The Washington Post on blogs, sex and feminism

One of the best newspaper stories I've read in recent weeks is "Blog Interrupted" in The Washington Post. You may have heard the story already: A young woman working as a low-level Senate aide in Washington, D.C., chronicles her sexual exploits in her blog, called Washingtonienne. The blog gets attention from a more prominent site, and all of sudden everyone in D.C. knows exactly what she's up to, and with who -- "including a married Bush administration official who met her in hotel rooms and gave her envelopes of cash," as the story puts it.
The tale strikes me as sad and almost pathetic. But April Witt, the reporter who wrote the Post story, brings a lot of introspection and seriousness to the episode. Among other things, Witt brings up a topic near and dear to my heart -- the role of feminism in 21st century America. For instance:

Feminist author Naomi Wolf ... says modern sexual conduct offers a window into what's been gained and lost in the nation's values revolution. The sexual revolution, now stripped of much of its feminist political ideology, has left legions of young women free but confused. "I think the tipping point came three or four years ago with the first generation to grow up with the Internet," Wolf says. "They were daughters of feminists. The feminist message of autonomy got filtered through a pornographized culture. The message they heard was just go for it sexually.
"What is gained is they totally reject the double standard and believe they are entitled to sexual exploration and sexual satisfaction," Wolf says. "The downside is we've raised a generation of young women -- and men -- who don't understand sexual ethics like: Don't sleep with a married man; don't sleep with a married woman; don't embarrass people with whom you had a consensual sexual relationship. They don't see sex as sacred or even very important anymore. That's been lost. Sex has been commodified and drained of its deeper meaning."

I think Wolf is getting at a crucial point here with no easy answers.

PS Let me know if the link to the Post story doesn't work. I'm not sure how long the link will remain active. That's the problem with linking to newspaper stories, the darn things expire pretty quickly. I'm hoping this link might last longer as it is one of their high-profile, feature-length stories.