Here for the Party

by anna at 06:58 PM on August 16, 2004

Perhaps you've heard of this girl. She caused a big furor round these parts by posting about her sexual affairs with a number of highly connected government types. There is no industry more stodgy than lawmaking, so this constituted Big News for a day or so.

So she loses her lousy 25k gig for misusing government computers, as if everyone doesn't surf the web @ work. She is vilified not so much for her promiscuity but for having the balls to brag about it online. All six of her lovers suffered no consequences (and prompptly dropped their plaything like a hot potato.) This, despite the fact that they were married and she wasn't, and thus arguably free to couple with the pope if she so chooses. And of course, it takes two or more to tango.

Although she did accept money from them, she didn't solicit it. Her understanding was that the payments were in lieu of actual dates. Her female boss arranged some of the liaisons, in effect pimping her out. Yet she too flitted away without so much as a stern reprimand.

The usually staid Washington Post ran an article about her Sunday. It contained one line that floored me: "She was a blog slut but she was our blog slut." The author also made a point of branding her as an example of the postmodern, angst-ridden slacker daughters of feminism and blah, blah, blah. Not once did he consider that maybe she was just young, confused and looking to have a good time. That and help makes ends meet like the rest of it. Authors are always trying to read too much symbolism into mundane things.

It had a real salacious tone to it. Case in point: One post in which she described turning down a handsome sum for anal. In so doing she demonstrated that she has principles. She also dispelled a common stereotype about Asian girls.

While it's undeniable that today's young women are nonchalant if not aggressive when it comes to sex, they continue to get the short end of the stick. (Oh wait, that didn't come out right.) A gal accepts cash for head and she's a gutter slut. A guy gets paid and he's called a gigolo. A gal juggles six guys and she's a whore. A guy does the same thing and he's a freaking Lothario. In Muslim countries, male whoring around is sanctified in the state religion. It's called a harem.

There was also a digression about blogs in general and the fact that the last people you'd want to read your online musings inevitably happen across your site. The author mentioned this Mormon chick who's parents were horrified to learn of her sexplay, drunken exploits and dope use. But I would think the odds of that happening are minimal.

Whenever mainstream media mentions blogging, they always act like it's some newfangled fad that hardly anyone has even heard of. Never mind that there must be a million blogs out there, counting those weird orphan blogs that just seem to end one day. They always have to point out that the term blog is a contraction of Web log. Which is like saying that can't is a contraction of can not.

Speaking of which, you can not peruse Jessica's shortlived, X-rated blog. She deleted it from her work computer in what turned out to be her last activity at work. And she posed for Playboy. And inked a six figure book deal to write about her naughty exploits. I guess it all works out in the end, no?