HOW I GOT RADICALIZED
Unlearning Toxic Taboos With Carmen Electra’s Stripper Workout Video
The sexual politics of the 2000s were profoundly weird and confusing
Welcome to “How I Got Radicalized,” a series from GEN that tells the story of a cultural moment that made you drastically rethink how society works.
In the teen movies of the 2000s, the kids always seemed to be drinking at house parties (on weeknights!), necking with boys (on weeknights!), and going to prom to drink and neck with boys. In my small group of close girlfriends in high school, our vices were far more circumspect, but daring in their own right. There were five of us in the inner circle, all from strict-ish Asian-American households in the dizzyingly diverse, immigrant-heavy suburbs of Dallas that still managed to feel like a cultural wasteland. We fell into deep, easy friendships because there were things that didn’t need explaining. Yes, the thermostat has to be kept at a balmy 83 degrees in the summer. No, obviously I cannot stay out past 10 p.m. Yes, I am stooping slightly from bearing the weight of my parents’ hopes and dreams, thank you for asking.
We spent our Friday nights having our minds blown by uncensored episodes of Sex and the City, which we watched with the volume low, pretending…
