Oh AskMen.com, you harbinger of antiquated sex values, you never disappoint in your oblivious celebration of the most backwards of relationship advice and unadulterated ignorance.
“Stacy Jones” wrote to AskMen.com’s relationship misogynist columnist Curt Smith wondering why handsome Daniel never called her back after she 'fessed up to having slept with 43 men. Shockingly, Curt's advice wasn’t “Stacy, you’re better off without some douchebag who responds by saying 'Hmm, one for each of my birthdays,' and then turns over to pretend to read the Money section of USA Today.”
Instead, Curt gave Stacy the low-down on something she should have realized a long time ago: Women who have lots of sex have a Problem with a capital P that will forever keep them from true love, and it's called PROMISCUITY.
In an era when it’s possible to turn on the television on any given night and see a clutch of bikini-clad women crawling over their male prey (ABC’s The Bachelor), a sex-toy demonstration (HBO’s Real Sex), or a 9-year-old showing off her moves on her parents’ personal stripper pole (E!’s Keeping Up with the Kardashians), Wendy Shalit’s assertion that modesty has made a comeback seems a little, well, optimistic.
Talk shows are the scariest thing on the planet today. You think I’m exaggerating, don’t you? Think about it: not only are they the lowest common denominator of American pop culture, but they’re also—because they’re in the form of “real” people talking about their “real” lives—taken to be some measure of truth.