And if you're at skeptical about this, besides looking at who is doing the writing and the funding, you should also pay close attention to what they're actually saying, and specifically what solutions they're suggesting to the "problem" of young women hooking up.
Laura Sessions Stepp, who wrote Unhooked, writes that young women don't belong in bars, "that's a guy thing," and that they should consider baking cookies to impress men. (Not that there's anything wrong with baking cookies, I'm a big fan myself, but I think you see where this is going...)
Miriam Grosmman advocates that young women not wait long to get married and get pregnant - in fact both authors seem to assume that the main goal of women in college isn't academics or finding themselves, or even having fun - but instead, finding a husband.
Again, nothing wrong with getting married and having babies, but when you assume that should be the main goal of young women in college - something is amiss.
Of course, it's worth mentioning that none of these books talk about gay or lesbian youth - the only young people who exist in this narrative are straight, and generally white.
And this isn't just about talking points or press releases on how college women shouldn't be having sex. The work that they're doing around "hooking up" is doing actual tangible damage to women.
For example, when the FDA was considering making the HPV vaccine available in the United States - the vaccine that prevents cervical cancer - the single biggest public concern cited wasn't health related or about the vaccine's newness. It was about the worry that girls would become promiscuous if they were vaccinated.
Charlotte Allen, of the Independent Women's Forum, wrote that the HPV vaccine gives girls the message that "it's just fine for them to have all the sex they want, 'cuz now they'll be vaccinated!" Bridget Maher, of the Family Research Council, said that giving girls the vaccine is harmful because "they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex."
Dozens of other conservative pundits and organizations repeated the sentiment.
