UMD and I Have Something in Common!

My hatred for the University of Maryland still runs strong. However, we both hate Duke University. So, congratulations to the Maryland basketball team for defeating Duke yesterday. Further congratulations to the student body for not rioting after beating a team that's now below .500 in conference play. The discretion was unexpected and appreciated.

To all my readers who don't really "get" sports, rooting for the Duke Blue Devils is like rooting for the New York Yankees. They always have the best talent and the best coaching, but the douchebagginess of their players and student body is second to none. Popped collars everywhere. Of course we all know that Duke's lacrosse team has been all over the papers for a rape that didn't happen and some crazy racism that did. Skinning bitches and thanking one's grandfather for their cotton t-shirts is certainly not a way to get good press.

This Duke hatred would appear kind of random, wouldn't it. Well, no. Big Head Rob reports that Why I Hate DC mascot Laura Sessions Stepp did a good deal of research for her new book Unhooked at Duke University. Great.

Again, for those who haven't been paying attention, Duke is an outlier when it comes to sexual deviancy. If someone told me LSS would be doing sex research at a major university, I would think to myself, "Please God don't let it be Duke." There's no better school to support your pre-made conclusions that today's college students and young adults are total sluts.

Even more annoying, the story has been done. Janet Reitman of Rolling Stone did an absolute hit job on the hook-up culture of Duke. Reitman's report focused more on post-feminism than on "the kids aren't alright" angle that you just know LSS is going to work with. Reitman falls into the same trappings as any stupid LSS article, but Reitman at least has the decency to not be so alarmist and condescending. If LSS talks to the same people as Reitman though...oh fuck.

From Reitman's article:

Sex at Duke is a sport most students participate in, on some level or another. Boys report that it's still a little tough to get a girl to get freaky -- anal sex, for example, is still rare enough that ''any Duke guy could look at a lineup of girls and point out the one who likes it,'' notes one male student (''usually the girl who's drunk and coked out of her gourd at a party at 4 a.m.,'' he adds). But traditional intercourse is common, and oral sex nearly ubiquitous, regarded as sort of a form of elaborate kissing that doesn't really mean very much. ''Everybody gives blow jobs now,'' says Naomi. ''Before,'' she adds -- meaning a pre-Monica/pre-Britney ''before'' -- ''it used to be you'd have sex and then give one.'' But now, girls give them freely -- on their own initiative, she says. (They also tend to get as much as they give, at least according to Duke men.)

You can feel Laura Sessions Stepp's head about to explode. I can't imagine what she would do if I told her the anecdotal (and unconfirmable) story I heard about a Duke girl penetrating herself with a champagne bottle in a bar to impress some guys. I assume it was the thin end. I didn't ask follow-up questions.

So, Laura Sessions Stepp and her college-aged narc friend Alicia (read Big Head Rob's post for details on this traitor) have gone for the easy kill. The Duke hook-up culture has been well documented over the past year. We all know how bad it is. Using Duke to support conclusions regarding the behavior of my peers is grossly unfair.

I really hate Laura Sessions Stepp.