John Sewell of Metro Pulse interviews two authors who have recently published books about sluts. Sounds juicy, doesn't it? But these two works -- by Emily White, former editor of The Stranger, and Leora Tanenbaum -- deconstruct the myth of the "slut," a tag aimed to alienate any girl outside the mainstream teenage girl tribe. They also expose the double standard that expects young men to experiment with sex at an early age, yet demonizes any young woman who does the same.
Earlier this month, a Texas appeals court declined to dismiss a case in which the Dallas Observer and reporter Rose Farley were sued for libel by local officials who were offended by a "news story" penned by Ms. Farley. The article wasn't labeled as satire, so Denton County Judge Darlene Whitten and District Attorney Bruce Isaacks apparently are concerned that readers may have believed Ms. Farley's satirical tale, which has the pair jailing a first grader for a book report on Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are."
After a teenager in Covington, Wash,. turned his father in for growing marijuana, local TV news reporters and daily newspapers fell all over themselves calling him a hero. Dan Savage, editor of The Stranger, asks,"Was I the only pot-smoking parent who was horrified?" Savage savages the "sanctimonious piety" of TV news anchors who praised the stalwart young man. Savage gets both sides of the story. The busted dad has health problems, claims he was growing a small amount of cannabis for medicinal use, and the state legalized medical use of marijuana in 1998. Savage is the only journalist in the area who even bothered to ask. He blames the DARE program for scaring kids. "The DARE kids who turn their parents into the police--some have been as young as 10--expect their parents to get a lecture from a friendly DARE officer about the dangers of marijuana, just like they did at school." Problem is, what the parents get is arrested, which sometimes tears a family apart.
