Long Article

by John Holbo on January 17, 2006

A few days ago Matthew Yglesias linked despairingly to a Caitlin Flanagan Atlantic book review/long article on ‘blowjob nation’ (and he wasn’t despairing because it was paywalled). Now I see (via Maud) it is available free online at Powell’s books. It seems to need a comment box; now it has one.

I myself will not comment, except to note that – in a sign of the times – TLS the Times just started a bunch of blogs. Just bought itself a typepad account, apparently. And – another sign of the times, perhaps – this venerable literary organ has allowed one of its tv critics (assigned to the Big Brother beat) to employ this image of herself (semi-worksafe). Like Flanagan, she appears to be named Caitlin. And that’s all I have to say.

{ 11 comments }

1

Jim S 01.17.06 at 11:18 pm

It is interesting that she refers to an informational section of a Planned Parenthood web site that doesn’t condemn the practice as advocacy for oral sex. It was certainly factual. It certainly was not condemning. But advocating for it? Nah.

2

Matt 01.17.06 at 11:53 pm

The article is too long for me to read the whole thing (I have a lecture to finish preparing after all, but since it’s on the legal enforcement of morality maybe I should finish the article and just talk about that rather than Mill.) But, it was worth reading part of it just to get this line, one I doubt I’d ever thought I’d read*:
“What if you gave a blowjob party but nobody came?”
That’s something to worry about, on so many (or at least two) levels.

*(my favorite unexpected sentences still, and probably forever, comes from the crocodile hunter: “This snake is completely harmless. Its razor-sharp teeth are sinking right to my bone.” he says, while being bit over and over by a snake he’s holding, blood flying all over.)

3

chun the unavoidable 01.18.06 at 12:29 am

The Dr. Phil pachyderm thing–bless her, though the comments about Lewinsky were catty Clintonista.

4

Jonathan Derbyshire 01.18.06 at 5:24 am

John, those are *Times* blogs rather than all specifically TLS ones. Caitlin Moran is TV critic of The Times.

5

josh 01.18.06 at 5:29 am

How things have changed since my Bar Mitzvah …
I’m not quite sure what you mean about the TLS starting a blog, though, John. When I looked at their website, I could only find a Times blog. And the TLS and Times are rather different creatures. Certainly, the TV critic is at the Times, not the TLS — which I’m pretty sure isn’t covering Big Brother. Yet.

6

Jonathan Derbyshire 01.18.06 at 5:40 am

Peter Stothard, the editor of the TLS, has a blog, along with Times journalists like David Aaronovitch. By the way, the TLS is now back in the bosom of its parent, having been sold by TSL Education.

7

Backword Dave 01.18.06 at 6:38 am

The Times has employed Ms Moran since she was a precocious teenager, IIRC. I don’t see anything wrong with that pic, myself. TV criticism is a good beat if you’ve got the talent, like Clive James in the Observer (of old) or Nancy Banks-Smith in tehgrauniad (still allowed the odd column to give much stupider, younger people a rest). Going by

Is it only me that thinks Pete Burns is really beautiful? Apart from his mouth, which looks like it just gave birth to a large-headed child, and which he’s suing over anyway, I think his plastic surgery is the first plastic surgery I’ve ever seen that has actually made someone look better. He looks like a fierce geisha colt.

she’s got the chops, so good for them for giving her a bit of a blog.

8

John Holbo 01.18.06 at 7:18 am

Thanks for the correction, Jonathan. I was inferring that because it ‘featured Stothard’ it was a TLS thing. I’ll edit the post accordingly.

Backword Dave, I don’t see anything in the world wrong with the picture myself.

9

Anderson 01.18.06 at 4:51 pm

Flanagan gets pilloried for this kind of thing, but even as a parent of boys not girls, I think it’s a valid issue. She’s upset about the devaluization of both sex and girls, not simply that kids are having oral sex.

Now, whether (Teen) Blowjob Nation is a fact or an urban legend, I can’t say. Flanagan waffles, deliberately or not.

Her discussion of Forever was fascinating for how the heroine’s mom treats guiding her daughter into sex is a proper parental function. I would bet that’s far-left nowadays. We’re supposed to pretend that our kids don’t have sex until they’re married, and then we’re amazed when their sexual lives turn out to be as nasty & brutish as Flanagan describes.

10

Anderson 01.18.06 at 6:16 pm

She’s upset about the devaluization

Hm. “Devaluation.” I must’ve been watching too many NFL “commentators” last weekend.

11

VJ 01.20.06 at 6:13 am

I actually read the entire swill. Well written clap trap hand wringing. And count me as one of those who think that all the BJ nation business is mostly a myth. They don’t know much about this history of sex either. Cheers, ‘VJ’

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