People might wonder if, after some 20 years of youth ministry work, I could be surprised. But a recent article in Rolling Stone took me back a few steps. The article is one in what seems to be an ever-growing body of evidence that adolescent and post-adolescent women are becoming more sexually aggressive… and I mean really aggressive. The article details the Caligula-like party scene at Duke University with disturbing detail, all in reference to the politically charged Lacrosse Team (of all things).

 And apparently, the phenomenon is not isolated to Blue Devil territory. I spoke recently with a therapist working primarily with adolescent women who told me of the statistical rise of masturbation among women, a sexual activity traditionally dominated by men. Women, she said, have begun to grow into their sexuality in a decidedly male fashion. This explanation fit all too well into at least one conversation I had this last semester with a male student who told me about the bar scene in my own college town where drunken women would offer men an opportunity to watch while she and a female partner “made out.”

I distinctly remember having a conversation at a youth ministry conference some ten years ago when the internet was just making porn readily available to youth. It was hypothesized that the renewed objectification of women in the porn industry would result in a revived feminist reaction that would make the ‘60’s look like a pajama party pillow fight.

Alas, it appears the exact opposite has occurred. Women, instead of reacting with righteous anger and public indignation, have decided to recast themselves, sexually speaking, in the role of the porn star, becoming what they perceive men want them to be in the bedroom. The photo work for Jessica Simpson’s latest album on her iTunes page shows that pop divas are  expected to play the same role, as the popularity of E! Entertainment Television’s hit show The Girls Next Door shows. The reality styled show follows the day to day activities of Playboy bunnies living in Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion. Who could have guessed this would be interesting to anyone?

 So may I say in this public venue that, uh…this is a bad thing.

 My wife and I discovered soon after we were married the complimentary nature of sexuality. In Genesis 2, we find that God had created in woman a “helper suitable” for him. This, it is thankfully noted, does not mean he had created someone just like a man. Rather, he made someone who is intended to appeal both to his sense of sexual wonder as well as to his need for sexual selflessness. In other words, woman is sexually unlike a man in more ways that mere plumbing. She compliments him by being an alternative sexual being.

 Tragically, it appears that men have rejected God’s design for complimentary sexuality for a decidedly same-sex version of human relations. Men have decided they want their women to act more like men in the bedroom. We should not be surprised when the next generation of permissive sexual advocacy discovers an ideal context for their cause, a social-sexual soup where men are already well accustomed to having their sex on their terms.