Friday, October 1, 2010

Karen Owen: Hookup Queen

What the hookup culture really needed was a face. Now it has one. Her name is Karen Owen. She recently graduated from Duke University.

In the past she would have been called a groupie, a woman who specializes in seducing athletes. Given her status as college student, and given her great track record of bedding jocks, Owen should now be called the Hookup Queen.

To commemorate her achievements Owen put together a mock-thesis, fully documented, with names and pictures, describing in detail the men she seduced, with the how, when, where, and how good. Link here.

Much of it is charming and amusing. Owen makes it sound as though she went to Duke to learn about hooking up and that she succeeded beyond her dreams.

She writes that she feels no shame, but rather pride in her conquests. Truth be told, she makes Jaclyn Friedman look like a rank amateur.

By now, however, I believe that she is receiving a lesson in shame. One regrets that her professors and advisers did not offer any guidance in the matter.

Despite what Owen says were her intentions, her splendid work, her great achievement, did not remain within her close circle of friends. The thesis went viral, and she is now learning a few brand new lessons in shame.

When she says that she intended to keep her work a secret among friends, she is protesting far too much. The thesis is too well-crafted, contains far too much work, to expect such limited exposure. It cries out for public exposure.

If Owen is looking for a book contract, she might have done herself some good. According to Jezebel, editors and agents are already looking for her. Link here.

If she is looking for celebrity and for a heartfelt crying session on Oprah, she has probably advanced her cause. If she wants to learn how tort law works, from within the legal system, she is well on the way.

But if she wants to be married and have a family, this exercise in indiscretion has not advanced her cause. And, how many men are now going to consider her even for a random hookup?

As for the larger lesson, a lesson that we are all seeing played out every day in tragic circumstances, one has to wonder why no one seems to have taught today's youth the virtue of discretion.

People do strange things in college. They do stranger things when they are young adults first out of college. They might live to regret what they have done, to the point where they might not want their future lovers and children to read about it.

If so, they need but practice discretion. After all, no one really cares about Karen Owen's sexual exploits. Thanks to her indiscretion, and especially thanks to the fact that someone, somewhere taught her to be proud of what she did, we all know a lot more about them than we ever wanted to know.

Beginning with Karen Owen, we are all a lot poorer for it.

19 comments:

Chuck Pelto said...

TO: Dr. Schneiderman, et al.
RE: Wasn't....

Karen Owen: Hookup Queen -- Stuart Schneiderman

....there another, more accurate, term. Four letters. Starts with an "S"?

The current term seems an euphemism to me.

When we stop placing value on this sort of behavior, we'll likely have a better society. But therein lies the proverbial 'rub'. We have to be better and more self-disciplined than we currently are....as a society.

Something to do with something someone said around 2000 years ago....

If thy eye offend thee....and all that sort of stuff.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Who can find a virtuous woman? Her worth is greater than rubies.]

Stuart Schneiderman said...

True enough, there is another term for this behavior, and I considered using it. I decided against it because I thought that I had used it so much in reference to Jaclyn Friedman in a series of posts that it ought to be reserved for her.

My reasoning: Friedman had proclaimed herself a slut, had announced that she was proud of being a slut, and had embraced her sluthood.

I was happy to use a term that she had chosen to define her identity.

As for Owen, who is even more indiscreet than Friedman, what to call her looks like it's going to be the least of her problems.

Chuck Pelto said...

TO: Dr. Schneiderman
RE: On the Other Hand....

....your report says she 'rated' her numerous sexual partners.

Following the link….

…I suspect that some of these stupid men are becoming rather upset about their being outed.

The repercussions of their ire are likely to be another aspect of her lessons in 'love'.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[If you don't want to read about it on the web. Don't do it. -- advice from a US Army chaplain addressing newly commissioned officers at Benning School for Boys (paraphrased)]

P.S. When he said it to us, 1976, he used The Washington Post.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

If I recall correctly, one of the men is off on his honeymoon right now. Now, that will make for some fun pillow talk.

The rest, as I hear, are holed with their lawyers this week.

Now that I am thinking some more about the incident, it does seem strange for someone who seems to be so proud of her accomplishments to document it in such great detail and to do everything in her power to make it public.

Doesn't that suggest that however proud she is, and however much she thinks she is in control, that she is avenging the disrespect that she brought on herself. Is she not trying to punish these young men for doing what she wanted them to do? The thesis is, among other things, a very hostile act.

Just a thought.

Cane Caldo said...

Jezebel...how appropriate. She is clearly--generally--evil. Though, I cannot find any sympathy for those boys. Interesting pillow-talk indeed.

Proud Hindu said...

So another woman rates the men she slept with and tells her girlfriends about it.

So what?

Did men up until really think women DIDN'T do this?

As much as it hurts our egos, size (and technique) MATTERS, and yes, women DO evaluate that sort of thing and talk about it.

Duh.

Mike Davis said...

This sort of thing is not new. When I was in high school, I read about this sort of thing happening at MIT: http://museum.mit.edu/150/entries/1243/

It seems shame has been declining for a long time.

Mike Davis

Chuck Pelto said...

TO: Dr. Schneiderman, et al.
RE: On the Third Hand....

....we have Proud Hindu, who just doesn't seem to quite 'get it'.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[He hopes life isn't a joke, because he doesn't get it.]

Chuck Pelto said...

P.S. Thinking upon Karen, I'm reminded of a Playboy cartoon.

The scene is a cocktail party. Two fellows are talking. In the background is a shapely young woman talking to a group of men.

One of the fellows in the foreground is telling the other one....

"You'll love Margo. Everybody has."

Chuck Pelto said...

TO: Dr. Schneiderman, et al.
RE: Out of Curiosity....

....has this report been substantiated by reliable sources as being....well....you know....TRUE?

I know that things are going so far 'south' that just about anything is believable these days. [Note: Just another 'sign of the times'.]

But still and all, I can't quite put 27 years of military experience, especially the experiences with military intelligence [Note: Which is NOT an oxymoron, compared to what we've discussed about 'intelligence' in this blog.], completely aside.

Who is corroborating this report? What's their 'rating'? A1 for accuracy and reliability? Does Karen Owen ACTUALLY, you know, 'exist'? What additional information is available? Who has come forward to file legal suit in a court of law?

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Information is never as good nor as bad as first reported. -- Army Intel axiom]

Stuart Schneiderman said...

Some of the reports have included pictures of Karen Owen, as well as her Linkedin profile. So, it seems pretty clear that she exists. If not she would be a very interesting practitioner of a new kind of fiction.

As for the men, and whether or not she is telling the truth, most of us assume that she could not have made up that many details, including pictures and names.

I know, a really good liar can fabricate a very persuasive account of events that never happened, but it seems that this is not the case here.

There is just too much evidence involving enough people who could contradict the details at many different levels.

But, I suppose we'll see what happens when people start filing lawsuits against her.

FYI-- I'm not sure what it means, but Karen Owen's Linkedin profile says that she wants to work bringing better health care to Africa... in particular, Kenya.

Proud Hindu said...

I'm sure those smooth-skinned and well-endowed Kenyan men will get much more favorable reviews as well.....

heh heh...

Stuart Schneiderman said...

I have to agree with you on this one, Proud Hindu.

I am sure that they will greet her warmly.

Anonymous said...

So is it the indiscretion that matters or the act(s)?

This girl was foolish and unfortunate, but this kind of behavior is supposed to be typical. The culture is rotten, and covering it up is not the solution. The fact that she can't lie to her future husband is not the problem.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

What I was trying to say, perhaps not very well, is that public exposure of indiscretion, especially the kind that makes the behavior look like good, clean, normal fun, becomes an example for other people to emulate.

Covering it up at least suggests that perhaps the behavior was not such a good thing and was not something that others should try at home.

Moose1 said...

"And, how many men are now going to consider her even for a random hookup?"

Are you kidding? I've worked in higher ed for 6 years now, and I can tell you there'd be a line around the block.

You're giving men - or rather young college men in their 20s who spend Thursday-Sunday getting drunk - WAY too much credit.

Discretion as a value is pretty much gone in college culture these days. Furthermore, this woman is damn lucky she didn't get raped, pregnant or pick up some kind of STD.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

You may very well be right. You seem to be much closer to the college culture than I am.

I was simply wondering how many young men would want to be exposed in another senior thesis... in graphic detail.

I can only express some hope that discretion has not been completely lost in college today. If it has been, then these young people are in more trouble than I had thought. And I was not very optimistic to begin with.

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