Karen Owen is NOT a feminist hero, at least not to me.

Wow!  It is a good thing I do not get paid to blog, because I have had a killer case a writer’s block these last few days. I wrote a few entires, all which will probably remain in “draft” stage forever. So – for the 3 people who read this (again, Hi Dad!) my apologies. So I guess I should thank Karen Owen, because – like the rest of the blogosphere, I am about to jump on that bandwagon & throw in my 2 cents. Why? Because I can :).

EDIT: This post has created quite the conversation betwix my friends and I.  I would just like to put it out there – that I am a prude.  I don’t generally like when people talk in detail about their sex lives… I get all blushy and shy about it. That being said, you can probably imagine where my opinion lies on this situation. That isn’t to say that I don’t think Ms. Owen didn’t have the RIGHT to do what she did – just that, maybe it isn’t something the entire world needed to know?  I’m also not that concerned with the feelings of the gentlemen at hand. I think I’m actually most perturbed by imagining the backlash that her family must be feeling. Also – if she truly never had any intention of this going viral… she needs new friends.

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So as you all probably know by now – Karen Owen is the chick who decided that the best thing she could do with her free time in college was have sex with lots of dudes.  And chronicle it – in excruciating detail. Put it into a PowerPoint presentation, including pictures of the dudes. And email it to her friends (but only 3, apparently).

Now, Ms. Owen likened this presentation to a thesis, titled: An Education Beyond the Classroom: Excelling in the Realm of Horizontal Academics. She wrote about her hookups from start to finish.  The starting point was generally a bar, or a party. Alcohol induced, almost always. The finishing point was… well… the finish.  She pretty much tore into these guys, rating them on a 1-10 scale on various factors, weighing their pros and cons, etc. I’m sure the guys that got good scores were happy, but the guy who got a 3 out of 10 probably feels a bit depressed.

The “fem-nazis” of the world have been coming out of the woodwork to put this woman on a pedestal.  Good for her, they say, its about time a woman does what men have been doing in the locker rooms for years. (Note: the above link includes opinions from both sides, but there’s an example of what people are “praising” her for.)

But I’d like to point out, that the men were doing this IN THE LOCKER ROOMS. Women do do this – “over brunch” – as one of my favorite radio personalities (Leah, from Cocktails with Patrick) stated Friday afternoon. The difference here, is that her Sunday morning brunch discussion went viral – FAST. There is nothing wrong with people gossiping with their friends about their sex lives, and filling their friends on what, or who, they did the night before (except I am wicked shy in this department, and turn bright red when people talk about sex in front of me, so … I squirm & try to block it out, haha). But when you are announcing it to the entire WORLD… you’re an idiot, sorry lady.

Worse yet, she used these men’s real names, and photos! And let’s be honest folks – she could have sent this to just 1 person, or should could have just saved it on a flash drive and kept it in her purse. But eventually, someone would have found that flash drive and the same thing would have happened. When someone does something this hilarious, yet terrible, it just needs to be shared with the world. This girl is an i.d.i.o.t. There’s no 2 ways about it. She wrote (and it is very well written, by the way) an “thesis” on her “horizontal academics”. She sent it to 3 friends. And maybe she has 3 shitty friends that shouldn’t have been trusted with this, and they betrayed her trust …  OR maybe she asked them to distribute it – but either way, she should have thought twice about what this would do.

Let’s forget how these guys feel – because I am sure that we can all agree that even if they were one of the ones who got a great score and she had nothing bad to say, having that much detail put out there about their sexcapades – while  being actively compared to the other “subjects” of this study – they all probably feel like shit.

Let’s focus, instead, on what she must be going through.  She is either a) humiliated (rightly so), or b) getting exactly what she wants.  She’s a good writer (although, if she put that much time into her 42 slide thesis – she probably should have been focusing a little more on her school work and a little less on finding “subjects” while trolling bars and parties looking for Duke athletes), and she goes to Duke, so she’s gotta be kinda smart.  Which means – she probably knew that there was no way this was going to stay between just the 3 girlfriends she emailed this to.  This, to me, seems like a cry for attention & she was hoping that she could get her 15-minutes of fame and get a quick buck. She’s already appeared on The TODAY Show.

So no, this girl is NOT a feminist hero.  She is just an idiot. If she honestly believed it wouldn’t get out, she was wrong. If she wanted it to get out, then she was right – but  still a complete moron. She’s looking for a job these days.  And you know what, she will probably find one – she’ll probably get a job blogging for some newspaper or something as a sex columnist. But she will always be the girl who slept with at least 13 guys (I’m assuming that if she wrote about 13, there were many more that didn’t make the cut for her “thesis”) and informed the ENTIRE WORLD about it.

AND ANOTHER THING – if I were here, the thing I would be most ashamed of is the fact that her PARENTS have undoubtedly read this, heard people talking about it and trashing their daughter. How could they possibly be proud of her after this?  Disappointing ones parents is supposed to be the worst thing in the world – not something one actively seeks to do. I would be MORTIFIED if I was this chick.  Groveling to my parents and family for their forgiveness. I’m shocked that her parents are supporting her through this whole thing. If it was my kid, I’d be too disgusted to look at her. “Wow hon, glad you spent all that money to go to Duke and sleep with 1/2 the Lacrosse team and then tell THE ENTIRE WORLD about it.”

So ladies (and gents) – the next time you feel the need to grade your sexual partners in explicit detail – keep it relegated to the locker room or Sunday morning brunch.  There’s  no need to write it down, put it in a PowerPoint, add photos and distribute it via e-mail to “just 3 friends”. Nothing EVER stays between just “3” people… but at least if it had been a verbal conversation rather than an PowerPoint – it would just filter through the gates of idle chit-chat and typical college social gossip and have been forgotten in a couple days.

So what do y’all think – is Karen Owen a “Feminist Hero” or just an idiot?