While Marshall unfortunately comes out against teen sex altogether instead of just meaningless teen sex, I do like his description of the latter. Mindless capitulation to Lust is the root cause of our generation's sexual vapidness; no substantial effort is made to resist our superficial cravings. On the other hand, Love is an ideal; it's beautiful when it happens, but holding every sex-crazed teenager to that kind of standard isn't very fair. Stigmatizing sex without Love is as unrealistic as stigmatizing sex before marriage anyway. There must be a compromise!

"I think girls are getting mixed, contradictory sexual messages -- on the one hand, that they should be sexually active, sexually curious. At the same time they are told that they shouldn't have sexual desire, that it is slutty. ... A large part of why girls feel like they can't say 'no' is tied to the fact that they can't say 'yes.' If you say 'yes,' you're a slut. If you say 'no,' you're a prude or a loser."
~~ Leora Tanenbaum
Author, Slut! Growing up Female with a Bad Reputation
(Quote taken from an interview in Salon Magazine)

So we've reached the pinnacle of our Quest for Generational Substance, or whatever the fuck this wretched piece of swill is supposed to represent. Jesus, I warned you this would turn into a self-indulgent monster. Fuck, even calling it pretentious seems pretentious. Well, I'm doomed anyway; may as well tie up the loose ends.

We've come to a crossroads in our argument. On one hand, we have the unattainable ideal that teenagers shouldn't have sex before marriage; on the other hand, we have the equally unattainable ideal that teenagers should have sex only as an Act of Love. Both arguments are thus rendered impotent as solutions to the crisis of Adolescent Plasticity. That's our real dilemma here: if we can't even define sexual respectability, what hope in the Fiery Depths of Hell do we have of annihilating our generation's sexual unrespectability?

Luckily, we don't have to define sexual respectability. Why not? Because, quite simply, it defines itself: We are sexually respectable when we have sex with people we respect. It doesn't always have to be Love. It doesn't always have to be Soul Deep. There only has to be respect, plain and simple. This is the compromise, the middle ground between ideals, the attainable goal for Generation Slut.

What are the odds that we'll see this dramatic social change in our lifetimes? Well, the raw mutation of society's sexual attitudes during our grandparents' lifetimes is truly staggering; it's anyone's guess what the world will be like when we're old and withered and can't poop right. But is there anything we can do besides just hope that teenage superficiality will someday fall?