Too Busy To Hook Up

Apparently some California teenagers are too busy to "hook up" for oral sex--unlike some of their peers in this NY Times Magazine piece.

Instead, a group of teenaged girls--all daughters of Chinese immigrants working in Oakland garment factories--helped their moms get ergonomic chairs designed to ease their mother's aching backs.

It started in the late 1990s, reports the LA Times.


the teens were walking picket lines on behalf of their mothers to compel large manufacturers to take responsibility for the conditions in small contracting shops. Their mothers came home exhausted, complaining of
headaches, backaches, and pain in their arms and hands.


A local nonprofit wanted to help the women get workman's compensation so they could medical care. Since the workers were reluctant, the nonprofit turned to their daughters.


The job of spreading the word fell to the daughters, who prowled Oakland's garment factories with fliers encouraging the women to seek treatment for pain.

"At first we were so scared," said Winter Xie, now 19. "The people just shut the door right in our face, or they'd yell at us. Or the workers wouldn't accept the fliers. They were scared of their bosses."


But the girls didn't give up, and now their moms, have chairs that ease their backs, and pride in their daughters than cheer their souls.

"It's more comfortable," one mother told the LA Times. "It can raise up and down.... Now I'm happy."

BTW the folks at Getreligion.com have done a better job that I could at commenting on http://getreligion.typepad.com/getreligion/2004/06/sex_the_ghost_i.html
and "the number" as well.

But I do have a couple thoughts on the Times magazine piece by Benoit Denizet-Lewis.

I'm 39, so I am getting old, but I can still remember back when I was a teenager in the 1980s. There were lots of horny teenagers around back then. And most of us lied about what we did and who we did it with.

Reporting about teen sex may turn out to do than reporting about religion. At least with religion, you can see people in action. Unless Denizet-Lewis was present for the hooking-up, something likely to get him arrested--he's got to take horny preteens at their word. What are they going to say--no, I'm not hooking up, not me. They want to be cool. So there's probably some exaggeration going on.

It's the disconnect between sex and emotion that's most disturbing. The emphasis used to be on love at least--"I love you won't," guys would tell girls, "won't you sleep with me." Now, if Denizet-Lewis is right, it appears they don't even get that.

Time to lock my daughters away, at least until they're 20. Or maybe 39.