Wolf to find that when it comes to anythingrneven shglitly unpleasant for anyrnwoman, a cigar is never just a cigar:rn”What Daria heard was: You’re no woman;rnjust the thought is ludicrous. Yourrnnakedness is a failure.” The grandmotherrnlater apologized, but Miss Wolf explainsrnthat Daria “got the message thatrnher grandmother would not love her asrnmuch if she were sexual” and that Dariarn”spent her teenage years hiding her bodyrnand deming her own growing up.” MissrnWolf’s stories of girihood misery appealrnto emotion, not to reason. She ignoresrnthat men have teenage sob stories ofrntheir own. Would she claim that a 12-rnvear-old boy forbidden by his parents tornwatch the Playboy channel—as legitimaterna pubescent desire as a girl wantingrnto wear lipstick—vill be scarred for life?rnParenting has a specific purpose—childrenrnare supposed to be told not to dorncertain things, because thev are toornyoung to make judgments for themseh’es,rnSurely Miss Wolf would not getrntearv’-cved over a girl forbidden to gornbungee-jumping with the Plell’s Angels.rnShe limits her call for laissez-faire parentingrnto gids and sex.rnMiss Wolfs tone is consistently one ofrnpit)’ for gids (herself included), with anrnimplication that an- girlhood hardshipsrnare somehow soeictv’s fault. “If we werernout of line sexually, we could becomernsluts; if we became sluts, we could diernseveral deaths…. The impulse to equaternwomen’s being sexual with their sufferingrna swift, sure punishment is reflexive.”rnConsumed with an invented notion ofrnfemale punishment, she imagines itrnagain and again. Not even a simple pickuprnscene goes without a forced interpretationrnof oppression: “What was it thernworld so feared in tv’o oung women settingrnoff alone with each other? Why wasrnit that when Shari and I sat in a cafe . . .rnyoung men and old would make theirrnway toward us belligerently . . . ‘You gidsrnwant company?’ They didn’t just wantrnsex. They also wanted, it seemed, tornmake sure wc didn’t get too far withoutrnthem.” When men make inappropriaternpasses at women, they are hardly busyrnplotting a kecp-women-in-thcir-plaeernconspiracy; they usually do “just wantrnsex.” Miss Wolf finds suffering where itrndocs not exist, because suffering createsrnmartyrdom. By turning girls who are toldrnto wipe off their lipstick, or who are botheredrnbv unwanted male advances, intornmartTs, Miss Wolf builds her ease forrnthe need to dismantle the male-dominatedrnsociety she has long seen as thernenemy.rnThe histor lesson Miss Wolf choosesrnabout punishment is that of a first-century,rn14-year-old Germanic girl, possiblyrnkilled for having an affair with a man.rn”Given these origins,” Miss Wolf surmises,rn”it is no wonder that even today fourteen-rnyear-old girls who notice, let alonernact upon, their desire, have the heart-racingrnsense that they are doing somethingrnobscurely, but .surely dangerous.” If a 14-rnyear-old girl today feels that having sex atrnthat age is dangerous, it is not becausernancient Germanic tribes were mean tornwomen, but because her parents had therngood (and increasingly rare) sense tornraise her to fear the dangers of teen sex,rnwhich arc far from obscure (unlike referencesrnto 2,000-year-old lynehings). IsrnMiss Wolf implying that society shouldrnnot discourage 14-vear-olds from havingrnsex? “It is also in part because of this inheritance,”rnshe continues, “that a modernrnwoman wakes up after a night of beingrnerotically ‘out of control’ feeling sure,rnon some primal level, that somethingrnpunitive is bound to happen to her—andrnthat if it doesn’t, it should.” On somernprimal level. Miss Wolf’s argumentsrnthreaten to be lost in obscurity, and ifrnthey are not, they should be.rnMiss Wolf concedes that the sexualrnrevolution, while “great fun for adults,”rnwas “played out at the expense of children,”rnand she decries the “most harmfulrnmanifestations of the times in thernshape of thirteen-year-olds wearingrndominatrix costumes.” Yet she quicklyrnshows where her true sentiments lie,rnclaiming that “many of the gifts of therntime counterbalanced the corruptions.”rnA world of neglected children and adultsrnrun amok is redeemed by “a city of muralsrnand street theater, where creativityrnand play could expand the sensibilityrnof the most jaded; and perhaps mostrnimportant of all, in the form of therngay liberation movement, we saw love—rnhuman, physical, sexual, romanticrnlove—stand as a metaphor for the highestrngood and animate the idealism of anrnentire culture.” Some trade-off.rnPromiscuities is all about liow hard lifernis for women. Puberty is easier for boys,rnsex is easier for men. Men have sexualrncoming-of-age stories in literature, womenrndo not. Life is so unfair. But itrndoesn’t have to be. Miss Wolf’s solution:rn”new rituals, new laws, and new lessonsrnfor our daughters through which bothrnmen and women will recognize that femalerndesire is priceless.” It is preciselyrn”new” ways, of which Miss Wolf’s feminismrnis a large part, that have contributedrnto the uncontrolled teenage sex todas’.rnMiss Wolf touts hilltop retreats with olderrnwomen teaching 13-year-old girlsrnabout “sexual pleasure” and “birth control,”rnas if parents were not already worriedrnabout their daughters learning thatrnin school. It is up to individual parents tornteach their daughters how to becomernwomen, not to some tribal asscmbh’ ofrnwise grandmothers. More and more,rnparents are failing this duty. But a returnrnto such parental responsibilit (which includesrnsaying “no” to children) would requirerna revival of the values and moresrnconsidered “patriarchal” by today’s feministsrn—and which Miss Wolf is committedrnto destroying by creating the illusionrnof an undue burden for women. That isrnthe dirty little secret in her struggle forrnwomanhood.rnKarina Rollins is the associate editor ofrnNational Review.rnLIBERAL ARTSrnCRIME ANDrnILLEGAL ALIENSrnMary Callaghan, who heads the SaltrnLake Countv Commission, hasrncalled for tougher measures againstrnillegal immigration, citing a close linkrnbetween the influx of undocumentedrnaliens and steadily rising crimernrates in Salt Lake Citv. Accordingrnto the Salt Lake ‘inhune, Mrs.rnCallaghan told the tiouse AppropriationsrnSubcommittee on Commerce,rnJustice, State and the Judiciary thatrn80 percent of felonv drug arrests inrnSalt Lake City in 1996 inolved illegalrnaliens. Illegals also committed 32rnpercent of all murders in die city thatrnvear. While Salt Lake Countv recentlyrnpurchased a $300,000 fingerprintrnmachine, it still does not havernaccess to the INS databases thatrnwould make such equipment useful.rnOCTOBER 1997/43rnrnrn