The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 14, 2000, Page A2, Image 2
News
Casual sex loses its appeal for youth
by Ruth Padawer
College Press Exchange
Twenty years ago, Eric Nielson would have been an odd
ity on New Jersey’s Rutgers University campus, speaking
unabashedly as he does about choosing to remain a vhgin. But
these days, Nielson, 18, figures half his male friends are vir
gins, and none has been teased for his choice.
“For me, it’s a matter of waiting until I find the right girl,”
_ said Nielson, a freshman. “It’s not a moral tiling; it’s just what
’'feels right inside. I want to feel very emotionally attached to
someone before I have sex with her.’’
A generation after the sexual revolution dazzled young
people with the promise of freedom and excitement, the
culture of liberation has lost some of its luster. Not only has
the level of sexual activity among unmarried young people
slackened in the past decade, after yeas of increase, but atti
tudes have shifted, as well.
Group dates are now fashionable, a way to avoid pressure
for intimacy.
Vnginity, a source of humiliation since the 1960s, is now
more often a badge of honor. And casual sex isn’t as widely
accepted as it once was.
College students today are more likely than their 70s
counterparts to view such dalliance as immoral — this at the
same time that other adults, even senior citizens, have become
more easygoing about sex outside of marriage.
“There’s a real awareness on campuses these days tliat sex
ual choices are serious choices, that they involve people’s
emotions and bodies in serious ways,” said Meryle Kaplan,
who runs the women’s center at William; Paterson Universi
ty in Wfcyne, N.J. “It's not just about AIDS, either. A gener
ation ago, sex was about personal expression and liberation.
Now, there’s more awareness of sexual violence and conse
quences — the idea that it’s your body, take care of it.”
Consider these findings from large-scale studies by the
University of Chicago, the University of California at Los An
geles and the Urban Institute:
• The proportion of adolescent males who approved of
premarital sex when a couple doesn’t plan to marry increased
from 55 percent in 1979 to 80 percent in 1988. By 1995, it
had dropped to 71 percent
• A record low of 40 percent of college freshmen agree
that “if two people really like each other, it’s all right for them
to have sex even if they’ve known each other for a very short
time.” That’s down from 52 percent in 1987.
• The proportion of 18- to 24-year-olds who frown on sex
before marriage, calling it “always” or “almost always” wrong,
has jumped more than 50 percent since 1972, to more than
one in four.
• Rates of sexual activity have flattened and even declined
after climbing steadily from the 1950s through the 1980s. The
proportion of 17- to 19-year-old males who reported that they
were still virgins, for example, jumped from 24 percent in
1988 to 32 percent in 1995.
"I have two much older brothers, and I used to hear
them say that losing their virginity was the biggest goal they
had in college,” said Taina Rodriguez, 18, a student at Rutgers
University. “Now, the biggest goal is just getting through
college.”
Market researchers are calling the trend “neo-tradition
alism.” They predict that patterns of dating, marriage and child
rearing among today’s young adults might turn out to be more
like those of their grandparents than of their parents — even
as they reject traditional gender roles and are more open to
gay and interracial relationships.
Said one observer, “Picture Eisenhower, but with a pierced
eyebrow.”
raroara uevrne is a sopnomoie rairieign racwnson um
versity’s Teaneck, N.J., campus. She sports a navel ring but
dresses conservatively because she doesn’t want to look, in
her words, “provocative.”
“In my freshman year, I saw how the girls who slept
with different guys had a really bad reputation,” she said. "1
would never put myself in that situation. But it’s a double stan
dard for guys and girls, and 1 resent that.”
To some, the predictions of a broad culture shift seem far
fetched. True, the level of sexual activity among 15 to 19
year-olds has eased, but it’s still well above what it was before
the “free love” culture of the 1960s and 1970s. And although
premarital sex might be less acceptable than it was a decade
ago, the number of cohabiting couples under age 25 doubled
from 1980 to 1996.
Moreover, according to a recent national study, teen-agers
who drink or take drugs are much more likely to have sex at
a younger age and with more partners than teens who avoid
alcohol and drugs.
Culture watchers are convinced that the nation is in the
midst of a significant shift, with more young people rejecting
the sexual-liberation legacy of their baby-boomer parents than
anyone would have foretold 10 years ago.
Private negotiations over
flag result in mixed feelings
by Jim Davenport
Associated Press
Private negotiations to remove the
Confederate flag from South Carolina’s
Statehouse on Thursday ended with par
ticipants sounding like they’d attended
different meetings.
Gov. Jim Hodges and June Murray
Wells, president general of the United
Daughters of the Confederacy, described
the meetings as productive, making the
resolution of the controversy over the
Confederate flag closer.
“It was a very positive and produc
tive dialogue,” Hodges said.
“The devil is in the details.... until
we get down to the specifics of the dif
ferent proposals and get some feedback
from the different interest groups that are
involved in this, we won’t have finality,”
Hodges said.
Hodges said the group would meet
again next week.
With as many as 20 proposals under
consideration, Hodges “wouldn’t bet on
what the resolution would be. I’m opti
mistic about our chances of trying to get
the issue resolved.”
“I thought it was a good dialogue,”
said Lonnie Randolph, who fashioned a
state NAACP boycott aimed at forcing
the flag down. But Randolph said he didn’t
think anyone’s position changed.
The flag’s allies, Sen. Glenn Mc
Connell, R-Charleston, and Chris Sulli
van, director of the South Carolina Her
itage Coalition, said the discussions left
them unmoved.
“We started out with the pleasantries
and kept it pleasant, but got blunt,” Mc
Connell said.
“I’m not going to say it moved me to
change my positions,” he said.
If anything, McConnell and Sullivan
were provoked by news Thursday that the
Legislative Black Caucus wouldn’t sup
port flying the flag at the Statehouse’s most
visible spot, beside a Confederate mon
ument.
For weeks, flag opponents have said
the Confederate flag represents no sov
ereign government and should be
moved on that basis alone.
“But now it is a question of its visi
bility,” McConnell said.
“I do not believe the flag is coming
down,” Sullivan said.
The meeting encouraged Sen. John
Land, D-Manning, who put the meeting
together with Sen. John Drummond, D
Ninety Six.
The discussions are moving toward
“where the flag will go,” Land said.
Before the meeting, Nelson B. Rivers
HI, the NAACP’s national field director
and a Charleston native, said the boycott
won’t be expanded because it’s working,
although now legal action is being con
sidered.
The NAACP might ask the U.S. Jus
tice Department whether South Carolina
can fly the flag.
The group’s lawyers are looking at
whether the state is creating a hostile work
ing environment for black state employ
ees “who are forced to work under that
flag.”
Patterson said the NAACP sanc
tions ultimately are what brought people
to the table to try and talk about a com
promise.
McConnell scoffed at the suggestion.
“The boycott isn’t the reason I’m at
this table. I think the boycott has had
the weight of a feather in a whirlwind,”
McConnell said.
Participants were unsuccessful in keep
ing secret the 1 p.m. meeting at the
Lace House, a pale yellow two-stoiy house
built in 1854 when South Carolina’s alien
ation from the rest of the United States
had already begun.
It’s one of several buildings in the two
block-wide Governor’s Mansion complex
and several blocks from the Statehouse,
where the Confederate flag has flown since
1962.
Sen. Kay Patterson, D-Columbia, and
Sen. John Matthews, the Bowman De
mocrat who chairs the Legislative Black
Caucus, say the location of the flag is
the biggest sticking point. •
Matthews said a lot ot issues were dis
cussed, “but we have not agreed to any
thing.”
Matthews, Patterson and other black
lawmakers say they don’t want the flag
where it will be in the faces of black peo
ple.
“No flags at Main and Gervais,” Pat
terson said before the meeting. “There
are other places to place flags.”
Patterson prefers more out-of-sight
places than McConnell, such as monu
ments to Wade Hampton, Robert E. Lee
or the Daughters of the Confederacy on
the Statehouse’s southern side.
The Legislative Black Caucus also
joined in attacks against Republican Sen. d
Arthur Ravenel for calling the NAACP
the “National Association for Retarded
People” at a weekend flag rally.
Plagiarism
from page A1
dent of plagiarism.
First, professors purchase the pro
gram for $300.
The screening program replaces every
fifth word with a standard-size blank. Pro
fessors then ask students to supply the
missing words.
Based on the number of correct re
sponses and elapsed time, the program
computes the Plagiarism Probability $core.
Plagiarism.org statistically checks a
submitted term paper with a database of
other papers collected from various
universities, classes and from the Inter
net.
Such services started because of the
increasing number of term papers avail
able to students through “term-paper
mills.” These Web sites allow students
to download old term papers.
Elections
from page A1
college kids are lazy,” she said.
Billy Peele, a marketing sophomore,
agreed that voter turnout would increase
if online voting becomes available.
“Increased confidentiality and con
venience will serve to make the election
more appealing to students,” he said.
In order to cast their votes, LeMas
ter said students must log on to the VIP
Web page, click on the “personal” tab of
the page and choose “SG elections.”
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