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	<title>Observer &#187; Katha Politt to Erica Jong: Stop Fussing</title>
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		<title>Observer &#187; Katha Politt to Erica Jong: Stop Fussing</title>
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		<title>Katha Politt to Erica Jong: Stop Fussing</title>

		<comments>http://observer.com/2011/07/katha-politt-to-erica-jong-stop-fussing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:18:51 -0400</pubDate>
					<link>http://observer.com/2011/07/katha-politt-to-erica-jong-stop-fussing/</link>
			<dc:creator>Emily Witt</dc:creator>
				
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		<description><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/opinion/sunday/10sex.html?_r=2"></a><a href="http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/115957157.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-167472" title="Participants prepare to march for &quot;SlutW" src="http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/115957157.jpg?w=188&h=300" alt="" width="188" height="300" /></a>Erica Jong's opinion column in the <em>New York Times</em> last weekend, entitled "Is Sex Passé?", was probably just an inflammatory booster for the new book she has edited, an essay collection about women and sex called <em>Sugar in my Bowl</em>. It was also, however, a fake trend piece, and<a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/162040/no-erica-jong-sex-not-passe"> Katha Pollitt</a> has stepped up to the task of denunciation. "No, Erica Jong, Sex Is Not Passé," she writes.</p>
<p>Pollitt v. Jong -- clash of the Amazons! We declare Ms. Pollitt the winner:</p>
<blockquote><p>I’d argue sex is better now, too: better birth control and legal abortion means less fear of pregnancy,  there’s more information out there, more men give oral sex, people have  fewer inhibitions about masturbation, sex toys and other  pleasure-enhancers (half of US women own vibrators, so at least they  know what an orgasm is and are not too guilty to go after them), women  are better able to ask for what they want. Since they are marrying  later—26.1 was the median age for women at first marriage in 2010 versus  a cradle-robbing 20.8 in 1970—they come to marriage with more  experience, including, for a growing number, lesbian experience.</p></blockquote>
<p>She also calls Ms. Jong on her theory of the "current orgy of maternity," citing actual statistics instead of solipsistic anecdote:</p>
<blockquote><p>As for babies, the birthrate was higher in 1973, and almost twice as  many women in their 40s today than in 1973—almost one in five—have had  no children at all. That doesn’t tell us anything about women’s sex  lives—no kids because no partner? No interest? No working-order  plumbing?—but it does make one wonder where this “current orgy of  maternity” is taking place outside of Park Slope and the Quiverfull  movement.</p></blockquote>
<p>[<a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/162040/no-erica-jong-sex-not-passe">The Nation</a>]</p>
]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/opinion/sunday/10sex.html?_r=2"></a><a href="http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/115957157.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-167472" title="Participants prepare to march for &quot;SlutW" src="http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/115957157.jpg?w=188&h=300" alt="" width="188" height="300" /></a>Erica Jong's opinion column in the <em>New York Times</em> last weekend, entitled "Is Sex Passé?", was probably just an inflammatory booster for the new book she has edited, an essay collection about women and sex called <em>Sugar in my Bowl</em>. It was also, however, a fake trend piece, and<a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/162040/no-erica-jong-sex-not-passe"> Katha Pollitt</a> has stepped up to the task of denunciation. "No, Erica Jong, Sex Is Not Passé," she writes.</p>
<p>Pollitt v. Jong -- clash of the Amazons! We declare Ms. Pollitt the winner:</p>
<blockquote><p>I’d argue sex is better now, too: better birth control and legal abortion means less fear of pregnancy,  there’s more information out there, more men give oral sex, people have  fewer inhibitions about masturbation, sex toys and other  pleasure-enhancers (half of US women own vibrators, so at least they  know what an orgasm is and are not too guilty to go after them), women  are better able to ask for what they want. Since they are marrying  later—26.1 was the median age for women at first marriage in 2010 versus  a cradle-robbing 20.8 in 1970—they come to marriage with more  experience, including, for a growing number, lesbian experience.</p></blockquote>
<p>She also calls Ms. Jong on her theory of the "current orgy of maternity," citing actual statistics instead of solipsistic anecdote:</p>
<blockquote><p>As for babies, the birthrate was higher in 1973, and almost twice as  many women in their 40s today than in 1973—almost one in five—have had  no children at all. That doesn’t tell us anything about women’s sex  lives—no kids because no partner? No interest? No working-order  plumbing?—but it does make one wonder where this “current orgy of  maternity” is taking place outside of Park Slope and the Quiverfull  movement.</p></blockquote>
<p>[<a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/162040/no-erica-jong-sex-not-passe">The Nation</a>]</p>
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