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"I believe that at least seventy-five per cent of college girls are not virgins. I am not one myself. I want to give you our point of view."
With this frank assertion a girl who style herself "a co-ed" begins her article on "Chastity on the Campus" in the current American Mercury. "Our" point of view proceeds with the argument.
"Frankly disgusted by many of the attitudes and practises of the older generation" is what "we" are, "our" co-ed says. With a pat on the back she proceeds, "we show surprising strength of character, considering the giddy puppets we are supposed to be."
"The fetish, that men must be satisfied while women must be virtuous" is being discarded, the enlightened modern declares. "Forty fraternity boys on our campus (Rollins?) were discussing the kind of wives they wanted (Snow White or D. Durbin?). Not one of them would marry a girl whom he believed to be dishonest, but only one] (Cotton Mather?) demanded virginity in his bride. Since most of us girls expect to marry college graduates, or their intellectual equivalents that is an answer."
After saying that pregnancy has no fear for "us", "our" co-ed tells a story of a "Mary" and a "John" which serves to illustrate her point that the "Feeling of intimacy" too often results in "a strong feeling of possession."
The story is a wistful little dream and is full of such touching devotion as, says "Mary", "We cannot go on this way much longer. Either we must have intercourse, or our affection for each other will be lost. The nervous strain is too great."
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