Self proclaimed "pro-sex feminist" Naomi Wolf begged students to stop "hooking up" last night.
The famous women's rights activist conveyed her disappointment at the tendency of college students to engage in sexual relations under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
"I'm not standing here saying, 'Naughty, naughty, naughty,'" Wolf said. "I think sexual exploration is critical to developing a sexual identity."
She explained that such sexual relations prevent college students from experiencing emotional growth.
Wolf blamed students' sexual attitudes on the "post-pornographic world."
"By the time students encounter sex, they have been exposed to so many images," Wolf said. "Women feel like they are competing with pornography."
Speaking of her experiences as a student at Yale University, Wolf said, "A generation of women that could have stormed Congress was instead using their energy to obsess over the size of their thighs."
She described her personal battle with anorexia as an adolescent. While looking through beauty magazines, "I realized you become a women by going on a diet," she said.
Wolf theorized that as women move ahead politically, the nation's sense of beauty becomes idealized. In turn, the media portrays an impossible image of a "beautiful woman."
She also discussed the diet industry's power over the media, saying that "Jenny Craig puts pressure on the media to show no larger-than-average women."
Wolf criticized the media's habit of creating features on models.
"The bodies are made up," she said. "They're no longer just airbrushing."
Wolf previously spoke at Penn in the early 1990s. She recalled that the women had been "more nervous" and "hesitant."
"It was scary to talk about women's issues" Wolf said.
She also noted the recent growth of Penn's women's movement.
"Women at Penn should feel very lucky," Wolf said. "I could feel from the audience how empowered they are."
Wolf expressed her disappointment at other Ivy League universities' treatment of women.
"Harvard and Yale are in the toilet," said Wolf, referring to the recent comments regarding women in science by Harvard President Lawrence Summers and Yale's refusal to disclose information regarding rapes on campus.
Still, she noted what she says is Penn's lack of female tenured professors.
"It's not equal until it's equal," Wolf said.
Wharton graduate student Marguerite Mugge thought that the speech was aimed at an undergraduate audience.
"There was nothing groundbreaking for women my age," Mugge said. "However, the event was worth coming to."
Wolf -- who spoke as part of Women's Week at Penn -- is the author of several books.
