Monday, March 31, 2008

Good article on Anscombe Society, similar clubs at other Ivies in Times

The Prince has featured several letters and columns with many comments on the subject of abstinence and birth control in college and the choices students make, and this story from the New York Times discusses the Anscombe Society and similar clubs at other Ivy League Schools. No matter which side you're on, it's an interesting and in-depth read.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Its one stated purpose was to discourage premarital intercourse, but by declining to endorse gay marriage, the group left gays, just as Princeton did, with no option but to abstain forever."

Sounds like a great plan! I'll make sure to get right on that.

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding? It trivializes Ms. Fredell and her cause by painting her as a naïve and idealistic revolutionary whose views were borne out of personal angst. It's personal storytelling with abstinence as a backdrop, which is journalistically fine, but not a very good essay for understanding the movement itself.

Matthew Schmitz said...

Michael,

The poster above has beat me to the point, but the article does little more than recycle stereotypes (Fredell is a prudish virgin; Keliher a sex-obsessed male). When he has the opportunity to address Anscombe's arguments, he concludes that they are "difficult to summarize."

He goes on to do little more than poke fun at the TLR people at Harvard, who seem intent on giving him every opportunity to do so.

A more helpful examination of the underlying issues can be found in this comment by former Anscombe president Kevin Joyce at the Stanford newspaper's site:

http://www.tiny.cc/

Matthew Schmitz said...

http://stanforddaily.com/blogs/opinions/2008/03/30/cutting-abstinence-some-undeserved-slack/#comment-37

http://tiny.cc/ITRaZ

Anonymous said...

that's a fair point