Letters to the Editor
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Grinding
I remember those days, and that lil' chick was RIGHT...grinding was the shyt!!
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Thank you
All of those stories caught me up, too.
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Those were awesome.
I am laughing and sniffling at the same time.
Good kids.
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Nice stories; now don't get caught up in them
Please, I enjoy these, but I hope no one does the customary, and extrapolates from this tiny data pool about what teenage girls in general are like.
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More About the Parents
The vignette about gym class is pretty funny; but the ode to grinding and young teen sexuality isn't, and more of a sad reflection on the parents' abdication of responsibility to at least TRY and teach their children that there can be more to life than the hypersexualization and hypercommodification of postmodern western culture.
It's sad that any parent would pay for a 100-person plus sweet 16 "party" replete with drinking and guys groping and grinding on 15 and 16 year old girls.
And if you want to take the liberal cop out that such activity is just free expression, youthful identity formation, harmless rebellion and coming-of-age experimentation, etc., with no negative consequences-- think for a second about the America and the world we live in now, with girls objectified as sluts like never before, a shallow and docile rising generation more interested in being good consumers than doing anything about the devestating wars or immoral and growing social inequities that plague us, and a political system so corrupted by money and corporate interests that affecting change is increasingly impossible.
Does one teenage party with little studs and sluts lead to all of the above? Of course not. But it is a real reflection of a how more and more adults are utterly without a compass, moral or otherwise, and utterly incapable of teaching their kids anything beyond embracing hedonism for all its worth and watching TV at night while the country and the world slide a little closer toward the abyss for all our entertainment.
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Re: More About the Parents
You damn kids! Get off my lawn!
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"What teen girls are made of"
More specifically, what suburban, mostly well-off teens are made of.
These essays seemed less like "a body of intimate written work" than trumped-up, exhibitionist Myspace postings whining about parents and school and how Bobby won't go to the dance with me (not that I'm any less guilty; thank God I had the good sense to throw out my angst-filled teenage ramblings).
If this is what the next-generation of writers is choosing to focus on, I'll stick with the classics, thank you.
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Grinding
I was drawn to the "grinding" story, since I have a young daughter, and in a decade or so she'll be the same age as the author of that piece.
Isn't it interesting that the author talks about free and liberating grinding is, how sexually expressive and yet safe, and any other justification she can think of, and then at the end of the essay manages to call out a girl who in her judgement is acting like a whore? There are still judgements to be made, the same sad division of girls that John Hughes's Breakfast Club articulated so well. The author isn't abolishing judgement at all; she's trying to make the case why her activities are harmless.
My cousin was the president of her sorority, an attractive and very popular girl, and she was absolutely scathing about the girls that use Spring Break as an excuse to behave like completely wanton young women. I think she'd be equally critical about grinding on ten different young men in an evening. In other words, I'm not sure that this young author's essay is truly representative of received morality amongst American youth.
And finally, perhaps it is actually the job of parents to help young people make good choices. Sounds like this girl's mother is trying... best of luck to her.
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grind on
Geez, how long did it take before the sicko moralists jumped in?
Yeah, the kids are all right. I know several who just astonish me. If this is immature work, the mature work is gonna be something.
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Not taking sides with regards to Eliza,
but if she thinks that condoms are 99% effective, she may be in for a nasty surprise when she decides to take her grinding ways to the next level.
They're better than 99% effective, IF you use them and they don't break or slip. Get tested and have a backup, for crying out loud.
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I remember.
I remember those days full of intensity. There's something about being a teenage girl (I am sure a teenage boy too), everything is so sharp and life has so many clear experiences. Your emotions are running at about 110%. There are so many highs and lows involved. It's a whirlwind, it's exciting, it's a dire time. I think it's great that they can have these young women sit down and hash it out. I remember some of my writtings at that age, and wow they were passionate and at the time I was invested 110% in what I was writting. These young people are so intuitive and still insync with themselves. They haven't sold their soul to the man yet. Now it's time to bring in the boys, sit them down, and say, "Son, write down what's going on in your world." I am sure that would make a very interesting read also.
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What allie said~~~~
What bullshit posts.
This inculdes the author's favorite post, you know, the one by the professional moralist.
It is soooo obvious that the majority of those who posted about this topic have no damn comprehension that these girls are human beings with intelligence, feelings, fears, hopes, disappointmnets and, perhaps even more than the moralizing posters possess within theirselves.
I felt compassion for these human beings.
I'm ok with myself so, I didn't need to join in with the judgementalism.
Who the hell made parents automatically superior to people like these girls??
Oh yeah, theese parents were the "deciders" who decided that they were superior.
I'm 68 and can remember some of the he,morrhoids who populated my kidhood.
Two of them were my parents, others were aunts/uncles/neighbors.
They didn't possess the mental faculties to understand that I was a human being with all the dsame qualities as the girls in the story.
Adults suck big time.
Here's how the prick who was my father played "adult":
He'd drool saliva and clench his teeth as he whipped me with his favorite narrow hard leather belt.
It would leave welts on the backs of my thighs.
He'd order me to not cry.
One day, I looked him right in the eyes and said, "It doesn't hurt anymore."
He tried harder.
He treated my mother like the hausfrau she actually was.
Thanks to these two, I grew up hating/resenting authority and looking down on women.
I remember one time saying to my mother, "Where were you when your little boy needed you to stop the beatings?"
She told me she didn't want to talk about it & had no clue why I NEEDED to.
To those of you who are the self important assholes who think that you are superior merely because you are "adults", you are neither.
These girls are human beings.
Can you grap that??
They are HUMAN BEINGS.
They wonder about all the things that you seem incapable of understanding.
Fuck this "grinding' stuff.
They ARE NOT whores because they dance like that.
Obviously these stories really got my attention and, some of the ignorant "superior' posts by some hemorrhoids here REALLY pissed me off.
Those who are so clearly incapable of understanding others have no right to proselytize.
Or should that be, "prostitute themselves".