While she is in high school, Sister Souljah's sexual conduct is reserved. In the first chapter of No Disrespect, Souljah exercises caution and restraint by running out of the room when Jay (a boy she'd just been to the movies with on a first date) proffered Vaseline and a condom, assuming Souljah was going to have sex with him (Souljah 38-39). Souljah abstained from sex until her eighteenth birthday when she lost her virginity to her boyfriend of two years, Chuck. Sister Souljah's stance on sex while she was in high school empowered her and is an example for young people to follow. While these two events exemplify reserved, monogamous sexual conduct, Souljah's stance changes when she enters college. While in college, Souljah has several sexual affairs with men. The first being with Nathan, an older college co-ed. After learning that her thirteen-year-old sister was pregnant, Souljah knocked on Nathan's dormitory-room door for comfort and companionship. They wind up having sex (Souljah 103). Not a very responsible, reserved choice, considering that this was the same way Souljah's baby sister became pregnant. This night with Nathan is a turning point for Souljah. It is at this point that her attitude about sex and her sexual behavior seem to change.

Souljah is anything but reserved when she pursues fellow student leader Kyle at an African Student Organization retreat. She ends up at his apartment in Baltimore after a night of dancing and flirting. While admiring herself in lacy red lingerie in Kyle's bathroom mirror, she says to herself, "I did not love Kyle. Was I acting like my mother, whose loveless relationships had driven us apart? No, I told myself. I wasn't looking for money or support. I was just trying to have a little fun" (Souljah 157). Souljah is no longer the high school girl who waited two years before having sex with her steady boyfriend. She is preparing to have casual sex with a guy she just met. She doesn't know his history - sexual or otherwise. She is not in love. This is just entertainment for her. This is the kind of sexual attitude that leads to AIDS, STD's, or an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy. Souljah is no longer a good example for young people to follow. Next, Souljah becomes involved with a married man named Joseph. She seduced Joseph and initiated their sexual relationship at the Midwestern Delegation of Student Network in Chicago. Deep down Souljah knew that no long-lasting relationship would ever evolve. She states, "This was critical - critical because it was forbidden, and because it could probably never 'be,' it was bound to cripple me emotionally if I ever lost it" (Souljah 189). Souljah is definitely thinking with something other than her head when she makes the decision to pursue a sexual relationship with a married man. It's like a game for her. She likes the hunt, but after she catches her man the "relationship" becomes complicated and seems to dissolve.

After her relationship with Joseph ended, Souljah goes for some time without pursuing a man. She returns to her irresponsible, hormone-driven behavior when she meets Chance. "It was on the platform at the subway station that I met him . . . He was beautiful" (Souljah 251). After several weeks of spending time with Chance, Souljah doesn't know much more about him than she did on that first day she saw him at the subway station. "Chance, I'm into you. I'm in deeper than I should be because I don't know enough about you" (Souljah 270). Souljah had never been to his house, nor had she met his mother or his friends. She didn't even have his home phone number! Yet several days later she decided to tell Chance that she wanted to have a relationship with him. Souljah made this decision because she "was scared to lose his attention" (Souljah 273). And soon after she made this decision, Souljah "was stretched out across the bed getting what (she) had missed for the past year" (Souljah 275). Souljah's decision to have a sexual relationship with Chance was not based on love, but on the fear of losing his attention. Again, Souljah made a hasty, unwise choice to have sex with a man who would pass out of her life as quickly as he came into it.

In the last chapter of her book, "Listen Up!", Souljah seems to have learned that she did make some unwise choices regarding her sexual relationships while she was in college. She doesn't expressly say, "I made a mistake," but she cautions readers against acting in the same way. She states, "We must exercise discipline over our desires. Sex is fun, but sex is dangerous. Be careful . . . and be prepared" (Souljah 355). While Souljah cannot undo the potential harm done to her body from having sex with several partners whose sexual history was unknown, she has come to terms with the emotional scars that this type of behavior can cause.

Elizabeth Wurtzel's sexual attitude and behavior in college is even worse than that of Sister Souljah. None of Wurtzel's "relationships" were based on love or even mutual admiration. She had no conscience - she even slept with her best friend's boyfriend, Sam. Wurtzel didn't love Sam. She saw him as "yet another version of salvation. His father was the president of a major motion picture studio, and when Sam approached (her) in the cafeteria and said he was going to take (her) out of (her) life and out of (her) mind, when he said (they) would write screenplays, when he said Hey, baby, I'll make you a star - when he said all these things (she) knew they were lines, and (she) still bought them" (Wurtzel 113). Wurtzel was sleeping with Sam because he could help her get out of her life. She didn't love him - it was a casual affair. They were doing it for all the wrong reasons.

Wurtzel's relationship with Noah Biddle was anything but an exemplary one. She woke up nearly naked on Noah's floor one morning after an Ecstasy trip the night before. She says of Noah, "I don't really like him that much, but for some reason I will do anything to get him to like me, an impossible task, because he just doesn't. I keep thinking that if I could only win Noah's love, I would finally feel as if I've actually arrived at Harvard . . ." (Wurtzel 118). This is an example of yet another sexual relationship begun for all the wrong reasons.

With the exception of Souljah's married-man relationship, I can think of several people I know who have had relationships similar to those of Souljah and Wurtzel in college. Whether it be my next door neighbor in the dorm who was sleeping with a guy so that she wouldn't lose him or an old guy friend from high school who was having sex with a girl whose father owned a huge law firm in Houston so that he would have a great place to work in the summer, these types of actions are unfortunately commonplace. I am afraid that society has been too quick to say that the problem of young adults having casual sex has improved. The personal stories of these young adult authors prove that a problem still exists. I think that we are more aware of the consequences of casual, unprotected sex, but I know that this is not stopping young people from partaking in sexual activity. I hope that authors such as Zill and Robinson will become aware of the reality and not rely only on studies (there is no doubt in my mind that at least one person in that study of young adults lied about his or her sexual activity level!) when formulating hypotheses about today's youth. Our society must not put the issue of young adults' sexual activity on the back burner - it is still a problem.

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