Who wants to be a macho macho girl?

"There is a kind of machismo among girls now," he said. "They have the male-conquest attitude." Mr. Beckerman is the author of "Generation SLUT," to be published next year by Simon & Schuster/MTV Books. SLUT stands for "sexually liberal urban teenagers," and his book is a plea for a return to more chaste behavior. He surmised that girls may be trying to transform sex into something as meaningless as they believe it is for boys.

"All kids are scared of long-term relationships now," Mr. Beckerman said. "Our parents are all divorced, and we have never seen a successful long-term relationship. Girls don't want to think of sex as something which is about love because that will just come back and bite them later. The sex thing is just the most visible sign of disconnectedness we feel."

Can I say yeah to this one? Call it whatever you want: as the trickling down of feminism or an effect of global warming, but I think it's a good thing. We've been told that girls shouldn't just stay at home, to go out and get it. Whatever "it" means -- a great job, education, sex -- it's just about freaking time. For some it means drinking or smoking as much, but hell, if girls wanted to booze up or burn up their lungs, fine. Role reversal is a good thing sometimes, when you're put in the role of hunter rather than prey.

But then of course, it might take years to totally rewire everything.