One afternoon, while reporting for my new book about young women’s experience of sex at school and university, a second-year student from a top college agreed to meet me at a park near her home.
“I come from a long line of smart, strong women,” she bragged. “My grandmother is a firecracker. My mother is a professional. My sister and I are loud and proud and that’s our feminine power.” She then proceeded to describe her sex life, a series of “one-and-done hook-ups” (fleeting sexual encounters) that had begun when she was 13. It became clear that these incidents had not been especially respectful or reciprocal in terms of shared pleasure or satisfaction. “I guess,” she said, “girls are just socialised now to be docile