The short story Lust by Susan Minot is about a teenage girl who attends boarding school, you are given the sequential events of a fifteen-year-old girls sex life her parents are unaware of her life, they don’t really talk to her, they don't ask her questions, like a normal parent would do, but the main thing is that they don’t really care about who is she dating or who is she with. She begins by listing and briefly describing sexual encounters with fifteen different boys, she was within a boarding school. The first one she mentions is Leo their encounter was at the bottom of an empty swimming pool, Tim in the woods off campus; with Eben at night on the beach; with Mack during the hottest summer ever on an island; with Paul in Colorado with their sleeping bags zipped together; with Simon in the balcony of the school chapel, And many more guys. She even mentions that the birth control for them is like an aspirin, we can clearly see that they take this method as a joke. In the 1990’s when a teenager at this age, is forced to make decisions alone at such a young age their innocence is robbed from them and their development is lead down a path which they are not yet ready for, with the lack of attention from her parents and her school administrators, in other words, her society, they lead this teenage girl to believe that females were to be permissive to the dominant male figure. Still, until this day a lot of things have changed but most of them are still the same way, some people still believe that females are to be permissive to the dominant male figure, Teenagers learn about the health consequences of having sex, like pregnancy and STDs, but parents and the school teachers and counselors should talk to them about all the emotional and social consequences, This way they would know what’s happening with the main character of the story.
We can clearly see that she never felt something for one of the guys, she jumped from guy to guy, but she never felt connected to one of them. Susan mentions in the short story “ What are you complaining about?” says Jill to me when we talk about problems “Yeah,” says Giddy. “You always have a boyfriend.” I look at them and think, As if ” (Minot). She is having a conversation with her friends when they mention that she always has a boyfriend, but she really hasn't had a boyfriend because she doesn't have real feelings for them, their just sexual relations. With the switching boy, to boy, this shows us how the boys only cared about the girl’s body and not care about her feelings. This also allows the reader to get a sense of not having memories of someone she loves instead her mind is filled with just the sexual relations she has, without a real love relationship. Also, Susan mentions "feel yourself become a cave, filled absolutely with air or with a sadness that wouldn't stop" (Minot). She feels this way because she knows she would never have a relationship where she feels happy or complete, she only has sexual relations so she feels a certain emptiness because, in the end, she won't have a relationship where she is heard and loved.
The main problem of this situations is that teenagers are not getting the correct attention they need, neither form their parents or school administrators, like their teachers, counselors, etc. when kids learn about sexual relationships, the learn the biological definitions and physical intercourse, but they never learn about the emotional or social consequences. We can relate Lust to students not getting the right education, about learning all types of consequences they can have when they start having relationships. In the article Sexual Education Should Address Emotional Consequences written by Ilene Lelchuk, she concludes that student is not getting the right education on this subject,
And in sexual education classes, they said, teachers talk mostly about biology, rarely about emotions. The girls hanging out didn't want to talk at all about sex. The UCSF researchers concluded that parents and educators should talk more with their children about all consequences—physical, social and emotional—of oral sex as well as intercourse. The authors suggest it might be easier to convince adolescents to delay sex if adults acknowledge the benefits, such as feelings of intimacy, and then suggest other ways to achieve them."It gives them tools to make better decisions," Halpern-Felsher said.
In other words, parents and educators need to start talking about this more this way, what happens in Lust would stop happening, this social issue would stop happening.
All this problem can lead to teen dating violence or abuse when teens are not getting the right education all these problems can lead to major problems. In “Teen Dating” from Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. 2017, they mentioned that
The 2015 CDC survey of high school students found that nearly 10 percent of students who were dating had been physically hurt by a romantic partner and nearly 11 percent had been forced to engage in sexual behavior that they did not want to participate in. Although research is limited on LGBTQ teens, a study by the Urban Institute found that nearly 43 percent of gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens and 89 percent of transgender teens had experienced physical abuse in a dating relationship. Teenage victims of relationship abuse or violence face an increased risk of substance abuse, eating disorders, and risky sexual behaviors. Teen girls in abusive relationships are also six times more likely to become pregnant than their peers. Parents and friends of teenagers are encouraged to learn the warning signs of abusive or violent dating relationships. Abusive partners may exhibit extreme jealousy or possessiveness, an explosive temper, or severe mood swings. They may also belittle their partner, make false accusations, and isolate them from their family and friends. Many resources are available to help victims of teen dating abuse.
Like in Lust the teenager was aware of everything she was doing but she never felt something, neither loved anything from one of the guys, so practically in her head she wanted something with someone but she never gain that, this can lead to teen dating violence or abuse, because they just want to be with someone no matter what, she wouldn't care the way they were treating her, like susan mentioned “I sat between Mac and Eddie in the front seat of the pickup. They were having a fight about something. I’ve a feeling about me.” She knew they were fighting about her, she was sitting in the middle so anything could have happened to her, and she never did anything to stop them, she never did anything to get out of the car she went with the flow. the narrator's feelings disillusionment portrays that she doesn't enjoy the pleasures that men give her. She feels like an object and somehow can't understand herself why exactly she has sex with them. She feels used, silenced, and irrational. This relates back to her catharsis because she's allowing herself to express, through her experiences, what she is feeling, her internal opinion.
Without the help of someone, she wasn’t able to recognize why she was doing this, she needed the help but no one was really there so she believes that females were to be permissive to the dominant male figure. This is why adults like the parents and educators should start educating the next generations of the teenagers the health, physical, emotional, and social consequences they can have. Having sex with multiple guys didn't help her feel loved or secure like she wished because she knew she was simply being used. Although she knew this, she felt like it was better than not having anything. Until this day some female still feel this way, they know they in a bad relationship where they don’t feel any connection or they simply don’t understand what they're doing, but still there with the male who is no good for them. But still, guys take advantage of this situations because, they think it’s ok to play with female emotions and make them feel a way just so they can have what they want, and ones they received what they were looking for they leave.