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14 february 2010 opinion the stentorian | ncssm Prince Charming: A Thing of the Past? By Maili lim The woman of today is nothing like her grandmother. No. The recent trend ob served in today’s youth leads psychologists to believe we are undergoing yet another sexual revolution not seen since the 1960s. The problem is not that we have entered an era where the behavior of teenagers on the dating scene is troubling; rather, it is that we have en tered an era where the idea of courtship and dating is becom ing obsolete altogether. So what is the rationale behind some 70-80% of col lege students on campus par ticipating in the exchange of sexual favors before even the exchange of names (The Week, “Love in the Time of Hook ing Up”)? Granted, times have changed over the past century; the portrait our society paints of the “acceptable” is indeed a far cry from that of our grand mothers’ generation. But as uninhibited sexual activity be gins to replace relationships, we neglect to see how the situ ational power of today’s young women drops substantially. From an evolutionary standpoint, this current trend in behavior does not piece together logically at all. It is widely accepted among biolo gists that females, by nature, are pickier than males when it comes down to the selection of a partner. According to Psychology Today article “Sexual Libera tion: Whose Sexuality is Liber ated, Men’s or Women’s?”, the female’s significant investment and energy expense in the off spring as opposed to that of the male leads to the inevitable differences in sexual motiva tion between the genders. In theory, the judicious nature of females pushes males to com pete against each other for this womanly “resource”. Scientifically, women and men have different needs; this discrepancy is bourrd to mani fest in behavioral differences. The male’s eagerness to mate is universal; in every coun try of the world, men beat out women with their interest in non-committal relationships (Psychology Today). While there are still wom en who claim to be interested only in casual sex, let’s look at this realistically. What woman wouldn’t want to be the lucky 0n vlfis girl in a Nicholas Sparks fairy tale? Still, numerous women proudly assert their mascu line insensibility to the issue, claiming they can play the same game of “no-strings-at- tached” as men do. But between men and wom en, whose basic psychologi cal needs are truly being met? A survey conducted in 2007 found that men are three times likelier than women to feel sat isfied with a one-night-stand: women are twice as likely to regret the decision. According to The Week, this psychologi cal phenomenon becomes even more prevalent on college campuses. With the increasing number of sexually available women (some 100 females for every 75 males on college campuses), women continue to give themselves away un der “high supply, low demand” circumstances (Psychology To day). This leaves women with no choice but to behave more like men in order to keep up in the romantic race. In the end, women lose far more than just virginity: re spect is frequently lost in the process. In other words, once Prince Charming realizes that he doesn’t need to be a Prince in order to get what he wants, why should he still act like one? In spite of this loss, rec reational sexual activity is still argued as a means for power and control. But in all actual ity, women have relinquished much of their power in being able to harness a secure emo tional commitment. And what happens when the evening is over? While young women today are indeed expe riencing a “sexual liberation” from previous decades, it may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. “You have contact with many, many more people, but each of those relationships takes up a little bit less of your life,” one 25-year-old woman living in New York City con fessed to The Week. “That fragmentation creates a lot of loneliness.” With the tables turned, we begin to wonder if this isn’t a sexual revolution for men after all. So what happens, la dies, when we give ourselves over too easily? Where are our knights in shining armor? No wonder chivalry is dead. Students Respond to Internet Cut-off By Kexin Yin In today’s society, it is be coming harder and harder for teens to live without the in ternet because it is the place where they go to download music, to find information, to play video games, to watch movies, and to keep in touch with fnends. As students of North Carolina School of Science and Math, our dependence on the internet is even more greater due to the fact that it is the main source used by the school faculty to provide vital information to all students; it is the medium used to find and turn in homework and to keep from going insane during win ter when sundown is at 5PM. Although the standard 1 A.M. internet-cutoff was not implemented at the very be ginning of the year, due to parental concerns, the admin istration began cutting internet off at 1 A.M. again. The rea soning is that the internet cut off would prompt students to finish their homework before 1 A.M. and to go to sleep ear lier than they would normally have; however, many stu dents are not happy with this , change. Junior Jane Ma stated, “I get that the administration’s intentions are good, and they simply want us to get to sleep in a timely manner. But hon estly, I have a lot of work some nights, especially with [swim] practice and meets, and a lot of times that Work requires the internet. I find myself going to sleep at 2 or 3 A.M. and then getting up at 5 A.M. to finish internet work. I realize the smart thing to do would be to do all the internet work first, but sometimes I just don’t have enough time.” However, many adults are worried that if the internet is left on until later, students are likely to spend most of their time on social-networking sites such as Facebook.com, or just procrastinating in general. When asked how the Face- book website affects her study ing habits, Brooke McKenna, a junior, answered, “I feel like it really depends on the people. For me, I set goals and only al low myself to sign onto Face- book when I finish a certain amount of homework and so on. But yes, I can see how the site could be distracting and take away time from school work especially when looking at pictures and using Facebook chat.” Ryan Boodee, a senior voiced his own opinion, “I think that Facebook, even while a distraction, can pro vide a nice medium by which you can communicate on group projects, which I personally, seem to be spending a great deal of time doing.” As for the internet cut-off, Boodee’s take on it is that it is a decrease in efficiency that students have to learn to deal with. He also believes that the internet cut off is not helping students finish their homework early and go to bed. Boodee believes “it [internet cut-off] ensures that if students need to work after one, they find them selves uimecessarily burdened by the lack of ability to do re search required for classes.” It can be concluded that while the internet cut-off is a good idea, it is not suited for all of the students’ working habits, and the belief that Face- book hinders most students’ ability to work is simply not true because even if Facebook disappeared, those who have bad self control can still find other addictive sites on which they could pass time. Many students would like their parents to rethink the in ternet cut-off and consider the situation more closely because NCSSM is not the typical high school that parents are used to dealing with. Opinions? Write a letter to stentorian@ncssm.edu Senior Daniel Jones is just short ofpulling his hair out over Moodle and NCSSM At a Glance not working after lam. *Photo courtesy of Dustin Burleson ^ Recycle this paper! Stentorian Staff Editors-in-Chief: Jennifer Zhu, Alex Lew, Kirby Varnadoe-Russ Junior Editors: Seon Kang, Nathaly Lemoine News Editor: Avani Uppalapati Opinions Editor: Emma Hawkins Sports Editor: Vlad Krokhmal Lifestyles Editor: Erica Venning, Ade llesanmi Photography Editor: Dustin Burleson Advisor: John Kirk Thoughts? Commants? Want to write for us? Send an email to stentorian@ncssm*eclu!
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Student Newspaper
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Feb. 1, 2010, edition 1
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