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It's easy to call a girl a slut.
It's even easier, if you're a female, to be called one.
And even though, for years, feminists have been screaming for sexual liberation and for women everywhere to throw away the misogynistic notion that men can have sex with whoever they want while their partners have to tiptoe around a bad reputation, their efforts have become a little misconstrued along the way.
Sure, women and men alike can rack up as many notches in their bedposts as they want. They can even write it off as an exercise of sexual freedom, but does that really make it a good idea?
A study done for the recent publication of the Journal of Sex Research, "No Strings Attached: The Nature of Casual Sex in College Students," concluded that college-aged women who have a history of casual sex feel more depressive symptoms after their sexual experiences than men do.
Maybe it is because men have sex for the sake of sex. And women - aside from fictional characters like "Sex and the City's" Samantha - have it in the hope of a relationship, in the hope of adoration - however fleeting - from their partner.
The study found that 18 percent of women and 3 percent of men thought their most recent casual sex experience was "the beginning of a romance," and this disparity, the authors said, could be the reason for the gender gap in depressive symptoms.
Hm.
So, men want sexual conquests; women want roses brought to their doors. Could the findings of this study be any more cliché?
Samantha of "Sex and the City" is the quintessential sexually-liberated female. She has sex like men, with no deep desire for romantic commitment or romantic small-talk, and she is completely frank about her sexual experiences - no cutesy words where explicit ones will do.
Because "Sex and the City" is such a prolific show, since so many college girls watch it religiously and ascribe themselves and their friends to a particular character, it's important to note one thing about Samantha that's often left off the list of what makes her special.
She, like the men in the study, enjoys sex, not the glimmer of romance.
But even Samantha gets her emotions all twisted up in the bedroom. In reality, most newspaper columnists don't make enough money to afford Manolo Blahniks and brownstone Greenwich Village apartments, not to mention that people can scarcely engage in such intimate acts so casually without the tiniest bit of emotions - good or bad - leaking out.
Maybe women and men alike, unless they're some rare breed of human like Samantha, should keep their belts tightly fastened until they're in full control of what's to come.
Maybe women should realize that, judging by the findings in this study, the majority of college-aged men don't care about romance when they're jumping in the sack. Maybe some women should start having sex for their pleasure, not to hopefully pleasure him so much that he suddenly wants a relationship.
It's not the 1950's anymore - and thank God for that. Couples no longer have to hide behind separate beds, birth control isn't criminal and short skirts and heels are no longer just for your friendly neighborhood hooker.
There is nothing wrong with enjoying sex or safely engaging in it to your heart's content; however, when female college students are responding to studies so negatively, there is obviously something wrong here.
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