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I came to like the fore more than the play. I'd think back wistfully on pre-sex teenaged days spent rolling around naked with my girlfriend with a hard-on that could've drilled through dry-wall, feeling myself throbbing against her stomach as her legs held me like a vice, tasting her ten-dollar M.A.C.-adorned toes for the first time, kissing deeply long after the lipstick and gloss had worn off. Sex, as a destination, was disappointing, and once I'd gotten there, I couldn't remember how to get anywhere else. With so much flesh to be explored (to run your fingertips over, to test the dexterity of your tongue against, to drink the sweat from, to clench between your teeth) what was the rush to hurry up and get off? Why the haste? Why no lingering? I felt like I was touring Willy Wonka's factory on a rollercoaster.

Maybe I came of age with the first generation of girls who don't enjoy foreplay. . . but why not? In my experience, girls just wanted credit for getting between the sheets, without spending too much time there. It's as if sexual empowerment and Gossip Girl and all the rest made the act so symbolic for them, the symbolism itself became the pleasure. What before counted as physical stimulation was less part of the equation — all but forgotten in the availability and hipness of the deed.

I felt like I was touring Willy Wonka's factory on a rollercoaster.

Unfortunately for me, someone who'd grown up in the PC world of upper-middle-class suburbia and spent his formative years learning to embrace his femininity, this just wasn't what I had been prepped for.

It's been more than two years since I've had sex. Looking in the rearview mirror, I miss Sleater-Kinney, cocaine, and the Gossip's original drummer, but I can honestly say that I don't miss sex. I don't miss worrying about "closing the deal" in the amount of time deemed "normal" by a CW teen drama. And I don't miss looking down at a girl after finishing and thinking, "I really meant to spend at least half an hour between your breasts, yet now, oddly enough, all I crave is pizza." For the time being, I'm happier doing the abusing myself. Even Moz's recent admission that maybe intercourse isn't as despicable as the Cure after all hasn't yet brought me around. All I want is someone who doesn't get their power-up points from each new dick that goes into them, and someone who doesn't get their cues on bedroom exploration from Angelina Jolie. And if she happens to be named Snow or Violet, well. . .  

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Izzy Cihak is a card-carrying member of the most despicable and irritating community in the literary world: "music journalists." As a writer and editor for High Voltage Magazine, he can regularly be heard critically analyzing Belle and Sebastian B-sides and arguing that Psychic TV truly is superior to Throbbing Gristle. Izzy's other interests are equally as pretentious, including downtown burlesque, the eroticism of Weimar Berlin, and the New French Extremity. His writing has appeared in Baltimore City Paper, Burning Angel, OrigiVation, Girl Punk.Net, and Lyke Magazine.

Comments ( 24 )

Um I'm pretty sure he just made thousands of women want to undo his celibacy.

emf commented on Apr 23 09 at 11:55 am

Wow. That was some intense writing! Good read, and hope you get over it. Or not.

CH commented on Apr 24 09 at 12:02 am

i had the same reaction you did: jesus. you're not fucked up, you're just gay. and if you really have a big dick, you will be welcome. side note: ron would easily fit in kate, as long as she helps him rise to the occasion.

dwp commented on Apr 24 09 at 12:52 am

If the one comment is true, then maybe I am not straight and I don't know it. What I do know is that, even though I am a woman (and hence some of the details do not apply), I have very similar feelings.

OA commented on Apr 23 09 at 1:04 pm

Of course - musicians understand the space between the notes. It makes sense.

JPM commented on Apr 23 09 at 2:51 pm

you don't have to be gay to skip sex for awhile. i think that was me from age 19-22. now of course i want to fuck "you" like an animal, know "you" from the inside, etc. also, i love titties. that is all.

jim commented on Apr 23 09 at 3:37 pm

Yeah, romance is dead. Just check out "The Purity Myth" piece. People are only interested in the big ideas about sex, whether it makes you cooler, dirtier, good, or bad, the politics of it, what it says about women, more bullshit, etc. No one's in it for the meaningful connection or even the enjoyment anymore. That's why it's nice to fall in love first, if you guys still believe in that kind of thing.

JL commented on Apr 23 09 at 8:15 pm

This only makes me think that when you meet Snow or Violet you will be really bad fuck. Sex is only good with practice and experience. Sorry that is a fact. Taking your self off the market well you have to do what you have to do but I think it is about more than just sex. But if it is about sex you arent going to become better at it. Perhaps you should find Jesus or therapy.

rlp commented on Apr 23 09 at 8:56 pm

I am going to add stop fucking liitle girl find an older woman, who is sophicated and horney not road trash.

commented on Apr 23 09 at 8:58 pm

Dude doesn't have to have sex if he doesn't want to. Nothing gay or wrong with that.

wtf commented on Apr 24 09 at 2:33 am

His first girlfriend would yell "hurry up" and "make it hurt less"? Dude, it sounds like he was possibly raping her. NOT Cool.

EC commented on Apr 24 09 at 6:19 am

Wow! Glad I'm in my 50's. When I was young, horny and trying everything, it just branded me a slut. But at least I enjoyed what I was doing. I decided right from the start that mediocre sex isn't worth the douche afterward. (This is from the pre-condom days, when women who had any sense of keeping a clean snatch actually douched.)

JM commented on Apr 24 09 at 10:08 am

I'm sorry, I completely missed the point of what you were saying because you are so fucking beautiful. Marry me; (it's legal in all 50 states!) I will keep you in platform shoes and satin camisoles and glitter scarves for as long as your heart desires.

ev commented on Apr 24 09 at 1:02 pm

I was thinking it might be reverse psychology. Maybe I'll use that line in my personals ad.
If it is serious, dude get over yourself. 80's mope rock was only decent in the 80's and is now just happy nostalgia.
Sex is here, now, forever. Take some dance lessons so you can learn to handle a woman in a way that doesn't hurt her and that she enjoys. It will please your pretentious musical self to be able to enjoy music kinetically as well as aurally. Trust me on this one.

Dan commented on Apr 24 09 at 1:56 pm

That was a beautiful piece of writing and, I think, quite accurate. As a woman in my twenties, I see that sex for my female friends (and myself, for a while) has become nothing more than a good story. The use it as a way to bond with their female friends. It's more about getting together for brunch with the girls after and telling them about the crazy night you had than it is about the experience itself.

ls commented on Apr 24 09 at 6:50 pm

I'm also celibate at the moment. By choice, yes, but due to the lack of intimacy on offer by the men I've dated in NYC. I'm plenty horny, I love sex, I fantasize, masturbate and am turned on by men right and left. But I won't give in to the temptation, since I know how much is missing in the bit of casual sex I've had when I was trying to date. Now, I won't go to bed with a man in hopes that it will extend to him whatever feelings I'm having. I won't know exactly when the right time is, but I do know the time is not now.

LB commented on Apr 24 09 at 11:53 pm

To people who read older lady: Douching is INCREDIBLY bad for your vaginal flora. Yeast infection or bacterial vaginosis is not a "clean snatch."

duh commented on Apr 25 09 at 5:44 pm

Love it.

BY commented on Apr 26 09 at 3:31 pm

You sound like a confused individual. "The first generation of girls who don't like foreplay"? What makes you think, based on a few bad encounters, that we ALL (the entire freaking generation) get our sex cues from 'Gossip Girl'? Maybe you just have horrible taste in women, or maybe you're bad in bed yourself and that's why sex isn't enjoyable. MANY of us girls still like long, slow, toe-curling foreplay as we have for centuries, without the aid of trends or TV shows. We just don't like it with superficial sexists such as yourself, which is why you're left with your hand.

JCB commented on Apr 28 09 at 8:15 pm

Also, calling the woman who took your virginity a "chubby hick" is just so KLASSY, I'm amazed Snow and Violet aren't pounding your door down. You have issues.

JCB commented on Apr 28 09 at 8:20 pm

The bad similes make this essay unreadable. Were the editors sleeping on the job?

commented on Apr 30 09 at 3:21 pm

Celibacy is not what makes this article seem gay. Its the tight pants and the fact the author has apparently never once enjoyed sex with women. And he doesn't seem asexual. It seems strange that all the women hes met simply don't enjoy sex adn are doing it for bedpost notches or out of the feeling they "should;" sounds more like what he was doing.

the "make it hurt less" bit was gross. If a woman says that to you, you should stop. If a woman beats your chest with her fist, that is not really a good sign that mutual consent or fun is taking place. If you are gay, you will 1) either stop hating women as much when you realize it or 2) at least stop fucking them so your misogyny wont matter that much.

gk commented on May 18 09 at 11:21 am

So the point of the article isss...Ugh, my relationships as a teen were just so stressy and girls couldn't keep up with my skillz. Sorry world, guess I'll just have to try celebacy. Siiiiggghhhhh...

Has it not occurred to the author that maybe he's not getting laid simply because he's an asshole?

MADP commented on Jul 09 09 at 6:50 pm

This article made me smile and sigh with frustration. I'm a slim, quirkily pretty girl with an eccentric fashion sense of my own and a grand total of 2 sex partners at age 27...and I would LOVE to meet a guy with the author's ideals and aesthetic...except that I'd be terrified he would mock me for my unironic love of cheesy 80's rock and geek metal.

DS commented on Aug 21 09 at 2:08 am

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