Please Wear A Helmet
How can anyone take these women seriously? We offer sample questions (and the age of the women asking) from the seemingly endless array of Q&As in Mademoiselle:
1. “I’m going to move in with my boyfriend next month, and he really wants to hang his favorite (and hideous) hockey poster in our bedroom. Help!” D.A., age 26.
2. “Can you get arrested for having sex in a public place? My boyfriend and I want to try it, but we’re nervous.” T.J., age 24.
3. “My friends still like to go out and get drunk on weekends, and I don’t anymore. Have I outgrown them?” S.T., age 24.
4. “I just bought a pair of in-line skates. Do I really have to wear a helmet?” T.O., age 25.
5. “I can’t find my G-spot. Can you give me any help?” G.E., 27.
6. “My boyfriend drinks beer every night, and says it’s a good source of protein. True of false? J.A., age 27.
It took the editors of Mademoiselle pages and pages of text to answer these and other riveting questions. We’ll save time and offer our own more succinct answers: 1. Learn to compromise. 2. Yes. 3. Maybe. 4. Yes, you need all the mental faculties you have now. 5. No. 6. Did someone say loser?
Could the folks at Mademoiselle be making these questions up? (Questions from July Mademoiselle)
* Smarten up, people: A survey by Yale University and MTV shows nearly 9 out of 10 people ages 12 to 34 believe they are not in danger of contracting HIV, although only 53 percent of the unmarried respondents used condoms the last time they had sex. (From June Ms.)
* Facts of life: Number of the 535 free subscriptions Hustler magazine offered members of Congress last year that were rejected: 16 (From July Harper’s)
* And, now, from the wives: At the American Urological Association’s annual meeting in San Diego recently, some doctors weighed in with skepticism about the reported results of Viagra use, among them Dr. William Steers, chief of urology at the University of Virginia.
Steers says the primary study of Viagra users had no data from the best measure of efficacy, spouses. When women were asked about sex with their Viagra-enhanced husbands, their response is always lower than men’s, Steers says.
In 10 studies, men reported successful intercourse in rates ranging from 48 to 73 percent. In a study Steers conducted with wives, though, the responses consistently hovered at around 48 percent. ‘When you asked the women, it was very clear: they said, ‘Uh-huh’,” Steers says. (From July 6 New Yorker)
* Quote of the week: “I am walking down the street in Manhattan, Fifth Avenue in the lower sixties, women with shopping bags on all sides. I realize with some horror that for the last 15 blocks I have been counting how many women have better and how many women have worse figures than I do. Did I say 15 blocks? I meant 15 years.” - Pam Houston, author of “Cowboys Are My Weakness” (From July The Sun magazine)