I agree, and this is information young women must hear. Makes me sad. These words, so neatly typed on the page, spell the personal unhappiness of so many.
However on this:
That is not what girls want. For girls, sex without affection is hollow and eventually degrading. (To understand the soul-deadening effects of male-female relations without moral constraints, watch the unutterably sad TV series Girls.) Elevated rates of cutting, burning, binge drinking and anorexia amongst girls — not boys — suggest that today’s cultural trends are harmful to girls.
I would nuance it, a bit. I understand she was speaking to an audience of girls. But trends toward casual sex and a lack of commitment have led boys down a thorny garden path too, filled with porn, prostitution, poor habits, lack of motivation, laziness and general immaturity.
So while we tend to (and I tend to, simply because I am a woman) focus on the negatives for girls, there are negatives for boys, too. Of course, this makes sense, and I doubt very much that Barbara Kay would disagree–it just wasn’t her focus for this short piece.
by 
I agree with you that Barbara Kay was focused on girls and would see that the thorny path is indifferent to one being man or woman.
I appreciate her comments that the counsel these young women have received in their education is worth while. On the other hand there are alternative educational models that assume: 1. youth will be sexually active when many are not and many wish they were not and @. youth can make ‘healthy choices’ despite research on adolescent brain development and the complexity of social/sexual situations showing this is not the case. These alternative programs which are some times called ‘safe sex’ are giving results. Statistics in the Province of New Brunswick which introduced such a program a few years ago show a significant increase in STD’s and pregnancy. The ‘experts’ are saying this is due to tough economic times. Perhaps it has to do with telling youth they are expected to be sexually active and telling youth they can make choices about something they do not have the development for.