Wild nights of sex. Constant partying. A life of risky behavior
without worrying about the consequences.
When I read descriptions of the lives of American college
students in the news, I was suddenly overcome with anger. Why
hadn’t anyone bothered to include me in all the fun?
Here I had been slaving away nights at my desk studying and
column-writing, when there were better times to be had
elsewhere.
It’s amazing I didn’t notice it. The media has been
hyping our radical lifestyles for quite some time. Tom
Wolfe’s latest novel, “I am Charlotte Simmons,”
which chronicles the life of a small-town girl whose innocence is
destroyed in college, received a lot of attention in 2005 for
highlighting the practices of drunken college sex maniacs.
At about the same time, the Chicago Sun-Times ran a three-part
series about the intricacies of partying and hooking up at the
university level. They even included a “college sex
glossary,” which defined terms such as “dormcest”
(sex with someone residing in the same dorm) and
“jukin'” (sexually suggestive dancing).
More recently, columnist and Media Research Center President
Brent Bozell wrote that a university atmosphere encourages sexual
promiscuity by providing majors in LGBT studies and putting on
productions of “The Vagina Monologues.” He also added
that these sinful lifestyles were reinforced by the television
popular on college campuses, such as MTV and Cartoon
Network’s Adult Swim.
I immediately ran out of my dorm room and asked everyone in
sight to point me in the direction of the nearest orgy.
I was met with silence, and more than one stare. Most of the
students I talked to did not, in fact, regularly go to parties.
“I barely have time to do my own homework,” said Linda
Kit, a first-year psychobiology student.
This didn’t make sense. I approached two other
first-years. Hadn’t entering the college atmosphere radically
altered their ideas of sex, drinking and partying?
“No,” both of them answered simply.
Every student I spoke with did agree that the UCLA student body
is not exactly angelic. “I’ve heard tales of the worst
debauchery,” Mike Loeffel, a second-year marine biology
student, said with a laugh.
But for the most part, all the information students provided as
evidence for the stereotype was strictly hearsay. Of course,
interviewing people I just happen to bump into on my quest for an
orgy does not qualify as a scientific study, and the students at
UCLA are a tad more studious than most.
The trend of college students having an exaggerated perception
of their peers’ lifestyles has been suggested by research
findings. In fact, most undergraduates greatly overestimate the
sexual activity of their peers, according to Columbia
University’s health services Web site.
This stereotype of sex-crazed college maniacs is so pervasive
that we’re even beginning to believe it about ourselves
““ brainwashing in its finest form.
But how did the media develop this perception in the first
place?
According to Mike Males, a lecturer at UC Santa Cruz and the
author of “The Scapegoat Generation: America’s War on
Adolescents,” baby boomers like to pin problems on youth in
order to preserve their own image, which is not as pristine as it
may seem.
“Middle-agers now have the highest violent death rate of
any age group,” Males said to the Los Angeles Times.
“The typical drug addict today is a middle-aged white opiate
addict. But the focus has stayed on teenagers and
20-agers.”
Ah. So it’s all just a ploy to conceal their own
shortcomings. My next step was to confront an actual member of the
baby-boomer generation. I called my mom.
“I know what you’re hiding!” I told her. While
she stubbornly refused to admit that she is not currently a white
male or an opiate addict, she did say she thought it was silly to
believe that college created an atmosphere that encouraged
promiscuity. “Kids learn from what they see at home, not
queer studies or “˜Family Guy.'”
How frustrating. She didn’t attempt to make a single
unfair generalization about me and my peers.
These stereotypes of reckless youth and accusatory baby boomers
also ignore a lot of positive contributions that these two
generations are making to the world.
UCLA is home to the Community Service Commission ““ the
largest completely student-run, student-initiated community service
organization in the country. Just a few days ago, college students
participating in UCLA Dance Marathon raised over $265,000 to find a
cure for pediatric AIDS. This act exemplifies generosity at its
finest.
Like the critical importance of the results of “Dancing
with the Stars” or what Britney Spears does with her baby
when she drives, the disgusting immorality of college life is just
another exaggeration of the media.
Granted, college students do engage in a fair amount of
depravity, and I’m sure there are a few people who take it a
little too far, but as my mom pointed out, “They can’t
be worse than my generation.”
It’s time for us to end the generational divide. We must
join hands, work with, accept, and ““ most importantly ““
love each other. We are all equally screwed up in our own unique
ways. Let’s embrace it.
If you think sleeping with a Stewie Griffin novelty doll has
corrupted Strickland’s innocence, let her know at
kstrickland@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.