Chapter 2: From Start to... Finished??

As I dove into chapter two with a title marking "Postmodern Sexual Etiquitte, From Hook-Up to Checkup", I was some what intrigued to see what Shalit would delve into and how she would express her experiences. I shortly found that she had for the most part published what most people know, just don't say. I read on enthusiasticly until I came to the third stage labeled: The Post Dumping Checkup. I found this segment, although not completly farse, yet completely one sided and generalized, especially coming from someone with such an "extensive" dating carreer such as Shalit. Her words "What is this prudish, morbid stake society now has in making everyone stay fakey friends".

I as a male, having yes.. Dated my share of women, have for the most part remained good friends with quite a few of them. Not to mention my Ex- fiancee of four years, who ingaged 3 weeks after moving out to a guy she's known for 10 days. And from personal experiance I can say that even when we had coffee for our second "check up" as she calls it, its not as such a waist as she claims. Now yes, there's alot of politics and unspoken rules taboo to follow, but it's not as useless as she would have it to be. But who am I? I'm just a male, and by her words, "To be concerned with male honor, of course, is wrong... And nobody wants to generalize. You can get in serious trouble for generalizing..." Yet, her "theories" are justified. Hmm...

Chapter 1: Curious Children

While reading chapter one of Shalit's "A Return to Modesty" I began to ask myself questions: "how did I learn about sex?" and "was I comfortable with it at the time?" If I remember correctly the first time I was ever formaly taught about sex was in the 5th grade. However, I do believe I was fully aware of what sex was before that uncomfortable SexEd class. I was a curious child like many are and if there was something out there that wanted to know about then there was no stopping me in finding out what it was all about. I learned from sisters, friends, tv, radio, magazines, you name it and I probably learned about some aspect of sex from it. It's everywhere! If I was discontent with my knowledge of sexuality then who or what would I blame? I certainly wouldn't blame SexEd class; I learned nothing new that day.

I have always agreed that knowledge is power and therefore the more you know about sex then the better equipped you are to make appropriate decisions. Shalit seems to believe that SexEd is actually doing more harm than good to children. If anything I believe that I should have had SexEd class earlier in my life, then maybe I wouldn't have gotten in so much trouble for snooping. No matter what is taught in SexEd class or when it is taught, I feel that it is only an extremely small portion of my overall sexual knowledge. This is the sexual knowledge that I use to make my appropriate decisions. Maybe I wasn't an average child though (wouldn't surprise me) and therefore I ask could Shalit's beliefs towards SexEd class be valid?