. Because, all in all, this power is not going to make her life any more meaningful than anything else. It is something to be enjoyed; not something to build one's success, one's self-esteem, one's Self on.

Despite what Ms Cheever says, women--even pretty young women--are more than pretty and young; simply because they are people. So are men, too.