Of course, Goodbar is, itself, a copy of an earlier story it fits the framework of moral panic because it’s based on one. Or maybe it’s older still: Maybe it’s been with us ever since we started warning little girls to be careful when they go through the woods alone, don’t talk to wolves on the road, don’t get into bed with anything they don’t recognize, because it might have teeth. Or since Anna Karenina taught us that sexual awakening was the first step to being crushed by a train. Maybe since the seduction novel, in which sheltered girls were invariably impregnated and left to die by handsome rakes. But this fear has been with us since before the sexual revolution. Something is out of joint with the girls today they’ve gotten out of control, and it has to end badly. But the basic story they’re telling is surprisingly similar: Young women plus sex equals excess, and excess equals misery. Limbaugh argues that women are gleefully having too much casual sex, and making everyone else miserable. Bruni argues that young women are forcing themselves to have too much casual sex, and making themselves miserable.
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