Harvard Sex Debate: Chinese "Muzimei" VS Harvard "Virgin"

One day in October 2007, a public sexual debate began on the Harvard campus. The party participating in the debate may as well call it "Harvard's Muzi beauty." She is Lena Chen, a Chinese-American girl who started a blog called "Sex and the Ivy" in Her sophomore year in August 2006, dedicated to her sexual experiences with various men. For example, she vividly describes how to use ** to make the other person reach orgasm, and she describes the other person's finishing "grabbing my earrings from my own sticky semen and holding them up in front of my eyes." I almost laughed to death: 'He me so hard that my jewelry fell off.' "She has an extraordinary sex addiction and an extraordinary intelligence. Not only was she a sociology student at Harvard, she was also the editor of the Harvard school newspaper (the Ivy League newspaper has always been a talented place), and even wrote articles in the Boston Globe, and her literary style was praised by the editors. Her proposition is also self-evident: sex is still more, the merrier, timely pleasure, and no responsibility for the other party. On the other side of the debate was the Harvard virgin Jane Fredell. Not only is she a virgin with a boyfriend, but she is also one of the presidents of the True Love Revolution, a student organization that opposes premarital sex. These two women, representing two extreme values and life prevention and lifestyle, collide face to face here. Today, both have become media celebrities. Their activities, ideas, and organizations are not only discussed in the streets of the school, but also widely reported by the national mainstream media such as Newsweek, The New York Times, and CNN.

Of course, they are not entirely their own factors, but they represent the extreme trend of sexual issues in American universities, especially in the Ivy League. Lena Chen's sexual concept is inseparable from her upbringing. She wrote in the Boston Globe that when she was in high school, she only had secret meetings with others, and when her mother found out, she would be reprimanded, and then shut up, and she was absolutely not allowed to interact with each other again. After attending Harvard, she was finally liberated and felt schadenfreude that her mother was worried and powerless for her three thousand miles away, but her friends at school often reminded her of her mother, who could not stand it. For example, her mother currently wants her to marry a well-educated person. Her classmates felt that since they were already in the Ivy League, this was of course a natural and there was no alternative. These people are young, but they have always been thinking about the future: they have just dated people three times, and they have begun to calculate the potential income of their future husbands. Presumably this preoccupied calculation of the future makes her feel depressed and ridiculous, so she wants to rebel against the design of the future with the happiness of the present or the present. She scoffed that 80 percent of people at Harvard didn't have sex and probably didn't prepare to have it. She belongs to the other 20%.

For Lena Chen, who began writing a diary at the age of eight, online writing at the age of fifteen, and the incessant experience of various sexual partners, it is not surprising that her sex blog became a hit. A student in the Harvard newspaper wrote in a column: No matter how much he hates Lena Chen's sex blog, but every late at night, when he is in his room preparing for midterm exams and term papers, and his brain is swollen, he faces a computer screen and clicks into her blog, so he immediately immerses himself in her colorful words, unobstructed photos, and endless discussions with posts. This may be the inevitable result of the campus culture that has been shaped by media like Facebook in the internet age. In this respect, lena chen is not exactly an outlier. Today, on Ivy League-dominated American college campuses, student media is gaining momentum. Student-run sex magazines, Harvard has H Bomb, Yale has sway, and so on. Boston University has a large number of students, and its sex magazine boink has 40,000 subscribers. Such a prosperous university sex media has naturally cultivated a group of sex writers. On the surface, American universities, especially the Ivy League, seem to be brewing a new sexual liberation.

Janie Fredell appears to be from another planet. Her hometown, Coloradosprings, Colorado, is an ultra-conservative city. But as a good Catholic girl, she was quite disgusted by the fundamentalist religious movement there. In her high school, for example, almost everyone wore a chastity ring, and none of them had sexual experience. She thought it was ridiculous: Why would you bring something so much to confess that you don't do something that no one would actually do?

When she was accepted to Harvard, neighbors and friends came to tell her that it was a liberal school without God and full of sex. Many simply advised her not to go. But she felt that if she wanted to achieve something, she still had to go to Harvard. But as soon as she arrived at Harvard, she was dumbfounded: Harvard's student handbook and other promotional materials were full of sexual safety instructions: "When the penis touches the vagina, mouth, and anus, be sure to wear a condom... If you want to have a second sexual intercourse, or decide to use a different set of sexual intercourse, get a new condom. "It seems to be the opposite of home: everyone is directing or encouraging you to do something that you're not prepared to do or don't want to do. She immediately became alert: she was surrounded by a culture of sexual immorality.

Her new boyfriend expressed his desire to her, but she firmly said "no". In the second grade, she saw in the school newspaper that some students had set up a "True Love Revolution" organization to promote the concept of chastity, which caused a round of ridicule from public opinion. When she saw her way of life being so attacked, she decided to step up and not only join the organization, but soon became one of the two presidents of the organization.

Although Harvard's "True Love Revolution" is only about a dozen people, the energy is not small, and the impact is quite large. In addition to the strong personal beliefs and activity abilities of the participants, this is also related to the social movement of American conservatism. In the early nineties, evangelical Christians, disgusted with sex education in public schools that were openly distributed condoms, the proliferation of pornographic pop culture, and the high rate of pregnancy during adolescence, organized chastity clubs in high schools. In the wake of Clinton's sex scandal, conservatism seemed to have found more evidence for the degeneration of liberals and the poisoning of teenagers, and the chastity movement became more popular. Millions of teens have vowed to reject sex before marriage. By the time Bush took office, republicans took control of the White House and Congress, and the federal government was able to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to ascetic education. Then-Secretary of State Powell urged teenagers to use condoms during sex in view of the prevalence of STD AIDS. As a result, a conservative commentator on fox news network reprimanded him: "Listen clearly, Mr. Secretary: President Bush called on everyone to abstain from sex, not to use condoms." ”

Peter Bearman of Columbia University and Hannah Bruckner of Yale University, two sociologists, published a study in 2005. The study, which lasted until 1995, surveyed twelve thousand students from seventh to twelfth grade (thirteen to eighteen years old). It turned out that students who took the oath to maintain chastity could technically maintain their virginity for eighteen more months than those who did not. However, they are six times more likely to perform ** than those who don't take the oath, and they use condoms less during the first sexual act. The conservative chastity movement does not seem to have succeeded.

Is the rise of sex media and the chastity movement in colleges at the same time a reaction to this wave of chastity in primary and secondary schools? There are currently no studies to prove this. However, sex blogs, sex magazines, sex columns, etc., did appear on college campuses almost at the same time as the chastity movement. The generation that grew up in the elementary and junior chastity movement is indeed in college today. In 2005, the first virginity club in the Ivy League was founded in Princeton: the Anscombe Society. The members of this club are mostly Catholics. However, they worked to give chastity a rational, non-religious, explanation. The name anscombe refers to elizabeth anscombe, a famous catholic female analytic philosopher and proud disciple of Wittgenstein. She was the first to bring "consequentialism" into analytic philosophy. The most basic idea of this "consequentialism" is that the consequences of an action form the basis for moral judgment of that behavior. Princeton Professor Robert George, who serves as the club's informal adviser, said: "Sexual proliferates deeply hurt human dignity. Casual sexual relations can bring personal misfortune and endanger society. Even those who disagree with this conservative conception of sexuality admit that this theory has a deep foundation in analytic philosophy and should not be taken lightly. As a result, MIT also established a club of the same name.

Harvard's True Love Revolution club was not founded until 2006, the same year that Lena Chen's sex blog was launched, and its members were mostly Catholics. Unlike Princeton's Anscombe Society, though, the True Love Revolution does not pursue the goal of rigorous knowledge in the form of analytic philosophy, but is more emotional. At the same time, they also try to approach sexual issues from a secular perspective. They presented a series of scientific evidence showing that so-called safe sex in the absence of a fixed sexual partner is often not safe, and premature sex often leads to a higher proportion of depression, marital infidelity, divorce, poverty, and so on. Maintaining virginity before marriage increases health, strengthens the bonds between spouses, and makes sex life more secure after marriage. Janie Fredell also submitted to the school newspaper, saying that "virginity is a powerful temptation." This mysterious allure comes not from pure images, but from power. In a word, maintaining chastity is not only beneficial, but also "cool."

The "True Love Revolution" met with a lot of criticism from the start. Some have pointed out that their propaganda about the dangers of sexual behavior is alarmist, and their discussion of the relationship between premarital sex and poverty and high divorce rates lacks research evidence, etc. Perhaps the biggest PR crisis was Valentine's Day in 2007. At that time, the "True Love Revolution" sent a Valentine's Day greeting card to a First-Year Harvard girl that read, "Why wait?" Because you are valuable. As a result, many interpret this phrase as devaluing the value of those who had sex before marriage. The Harvard school newspaper published an article pointing out that this card is specially given to girls, reflecting an old idea: the value of a woman is her virginity.

After Janie Fredell became one of the presidents of the True Love Revolution, the club sent greeting cards to all new students on Valentine's Day 2008, regardless of gender, to show equality between men and women. In fact, Janie Fredell was not only the most powerful spokesman for the "True Love Revolution," but also combined the chastity movement with feminism. Not only did she model gandhi and Mandela as her own life models, but she also kept reading Pope Paul II's The Theology of the Body and John Lennon. Mill's works such as "Women's Submission" enriched their convictions intellectually. She believes that men always control women through various means: wage differentials, vaginal plastic surgery, forced birth control, almost everything. When it comes to sex, it's always men who are in a hurry. Some men seek sex with women, often in order to brag with their peers in the locker room. And women often have sex reluctantly in order to maintain a relationship with their boyfriends. She used Mill's theory to explain that men are always more sexually casual than women, because social culture allows this. Under this socio-cultural norm, it becomes very difficult for a woman to say "no". Therefore, asking women to reject men's sexual demands is a very feminist concept that shows the power of women, rather than molding women into the kind of innocent virgins that men have ideally.

Another president of the "True Love Revolution" was a boy named Leo Keliher. His mental journey was much more painful than that of Janie Fredell. His father was imprisoned for sexually assaulting children when he was a child, and his mother remarried to an electrician. But the electrician was soon lured away by a woman twenty years younger. As a result, at a young age, he gave up on himself and began to steal. Fortunately, he was later sent to a **** youth organization, got soul salvation, and finally won the full prize to Harvard. From this experience, he learned that "loving a woman should be out of strength, not out of need" and understands what the consequences of not respecting women when it comes to sex are. Not only did he vow to remain a virgin, but he even considered taking on later clergy.

The two virgins co-chaired, had different experiences, different philosophies, different genders, and even different physiological reactions to chastity. Janie Fredell took the secular route, while Leo Keliher preferred the religious route. The New York Times reporter interspersed the interviews between the two, providing an interesting contrast.

Janie Fredell has her own boyfriend, but the two say they won't have sex. When she had a sexual urge, she went for a long run. After running, people are basically calm. It wasn't that easy for Leo Keliher. He admits that sexual desire is an uncontrollable beast. Sometimes a woman touching him, or looking at a certain lady, or even looking at a picture, will make him have an erection. There is a newborn girl who is particularly gentle, caring for others, and loves to serve children. He is full of sexual fantasies about people, and even Jane Fredell has become the object of his fantasies. Sex is simply an endless struggle for him. When the reporter told Janie Fredell about this, Janie Fredell immediately erupted: "No! No! We don't move between the two of us! ”

When both the "True Love Revolution" and Lena Chen's sex blog became central to the street talk at Harvard, a debate was inevitable. In October 2007, Janie Fredell and Lena Chen opened PK on campus, attracting hundreds of students. As soon as the two appeared, the contrast could not be more stark. Lena Chen, dressed in a miniskirt, sat down on the couch, and the ultra-short group fell into the sofa and was almost invisible, leaving only two naked thighs, which was simply unobstructed. It was she who reported in her blog: She woke up one day and suddenly pulled out a condom out of her body that she didn't know who had used it. Janie Fredell wears a pair of plain blue jeans. She once claimed that the emotional satisfaction she got from a conversation with her partner was much greater than the satisfaction she got from sex, even though she had no sexual experience at all. However, the two have one thing in common, that is, they both want to be strong women. Lena Chen argues: "Strong women are not ashamed of what they do and what they like to do." It's too irrevocable to make me care about every man I've had sex with. I just feel happy! I just feel happy! Janie Fredell talked endlessly about a theory of the oxytocin hormone, explaining that this hormone is secreted during production, breastfeeding, and sexual intercourse. This hormone can help people form strong bonds with each other and promote family harmony; however, random secretion can only trigger short-term excitement, not long-term love, and even tie people together in the wrong situation. She claims that she and her boyfriend have gained real freedom after getting rid of sexual demands, and she can find true humanity in each other. She also declared that if true love were not discovered, she would remain alone for the rest of her life.

What is amazing is that these two women, who should be incompatible with water and fire, are surprisingly polite. They all agreed on the importance of openly discussing sexual issues. At the same time, Janie Fredell also claimed that because they were both under external attack, the two formed a kind of bond.

However, this drama, like the two-party politics in the United States, is excessively polarized, and it is easy to overlook the "silent majority" standing in the middle. A study showed that the number of male sexual partners in U.S. colleges in the most recent year has dropped from 2.1 in 2000 to 1.6 in 2006. Another 2001 study showed that 39 percent of college freshmen were virgins, and by the time they graduated, 31 percent remained virgin. A 2006 survey showed that about half of Harvard students had no sexual experience, which was significantly higher than the average college student. It can be seen that Harvard is neither sexually inexperienced, nor is it surrounded by sexual prolife as Janie Fredell imagines. In my opinion, Lena Chen's sex blog is popular at Harvard, and rather than illustrating Harvard's sexual flood, it is more likely to explain Harvard's sexual hunger. People who are more sexually satisfied won't be keen to look for sex blogs online. Even a young man like Leo Keliher, who sincerely believes in chastity and constantly wrestles with his own sexual desires, may be a reader of Lena Chen. No wonder many people recognize Lena Chen, believing that in the cradle of a future world leader like Harvard, she tore through the false canon of "leader" and expressed what everyone thought.

The question is: What will these two extreme women, and the college students in the extreme currents they represent, face before they do so? Many writers who have grown up in sex media feel that these experiences are beneficial to their future careers and can even help them find opportunities. But many more will be skeptical. Lena Chen herself admits that with the popularity of her blog, there are fewer and fewer men who come to her, and her ex-boyfriend has begun to ignore her, probably because everyone is afraid of having sex with her and being judged, although she claims that she will respect the privacy of others. One netizen is even more imaginative: one day more than twenty years later, Lena Chen's husband sat in a poor and bored Wall Street office, typed his wife's name into the Google search box, and found these photos of her sex blog with one click, only to understand who he married... Whether she will be able to have a stable family in the future is indeed difficult to imagine. Another published an article in the Harvard School Newspaper saying that Lena Chen's future path to politics must have been blocked, and the work of Wall Street financial firms does not have to think, who will hire such a person to pollute the company's brand? As she gets older, even the quotes of her blog will fall, and sex is a bowl of young rice after all.

Janie Fredell doesn't have these problems. She had been an intern twice and found herself probably less suited to be a lawyer. She is considering becoming a psychologist specializing in early childhood development. In addition to her interests, this choice is also because her working hours are more flexible, so that she can become a good wife and mother. Maybe people will worry that she will be left alone for life because she can't find the ideal love, or that she has wasted her pure youth and love by finding a negative person, but it is more likely that her life will not have the stimulation of lena chen's blog, but will have a greater chance of having a more stable family. A recent study (bikinis instigate generalized impatience in inter-temporal choice) showed that men tend to be impatient in the face of sexual stimulation, favoring short-term returns over long-term benefits. People who can postpone immediate satisfaction for the sake of future benefits are generally more successful in their careers. Therefore, men who choose Janie Fredell under the condition of getting rid of pure sexual temptation are also more likely to succeed. Lena Chen ridiculed her Harvard friends for courtship for calculating too much about the future and suppressing immediate happiness, and the above-mentioned research survey also showed that Harvard students enjoyed less sex, which may be related to the fact that Harvard students are better at designing their lives in the long run and therefore more successful in the future. In fact, predicting the future of these two, everyone can ask themselves a few questions: If you were a courtship man, who would you look for? If you had a son, who would you want him to marry? If you were a company owner, who would you hire? Harvard's sex life, although it is a private sphere, is probably not entirely unrelated to the future career of Harvard people.

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