And yes, after multiple generations that exploded the divorce rate in this country, you’ve got plenty of young people who are taking the institution of marriage a bit more seriously. (But don’t expect this to necessarily translate to being against gay marriage.)
The idea of being married to one person for 100 years or so (yes, the increase of technology is going to radically extend lifespan over the 21st century) sounds fine to me. Building a marriage is building a family — and institution-building is what Civic generations have been known for throughout American history.
Mila Kunis was born in 1983. Don’t be surprised if you start seeing more of this kind of thing in the coming years as more Gen Ys begin to rise into prominence in the culture. It’ll be much easier to see once the Gen Ys born in the mid ’90s get older.
Here’s hoping Kunis’s new movie is good (warning: trailer has a few profanities near the end):
Mila is awesome.. {swoon} [collapse] THUD!!
She is certainly an attractive and appealing young woman. How not to like a gal who accepted the Marine Sergeant’s invitation to the Marine Ball?!
Of course, she is NOT making any sort of moral judgement on casual sex though is she? If she had strong convictions about casual (pre-marital) sex, perhaps she would have turned down the role in that movie? After she turned down the role she could have gone on to publicly explain why she had done so.
Now THAT would have been impressive and had some impact other than this rather trivial sound bite.
I have not seen the movie but I suspect that the moral of the story is that that kind of friendship “with benefits” did not work out. I suspect they fall in love and live happily ever after.
That’s correct… this is a rom-com, and the setup is a FWB relationship. It has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is through disaster and out the other side into emotional stability and monogomy.
@keithp: So are you saying that Anthony Hopkins isn’t really against serial killers, since he played Hannibal Lecter? I suspect that practically nobody who plays Othello would actually smother a spouse. WWII films skate the edge of Godwin’s Law, so we’ll stop there.
If she had strong convictions about casual (pre-marital) sex, perhaps she would have turned down the role in that movie?
That’s breathtakingly dumb.
The mechanisms used to promote concepts are the same ones used to examine these and point out that they’re incorrect. The movie is a teaching mechanism. Better that she made the thing so as to teach viewers. If there’s no mechanism to teach young viewers the downside the only thing you have are movies that promote casual sex.
In the middle ages they used the same technique. It was called a morality play. You show the consequences of poor decisions.
If she had strong convictions about casual (pre-marital) sex, perhaps she would have turned down the role in that movie?
It’s called “Acting”.
Unless you think Anthony Hopkins doesn’t have strong convictions against eating human flesh with a side a fava beans.
Mila is smokin’ HOT.
Yes, I never understood the whole premise of having sex with a bunch of strangers either. Icky, gross and nasty? Yup. BLECH.
I’d rather have amazing sex with one person (and I DO) TYVM!
It’s a genital jungle out there. Herpes and genital warts can’t be avoided with condoms! EWWWWWWWWWWW!
We’re not prudish or anti-sex at all. But casual sex with partners you barely know is ….
… an excellent way to break the ice.
Charlie: Very funny. It should be as some comic said that in Hollywood people have sex, then they have children and then they start dating. Thank God that the new generation is coming to its senses. Love Mila (although the scene in Black Swan was most unnecessarily graphic…)
Well done. Props for the witticism.
and fall into the icy waters?
I’d do her.
Clever young lady. Go to wikipedia…. She came from modest circumstances. Her parents are Jewish refugees from Ukraine or Russia who got here 1980. She was thrown into the LA public school system knowing no English. It was sink or swim and she swimmed
Good luck to her!
Yo Rock,,,,errrr….parents got here in 1980, she was born in 1983 and she didn’t know English when she entered school? Do you mean they got here in 1990? Somehow this doesn’t sound right unless she was living in an American Russian speaking city and never left home until entering kindergarten.????????
Thanks for standing up for her, yes she is a great young lady.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mila_Kunis
They came to the US in ’91. She was 7. Started 2nd grade in LA not speaking a word of English.
Good on her. I’ll admit I wasn’t all that impressed by her before now. My bad for not looking below the superficial actress stereotype I was holding against her.
Kind of OT, but her experience is an excellent argument against bilingual education, at least in the lower grades. I also had total immersion into a school system (Italian) with no knowledge of the language when I was seven, and ended up being fluent in about a year’s time. Younger kids can pick up on this kind of stuff spectacularly well.
Kind of OT, but her experience is an excellent argument against bilingual education, at least in the lower grades.
Not off topic at all. She was forced to learn English by being put in all English classes in 1991, in the Los Angeles public school system. There may have been Spanish bi-lingual classes back then but I doubt there were Russian ones
Swam, swam
Why is everyone turning irregular verbs into regular verbs?
.
I feel like that Twilight Zone episode where the guy woke up and all the meanings of the English words had changed.
I love the Strauss and Howe references. Because I am a Baby Boomer, part of my life experience is having had my life options broadened by the “Sexual Revolution” and the women’s movement. There were many things that needed to be left behind; I like owning property in my own name and entering into financial transactions without need for a husband’s or father’s permission. I like that rape is understood to be an act of violence, not the result of a woman’s failure to wear a burka and stay home at night, and her fault at that. I like that I can have a job doing the heavy intellectual lifting on computer systems rather than being tracked into mere keypunching or data entry.
That said, there were things that were meant to be learning experiences, not a permanent new social order. It is so important that a new generation can choose monogamy and long-term commitment instead of having to make the one correct choice of life partner while young and inexperienced. I would not go back to the 1950s on a bet (except, perhaps, to be able to see Buddy Holly live).
Knowing what Strauss and Howe have to say about Idealist generations going experimental on sex and gender roles and Civic generations going traditional on them, I have been wondering what the 2020s are going to look like. From this post, I’m getting the idea that a very constructive synthesis may be in the works. I hope so. (And, after all, according to Strauss and Howe, you’ll have us Boomers around as the Elder role models, bwahahahaha!!!) Things won’t go back to the way they were; things that were pretty much mandatory in the past will be among a range of options. That they will be freely chosen, rather than coerced, will make a difference.
Go, Millennials, go! To quote a Boomer icon, “Every time that wheel goes around, bound to cover just a little more ground.”
“Won’t you try just a little bit harder? Couldn’t you try just a little bit more?”
Great comment! YES: “From this post, I’m getting the idea that a very constructive synthesis may be in the works.”
We grew up during the culture wars of the 1990s. And both sides won in their own ways.
I’m looking forward to the 2020s too, and hoping that we make it through this secular crisis (great debt and radical Islam) without taking too much damage.
Actually Kunis’s view is held by tons of liberals. It has nothing to do with political affiliation. If she were truly conservative, she would have proposed a Defense of Monogamy amendment to the Constitution that outlaws promiscuity. It would probably be endorsed by Newt Gingrich.
Actually Kunis’s view is held by tons of liberals.
No, not so much. But what is typical of tons of liberals is your poor attitude.
Really? Why teen pregnancy rates in red states so much higher than in blue states? Is it because conservatives are less promiscuous? I doubt it.
As a group, liberals are more sexually conservative than so-called conservatives. We simply don’t want idiots like Gingrich, Ensign, Clinton or Edwards legislating sexual morality.
You should speak for yourself and not pretend to speak for “liberals” “as a group.” You’re not a group spokesman.
As a group, liberals are more sexually conservative than so-called conservatives
No one is buying that. What a joke.
Liberals
Libertarians
Libertines
All similar. A libertarian is a liberal who wants tax cuts and to smoke pot.
Liberals are not less promiscuous than conservatives – they just kill their babies.
Aaron, I’m sorry Moira retort cuased you to go snippy and quote silly “statistics,” because you do have a point, sort of. I see no evidence that Ms. Kunis is a “conservative” ideologically, and you are correct that many people who are ideologically liberal, as that term is defined to day, do hold prudent, sober views on sexual behavior, personal finances, crime and punishment, you name it.
As a group, liberals are more sexually conservative than so-called conservatives. We simply don’t want idiots like Gingrich, Ensign, Clinton or Edwards legislating sexual morality.
????
First sentence is bizarre and sweeping. The second one makes no sense: Clinton and Edwards? Why are they on your liat?
“We simply don’t want idiots like Gingrich, Ensign, Clinton or Edwards legislating sexual morality.”
Which idiots would you prefer?
Hard for me to imagine living in a place with NO laws re: sexual morality.
No laws against sex in public places? How about laws making it illegal for people to have sex with two year old children?
I think maybe we need a few laws.
Why would you think conservatives would embrace something proposed by Gingrich?
Sarcasm Alert!
Mila Kunis is the product of Russian Jews who imigrated to America. She went to Fairfax High School, in the Fairfax district of LA, where my son later attended. Her teachers still talk about how intelligent she was. She started in the 70′s show when she was only 16.
Here is my personal input. I went to a Russian wedding and actually met Mila. I have to admit that I’m stupid because I didn’t recognize or know who she was. She was one of the most beautiful women I have ever met in my life time and I didn’t know who she was until I was told after the wedding. All I can remember was how beautiful she was. I have met other starlets, I don’t want to drop names. None compared to Mila.
Some people have that “star quality” whether the cameras are on or off. I remember seeing Julianne Moore with one of her kids going through the security line at Reagan National in 2007. Incredible! Even if you had had no idea who she was you would have been unable to take your eyes off her. It’s so much more than mere conventional good looks. It’s that strange, indefinable magnetic attraction.
Mila is ukranian not Russian. She started in That 70s Show at 14 not 16.
Casual sex may be destructive, but communism is orders of magnitude worse. Not a reasonable comparison.
Among other things, if you have a sexual encounter gone bad, you can walk away and learn from your experience. No such forgiveness with communism.
She’s just a kid…at a high level she’s right — both are bad ideas.
She was beign witty, and succeeded. For the purposes of the question she was asked, it was a perfectly fine, and funny, analogy. We also got to find out her head is screwed on right, since she knows communism is bad in practice.
“She started in the 70′s show when she was only 16.”
Not according to her bio on IMDB.
Auditioned for “That ’70s Show” (1998) at age 14. Though actors had to be at least 18 to get the part, she truthfully claimed she would be 18 on her birthday, not specifying which birthday, and won the role.
Clever girl. I graduate high school in 1975 and will neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of “That ’70s Show”.
I was a teen in the 70s, and I confirm the accuracy of “That 70s Show.”
I don’t think communism is any good in theory.
It might be forgivable to be a communist in 1910 but in 2010 it shows total stupidity.
Oh, the theory is great. The problem is that the theory assumes things about human nature that are not true.
That said, you can see successful communism – just look at any ant hill or bee hive.
“A Communist reads Marx and Lenin, a Conservative understands Marx and Lenin!”
okay.. i’m with Mila.. hope her star rises as far as it can.. hope these aren’t flukes for her… hollywood will crucify her if she ain’t got the fight in her…
The whole ‘safe sex’ condom campaign is clearly about promoting promiscuity at all costs and not health.
Why? Oral sex is the elephant in the room — in reality almost no one follows the advice about condoms or dental dams for going down. And the campaigners know it. If you’re afraid to put your crotch down there unprotected, why on earth would you put your face there? A recent study showed HPV spread by oral sex is the biggest cause of mouth cancers after tobacco.
Great sex is a bit messy. Having someone you trust enough to skip the latex is the definition of hot.
hot! very much.
smart. youbetcha.
Patriotic to boot.
talented too? really loved that 70′s show stuff.
pretty close to reality in a lot of ways.
she’s even Jewish.
Marry me. I’ll be your love slave.
Casual sex/”friends with benefits” is the emptiest, most uninspiring thing I’ve ever experienced. BLEH.
Been married over 25 years now. I’ve had more orgasms this week than I did the entire time I dated around. Love multiplies the sexual experience by 100000000%.
taxpayer. You obviously haven’t seen the movie. Casual sex didn’t work for them either…I think it was love at first sight. Neither would admit it.
My husband and I loved the movie. I don’t like all the sex in film. This one was handled better than most. I fell in love with Mila and even sorta liked Justin in it. It’s actually a smart, sweet love story. I think the marketing played on the sex scenes too much but certainly didn’t need to. I think Hollywood has got to get it through their thick sculls that folks who like rom-coms don’t need the sex scenes with them. The movie wasn’t too cornball or obnoxious as so many of them are today.
“…yes, the increase of technology is going to radically extend lifespan over the 21st century…”
Well, no, David, I wouldn’t count on it.
People always project the future from current trajectories. Things change. (For one thing, we may not be able to afford the research to extend your life expectancy to 120 or so.)
When you’ve lived as long as some of us have, you’ve seen a lot of trends double back. It’s always best not to be cocky. (No pun intended, really…)
Ray Kurzweil has a very good track record and compelling arguments. http://www.kurzweilai.net/
I hope there is a move away from the excessive empty promiscuity of the last few decades among the youth of today (not back to a repressive or prudish attitude – ain’t gonna happen anyway), but a more MOR approach. I gotta say I don’t see it, not among the Gen Yers. I see so much promiscuity among the youth (especially in Europe and America), I doubt it’s on the downturn, but who knows? I’m no expert here.
You know what they say about American girls? So easy. Maybe not so much anymore.. I hope so.
Yeah, I’m also very glad the excessive promiscuity of the last few decades is in decline, especially now that I’m married and can’t take advantage of it anymore. Hopefully the trend will have completely reversed itself by the time my children grow up.
And God help those whose timing is wrong. If one’s teenage years/young adulthood fell neatly between the end of the first “sexual revolution” and the ’90s recrudescence of promiscuity, one sympathizes with the youngsters who’ll suffer in the face of an impending SECOND historic dry spell. Celebrations of the latter is enough to raise the ol’ blood pressure.
FOX news just reported she backed out with the excuse, ahem, she is doing 2 movies simultaniously. Ya think she is playing hard to get?
Formal sex like Socialism is good at a tea party but Entrepreneurial sex like colonialism is a good way to spread disease.
“communism good in theory…”, not so! It is always a death-spiral / camp in practice b/c it is a bad theory – utterly at war with man’s nature and reality.
Well, it’s not “rebellious” anymore when EVERYBODY’S doing it.
And we’ve always adored Kunis. She’s never made the scandal rags for any more than a dynamite picture, God bless her. I have a huge problem with certain pundits calling her a “starlet”, though. She’s been working her acting buns off for years and was a most wrothy foil for Portman’s Oscar performance.
“casual sex with partners you barely know…even with a condom one might as well be sticking their privates in a blender — the damage done would be comparable.”
A bit hyperbolic, aren’t we. (Why? one wonders.)
It’s the blogosphere. Hyperbole is the currency.
Sure, eventually current attitudes will change. The question is when. Back in the 1990s when some young people decided they liked the old swing music more than rock, I thought that things were changing, but that trend died pretty quickly.
So now I’m pretty cautious about claims that current attitudes are changing.
Actually, one thing that communism has over modern “progressivism” is its _honesty_ of intent, i.e. that its theory is perfectly consummate with its practice. Communists do not try to pretend that their system is meant for the good of the able and productive – they tell you right out that they seek to shackle them so that the “masses” can reap the benefits that have been produced by others. True, they act surprised when this leads to destruction of all (including the proletariat), but that is a secondary flaw. The primary error is the theory itself, and this should have prevented any reasonable person from going down that path.
Progressives, on the other hand, would have us believe that their slightly less severe attempts to shackle the productive members of society are really for the benefit of the victims. They offer such nostrums as the the benefits of “diversity” or “level playing fields” or “efficient markets” as the justification for their myriad individual rights violations. But their underlying intent is along the same vector as that of the communists – to punish the productive and able members of society for the fact that they are productive and able.
They have lead us along the same path that communist societies have followed, just a bit slower. But, that is not through lack of effort.
Both conservatives and progressives are idealogues and theories most often don’t work. Unfortunately..conservatives want a third world country with mostly poor people and a few extremely wealthy at the top and progressives want a nanny state where no one is responsible for their own life and their choices. Welfare is a primary example, political correctness in speech . The truth
is always in the middle. Both parties are killing the middle-classes and the middle class is too apathetic and allowing it to happen. They’re more concerned about sports than politics. That’s why ours politics have become so hypocritical and corrupt in mostly a legal way of course.
“Unfortunately..conservatives want a third world country with mostly poor people ”
We do?
The funny thing about Hollywood- is that if you look at the actors- many of them become conservative in their personal lives after trying, and discarding, the “Hollywood lifestyle”
How long has Warren Beatty been married now? 20 years? Isn’t Jane Fonda now a born again Christian?
They don’t get the press- which I suspect knows that promiscuity sells more rags than monogamy.
Give The Onion a chance, and I’m sure they’ll get monogamy on their front page.
Well of course she will have a negative view of Communism. She was raised in the Soviet Union until she was 7 by Jewish parents, who got the full flavor of what it was like to live in a Socialist society to never wish something like that upon themselves again. The problem with most libs in US is that they spew their nonsense having absolutely no comprehension of what it is like to live in a society where their ideas predominate. Expat Cubans, Chinese, Russian Jews and others from former Soviet block don’t have that problem.
You forgot Ukrainians, Poles, Latvians all eastern europeans….
Ah……..haven’t you heard the latest?? She’s now bailed out of the Marine’s ball by putting her PR person up to say that she’ll be so busy in Nov — shooting 2 movies — that she couldn’t possibly come to the ball now! I wouldn’t be putting her up on that pedestal until she actually makes a real commitment to go to the ball!
Thanks for heads up: http://pajamasmedia.com/lifestyle/2011/07/14/is-mila-kunis-bailing-on-the-marine-ball/
Communism isn’t even good in theory.
Back in the Soviet union one of the commissars called his deputy to his office with a new job assignment.
“Ivan I want you to organize a brothel near the army base. It would be good for morale and we could use the income”
He calls him back after 3 months and holds up a ledger sheet. “Ivan, you have failed miserably! Nobody is coming to the brothel. We are losing money”
Ivan replies “I don’t understand either commissar. I did everything right. The place is nice and stocked with good vodka.
I hired only the best girls. Every one of them has been a loyal party member for at least 40 years”
Badaboom
Mila had the misfortune of being born in the Soviet Union. Luckily for her, she’s Jewish, so the Reds didn’t really want her family around and they were allowed to emigrate to the US when she was 7.
Sorry if someone already noted this, because I didn’t read through the comments, but didn’t her acceptance of this date go something like this: Timberlake: “will you do it?”
Mila: “I’ll do it for you…”
It doesn’t take all that much common-sense to realize communism is an enemy of a free people.
The only reason I can see all the fawning over this actress is because of her position in popular culture. It is undeserved.
#31–kb
There isn’t all that much common sense in Hollywood.
Mila Kunis Keeping Date with Marine
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/mila-kunis-keeping-date-marine-sgt-scott-moore/story?id=14073112
I’m not sure that casual sex is declining, so much as it may be finding new forms.
On the Internet.
With webcams and chat rooms, you can look at her naked, she can look at you naked, you can chat dirty to each other, you can send pornographic pictures and videos of yourself to each other, etc.
Isn’t that “casual sex” of a sort?
It’s certainly safer. You don’t have to fear STDs, just computer viruses.
And any twerp can play. Just ask Rep. Weiner.
I like this woman already! I liked her when she accepted the invite to the Marines Ball. Now I like her even more.
That lucky Marine had better make this work!