GOSSIP GIRL [Book 1] Recap: “Sex Kitten” Blair Waldorf (Part 2)

Blair Waldorf

In book 1 of Gossip Girl, Cecily von Ziegesar wrote that Blair Waldorf “Turned seventeen on Bastille Day” and that Blair was “pretty hot” with “long, dark brown hair” who could easily go from a “proper preppy” schoolgirl to a “sex kitten”. Ziegesar wrote:

“Blair tucked her long, dark brown hair behind her ears and swigged her mother’s fine vintage scotch from the crystal tumbler in her hand. She was already on her second glass.”

That summer Blair: “Turned seventeen on Bastille Day [...]”

Blair could go from “proper preppy” to “her trashy, pointed, knee-high boots and that sexy metallic skirt her mother hated. Poof—rock star sex kitten. Meow.”

In terms of (underage) drinking (of expensive scotch), Blair and her Upper East Side friends could drink “whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted”, and they could have teen “sex or [do] drugs—as long as” they “kept up appearances”. Ziegesar wrote:

Luckily Blair and her friends came from the kind of families for whom drinking was as commonplace as blowing your nose [...] Blair and her friends could drink whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, as long as they maintained their grades and their looks and didn’t embarrass themselves or the family by puking in public, pissing their pants, or ranting in the streets. The same thing went for everything else, like sex or drugs—as long as you kept up appearances, you were all right.

At the dinner party in the Waldorf penthouse, which had a view of Fifth Avenue and Central Park, Cyrus Rose, Blair’s soon-to-be father-in-law, asked 17-year-old Nate, in reference to Blair, “You sleep with her yet?” Consequently, “Nate turned redder than the upholstery on the eighteenth-century French chaise next to him.”

That previous Easter, in a hotel room, Blair gifted Nate a “moss-green cashmere V-neck sweater”, which “looked so good on him that Blair wanted to scream and rip all her clothes off.” Really?

Subsequently, they kissed, Nate pulled Blair onto the hotel bed, and he undressed her.

They kissed for a long time [...] Nate twined his fingers in Blair’s hair and pulled her down on the hotel bed.

Blair put her arms above her head and let Nate begin to undress her [...]

And two nights prior to the dinner party, in Blair's bedroom, Nate: “[...] had lain down on her bed and murmured, “I want you, Blair.” However, on both occasions, they did not have sex, because Blair wanted to wait until she turned 17, but after “another sip of her scotch” at the dinner party, 16-year-old Blair “was definitely ready.” Ziegesar wrote:

Blair wasn’t trying to be a tease, she just wasn’t ready.

She had wanted to wait to have sex until her seventeenth birthday next month.

But now [at the dinner party] she was through with waiting.

And, just like that, Blair knew she was ready. She took another sip of her scotch. Oh, yes. She was definitely ready.

“Don’t forget to use protection,” Chuck [Bass] called, raising his glass at Blair and Nate as they turned down the long, red-carpeted hallway to Blair’s bedroom.

“I’m about to have sex with Nate [in my bedroom, during my mother’s dinner party],” Blair “thought giddily,” but to Blair’s dismay, Serena arrived at the dinner party, which meant that Blair had to wait again.

Determined to have sex, Blair emailed Nate, via her prep school email address, to inform him that she really wanted him to spend the night in her bedroom.

TO: narchibald@stjudes.edu

FROM: blairw@constancebillard.edu

 

Dear Nate.

I miss you. Monday night was supposed to be really special. Before we got interrupted [...] I just wanted to tell you that I’m ready to do it [...] My Mom and Cyrus are going away on Friday and I really want you to sleep over. I love you. Call me.

Love,

Blair.

Consequently, readers learned via a Gossip Girl (i.e., Ziegesar) post that Blair went to the Zitomer Pharmacy to purchase a pack of Lifestyles Extra-Long Super-Ribbed condoms. Gossip Girl surmised that Blair knew to get Extra-Long condoms, because Blair and Nate previously “had done everything but.” 

After leaving Zitomer’s, Blair went to J. Sisters for a painful Brazilian bikini wax, which Gossip Girl opined, “But believe me, it’s worth it.”

Blair planned to: “knock back a few drinks” (i.e., “Ketel One and tonic. Extra limes”) with Serena in the Star Lounge in the Tribeca Star Hotel and then: “leave early, go home, fill her room with candles, take a bath, and wait for Nate to come. And then they’d have [“wild”] sex all night long [...]”

After Blair told her doorman to send Nate up, she got naked, and the “bad girl” spritzed “once between her legs.” Ziegesar wrote:

“Yes, send him up,” she told the doorman. She unbuttoned her jeans and flew back to her room, wriggling out of them. Then she pulled the rest of her clothes off and tossed them into the closet. Naked, she spritzed herself with her favorite perfume, even spritzing once between her legs.”

Oooh, bad girl.

Once Nate entered the penthouse, with no need for foreplay, Blair demanded, “Just hurry up and take your clothes off.” Blair was ready. Her bedroom was “a blaze of candles”, she had chilled red wine, and she was beautifully naked. Ziegesar wrote:

Blair’s room was a blaze of candles. A bottle of red wine was open on the floor, with two glasses beside it. Blair knelt down and poured each of them a glass like a little geisha. She felt more comfortable naked in the darkness of her room.

She was naked, and she was beautiful.

Upon seeing Nate’s (teen) erection, which Ziegesar wrote “looked like it was going to take over the world’, Blair murmured, gaping at Nate’s hard-on, “What about a condom or something?”

However, once again to Blair’s dismay, before they could have sex, Nate shared with Blair that he had sex with Serena. Consequently, Blair called Serena a “nasty, slutty bitch”, Nate “pathetic”, and Blair demanded, “Get the fuck out [...]” Ziegesar wrote:

“Blair threw the quilt off her shoulders and stood up. “I knew it!” she shouted. “Who hasn’t had sex with Serena? That nasty, slutty bitch!” 

“I’m sorry, Blair. But it wasn’t like, planned or anything,” Nate said. “It just happened. And it was only that one time, promise. I just didn’t want you to think this was my first time, when it wasn’t. I had to tell you.”

“Get the fuck out of here, Nate,” she said, angry tears sluicing her cheeks. “I can’t even look at you. You’re pathetic.”

-----

Gossip Girl had a very interesting take on what happened or did not happen between Blair and Nate. In THE VIRGIN ISSUE post, Gossip Girl wrote that Nate’s behavior was unbelievable and not worthy of admiration, because he was “thisclose to getting a nice slice of B pie”. And Gossip Girl wrote that, in reality, Blair would have preferred that Nate “kept his mouth shut” and not have been morally conscious about sharing that he previously had sex with Serena, whom just happened to have been Blair’s (previous) best friend. Gossip Girl assumed (correctly) that a boy would do “anything to bag a virgin.” Gossip Girl posted:

Can you believe N? He was thisclose to getting a nice slice of B pie, if you know what I mean. I guess we’re supposed to admire his self-control, his ability to keep the old hot dog in the bun. But I bet B really wouldn’t have minded too much if N had just kept his mouth shut and got on with it instead of getting all moral on her and telling her all about his time with S. I mean, who’s B going to lose it to now?”

“I was wrong about boys. I always thought they’d do anything to bag a virgin. I mean, I thought N would like the idea that B has never done it [...] So disappointing.

-----

Serena and Blair

Prior to their teen love triangle with Nate, Serena and Blair had been best friends. For example, in addition to enjoying “cocktails at the Star Lounge in the Tribeca Star Hotel”, they would smoke cigarettes and drink Coke in Central Park during the school day. After school, they would “pee in the downstairs entrances to their classmates’ brownstones and then ring the doorbells and run away.” Ziegesar wrote:

She [i.e., Serena] and Blair would walk to school together, spend Double Photography in Sheep Meadow in Central Park, lying on their backs, taking pictures of pigeons and clouds, smoking and drinking Coke [...] They would have cocktails at the Star Lounge in the Tribeca Star Hotel again [...] They’d pee in the downstairs entrances to their classmates’ brownstones and then ring the doorbells and run away. 

And readers learned via the Gossip Girl post S AND B: HOT IN THE HOT TUB! that Blair and Serena shared a girl-on-girl kiss in the hot tub in Chuck’s Tribeca Star Hotel suite; however, Gossip Girl didn’t know if the kiss was serious or silly. Gossip Girl posted:

[...] back when they were still tight, S and B shared a hot hot-tub moment together in C’s suite in the Tribeca Star. Was the kiss an expression of their true feelings for each other? Or were they just messing around like two silly drunk girls? 

The kiss happened “during a very drunken night at the end of 10th grade”; thus, Serena and Blair were ≈ 16-years-old. While they were “soaking in the hot tub”, “Blair had kissed Serena full on the lips.” However, due to being inebriated, Serena didn’t appear to remember the kiss, but “Blair never forgot it.”

Lastly, in addition, based on the photographs that Chuck kept in the suite, Blair was naked when she kissed nude Serena in the hot tub. Ziegesar wrote:

“On the coffee table in the living room was a pile of photographs.”

“Blair, Nate, Chuck, Isabel, Kati, everyone was in them, naked in the hot tub, dancing in their underwear, drinking champagne in bed. They were all party shots from last year—the date was in the corner of each one—and they were all taken in the suite.”

Netflix’s and Flatiron Books’ HIS & HERS: Age-Gap Orgy in Woods, Oral for A in Classroom, and Sleepover Sex in Bedroom!

After I studied His & Hers (2026), I searched for the differences between the #1 Netflix series and the Best of #BookTok novel, and the results were, in hindsight, shockingly understated, because it was not until I compared the two did I learn the scandalous differences. 

Here’s the publisher’s (understated) synopsis for Alice Feeney’s His & Hers: A Novel (Flatiron Books, 2020):

When a woman is murdered in Blackdown, a quintessentially British village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Detective Jack Harper is suspicious of her involvement, until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation. Someone isn’t telling the truth, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.

When Anna matriculated at St. Hilary’s High School for Girls, 15-year-old Rachel took her “under her wings”. Rachel, who was described as “slim, [and] pretty” with “pretty blue eyes”, “pretty feet”, “beautiful blond hair”, and “snow white skin”, taught Anna how to apply makeup, and Rachel got Anna “little presents all the time”, like, “lip gloss [...] tops and skirts that were a tad too tight”, and for “an early birthday present”, “a small bottle of [diet] pills”.

Rachel didn’t understand why Anna wanted to invite Catherine, whom was described as a “lonely-looking girl, with hair and eyebrows so blond, they were almost white”, to join their table at lunch. After Rachel said, “You know, being too nice is a sign of weakness,” she “picked up her can of Coke and left the cafeteria. “Rachel returned a few minutes later” and encouraged Anna to invite Catherine to their table. After Catherine arrived, Rachel apologized for any past indiscretions, and she offered Catherine her Coke.  

His & Hers (2026): Rachel's "Piss"

“Five excruciating minutes later”, Catherine “[...] tilted her head right back, and took several gulps before realizing that something was wrong.” 

“You just drank my piss!” said Rachel, an enormous smile on her face once more.

Before it happened, Rachel, who was apparently into (teen) urophilia, had written a note to Anna: 

I pissed in the Coke can. If you tell her before she drinks it, then you’ll be the one sitting alone at lunch tomorrow. 

Unsurprisingly, Anna narrated, in reference to Anna: “[...] below the beautiful exterior, she had an ugly streak.” “Doing something wrong was often the only thing that made her feel right.”

In episode 3 of the series, Anna asked, in reference to Catherine, “Maybe we should invite her over?” Rachel replied, “Bring her to our table. I’m gonna go get another Coke.” Catherine reluctantly joined Anna, Helen, and Zoe. When Rachel returned, she accidentally knocked over Catherine’s beverage, and she insisted that Catherine drink her beverage. After taking two sips of Rachel’s beverage, Catherine said, “Tastes like something’s in it.” Rachel said, “There is. Piss,” and Rachel announced to other schoolgirls in the cafeteria, “She just drank my piss!”

Thus, in the novel, Catherine consumed “several gulps” of Rachel’s urine, but in the series, streamers watched Catherine take two sips. 

A week later in the novel, Rachel, surprisingly “the most popular” girl in Anna’s class, arrived at Anna’s house for a surprise sleepover. 

“I thought we’d have a sleepover; both our mums said it was okay!” Rachel said, running up the front path holding an overnight bag. 

After dinner, in Anna’s room, Rachel asked, “It’s warm tonight, isn’t it?” And then Rachel: "[...] unbuttoned her shirt, letting it fall to the floor, before reaching behind her back to unhook her bra.” 

Before Anna could fully change into her “PJs”, Rachel requested to take Anna’s photo. After Rachel took several photos of half-dressed Anna, Rachel “removed the rest of her clothes”, perused Anna’s posters and books, and climbed into bed beside Anna “still naked, and turned off the light.”

His & Hers (2026): Teen Anna (Kristen Maxwell)

Moments later, Rachel “slipped” her hand inside of Anna’s pyjama bottoms and kissed Anna. After Rachel was finished, she “slid her wet fingers” across Anna’s tummy and whispered, “That was nice, wasn’t it?” Anna narrated:

Then Rachel slipped her hand inside my pyjama bottoms, and I almost forgot how to breathe altogether.

‘Shh,’ she said, before kissing me on the cheek.

I didn’t move and I didn’t say anything. I just lay there, and let her touch me in a place that I had never been touched before. When she was finished, she slid her wet fingers across my tummy and wrapped her arm around my waist. She squeezed me tight, as though I were a favourite doll, then whispered something in my ear before falling asleep. 

“After a couple of months”, Rachel aggressively asked Helen, with her “Cleopatra-style black hair” and “check-bones so defined”, to write Rachel’s and Anna’s “English essays for Monday”, because they needed an A. Otherwise: “Anna won’t be allowed to have her birthday party next weekend.”

On Monday, after they turned in their essays to Mr. Richardson, the English teacher and an aspiring writer, Rachel “dragged” Anna into a bathroom cubicle, closed the door, and demanded, “Take your shirt off.” (Rachel made Catherine guard St. Hilary’s bathroom door, otherwise Rachel threatened to make Catherine do something worse than, “[...] drink piss out of a Coke can.”)

After Rachel unclasped Anna’s bra, Rachel gifted Anna, à la (teen) Paris Hilton, a Wonderbra.

“It’s a Wonderbra! I never wear anything else now; you’re going to love it,” said Rachel

“Look how much bigger they are now!” Rachel said [...] 

Next, Rachel “slowly applied” “strawberry-flavoured lip balm” “with her fingertip” to Anna’s lips. Then Rachel kissed Anna while Catherine watched as Anna “pushed her tongue inside” of Anna's mouth. Anna narrated:

She took a tiny tin of strawberry-flavoured lip balm out of her bag, and slowly applied some to my lips with her fingertip [...]  and kissed me.

[...] Catherine [...] stared at us the entire time Rachel’s lips were on mine. I stood as still as a statue while she pushed her tongue inside my mouth, fully aware that someone was watching.

[...] when Rachel kissed me again, I closed my eyes and kissed her back. 

His & Hers (2026): Wonderbra

In episode 4 of the series, in Anna’s bedroom, Anna modeled a new pink Juicy Couture velour tracksuit for Rachel, but she told Rachel that she couldn’t wear the pants outside unless she “cover[ed] the part that says ‘Juicy’.” And Anna she asked Rachel, “What do you think?” As Rachel rubbed the skin between Anna’s top and bottom, Rachel replied, “I think it’s super cute.” Then Rachel said, “I got something [for you] too. You can wear it to your [sweet sixteen] party next week. It’s a Wonderbra.” 

Rachel urged Anna to try on the Wonderbra immediately to “see if it works”, which it apparently did, because Rachel opined that Anna looked “amazing” and “so fuckin’ hot” in the Wonderbra.

Anna, “Thanks Rach.”

Rachel, “Try it on.”

Anna, “Right now?”

Rachel, “Well, don’t you wanna see if it works? I won’t look.”

Rachel, “Your tits look amazing! You’re so fuckin’ hot.”

His & Hers (2026): Anna Models for Rachel

Subsequently, Zoe, Helen, and Catherine arrived. Zoe brought a bottle of vodka, and Helen complemented Anna, “Shit. You look hot.” As Zoe poured drinks, Rachel said, “Let’s get some pics.” 

Anna protested, “Wait, let me put my top back on.”

Rachel protested, “Come on, pose. Like a model.”

Anna acquiesced and posed like a teen bra model in her new Wonderbra for Rachel’s Polaroids. 

Thus, in the novel, Rachel gifted Anna the Wonderbra in St. Hilary’s bathroom, where they shared a girl-on-girl kiss while Catherine watched and guarded the door, but in the series, Anna received the Wonderbra in her bedroom, where she modeled it for Rachel’s camera. 

In the novel, Rachel and Anna, in their field hockey kilts, were “pulled out of gym class”, because they had been “caught cheating” by Mr. Richardson. Anna was distraught, but Rachel told Anna, “Try not to worry,” Rachel promised Anna that “everything will be okay,” and she told Anna to “meet me in our secret place”. 

Shortly thereafter, Rachel returned “with a big smile on her face”, asked for gum, informed Anna that she needed to brush her teeth, and told Anna that they both got A grades on their English essays. 

“Ten minutes later, she appeared in the clearing with a big smile on her face.

‘Don’t suppose you’ve got a mint or some chewing gum?’ she asked.

I shook my head.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll get some later. Need to brush my teeth too.’

‘Why?’

‘Never mind,’ she said, then hugged me. ‘Everything is OK again, you don’t need to worry. We’ll both get A grades for those essays we just handed in [...] .’

Somehow, Anna didn’t conceptualize that Rachel had performed oral sex on Mr. Richardson for two As. Thus, after Rachel dismissed more of Anna’s inquiries, she slid her hand up Anna’s kilt and pushed Anna’s “knickers to one side”. Once Anna’s “knees started to shake”, Rachel let her “lie down on the forest floor”, where she let Rachel “do whatever she wanted.”

“I don’t understand. How did you get Mr Richardson to change his mind?”

“Doesn’t matter,”’ she whispered, then slid her free hand up my hockey skirt.

Her fingers pushed my knickers to one side [...] When my knees started to shake, she let me lie down on the forest floor, and, as usual, I let her do whatever she wanted.

“Feel better?” she asked afterwards.

“[...] we should head back to the changing rooms,” Rachel said. “Do you have any chewing gum in your bag when we get there?”

Due to Rachel’s need for a mint, chewing gum, and the urgency to brush her teeth, readers can safely infer that she finished her English teacher orally. 

At Anna’s 16th birthday party, Rachel made tequila slammers, which made Anna feel “pretty drunk.” After more drinks, Rachel, Helen, Zoe, Anna, and Catherine “all did one another’s hair and makeup.” Zoe, with her “strawberry blond hair” and “pierced belly button”, brought some “skimpy dresses, low-cut tops, and skirts so short they looked like belts”. Interestingly, since Zoe was known at St. Hilary’s to be good with a sewing machine, à la Gwyneth Paltrow, “half the school[girls] had paid her to take up the hems of their skirts.” Eventually, Rachel directed everyone to the woods for “a big surprise”.

As they approached the wooded area, Anna noticed “four men sitting on makeshift log benches”. The men were “much older” than the sweet sixteen party girls, but that didn’t stop Rachel, Helen, and Zoe from sitting on the men’s laps before Rachel commenced an outdoor age-gap orgy. 

His & Hers (2026): Teen Helen (Tiffany Ho)

Rachel led Anna “to the nearest man” whom rubbed Anna’s bare leg. The men took out their wallets and handed Rachel a “handful of notes”. Thereby, revealing that Rachel, Helen, and Zoe were teen sex workers. After Rachel gave Anna a little white pill, she “stuck her tongue deep inside” Anna’s mouth. Consequently: “The men clapped and cheered while they watched.” Then Rachel pulled the top of Anna’s dress down and the bottom of Anna’s dress up, which prompted Rachel’s disposable camera to cheer: “Clickety-click. Clickety-click. Clickety-click.”

As Rachel kissed and stroked Anna, Helen was “on her knees in front of one of the men. He had a fistful of her shiny black hair.” Zoe was topless while a “man had his hand up Zoe’s skirt”. And Catherine was: “[...] completely naked and facedown in the dirt. One man was on top of her, and another appeared to be waiting.”

Rachel slid her fingers between Anna’s legs, which Anna narrated “felt so nice” but that was only until one of the men squeezed Anna’s breast while he masturbated. Anna narrated:

“Come on, don’t be a cock tease, at least suck it or something,’ said the man who was touching me. ‘We’ve all paid good money to celebrate your birthday with you. Be a good girl [...]”

After Anna protested, Rachel informed Anna that having age-gap sex for money was par for the course for her, Helen, and Zoe. As Rachel held Anna down, Rachel told Anna to “grow up”, because it’s “just sex” and that it only hurts the first time; thus, Anna should, “Try to relax.”

“Get off me,’ I [Anna] whispered.

‘You wanted to be part of our gang, well, this is what our gang does,’ Rachel said, trying to hold me down. ‘How do you think I paid for your new clothes and the highlights in your hair? Grow up, Anna. It’s just sex. It will hurt the first time, but then you’ll be fine, I promise. Try to relax.” 

Anna escaped, but before she covered her naked body and “ran all the way home in bare feet without looking back”, she “watched in horror for a little while” as Rachel took photos of the men having their way with Catherine. 

His & Hers (2026): Anna's Sweet Sixteen

In episode 6 of the series, Anna rescued Catherine from the men whom were attempting to force Catherine into an orgy. Subsequently, Catherine watched in horror as the men began to have their way with a screaming Anna. As Rachel, Zoe, and Helen watched approvingly, one of the four men said in reference to Anna, “I’m gonna give this bitch a birthday present she’ll never fucking forget.” And as one of the men took a crying Anna from behind, Rachel, Zoe, and Helen lovingly sang “Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Anna. Happy Birthday to you.”

In the novel, readers learned that, despite only being 15, Rachel got what she desired via sex. If her own sexuality wasn’t enough, Rachel sold semi-nudes of other schoolgirls to men. She sold the photographs from the orgies, too. After the schoolgirls were “willing to take off all their clothes, and let her take pictures of them knowingly”, Rachel photographed classmates with their “[e]yes half closed but legs wide open” with the men “sticking themselves inside things they shouldn’t.” Consequently, Rachel earned a lot of money. Anna’s mother narrated:

Rachel Hopkins used sex to get what she wanted. When that wasn’t enough, she used other people. It started with her grooming school friends, taking semi-naked pictures of them, and selling the results to men at the local pub [...] She earned good money [...] When the men got bored of one girl, so did she, and moved her attention and affection to another.

Her photography started to get a little more inventive and adventurous too. Teenage girls were filled with alcohol and drugs, until they were willing to take off all their clothes, and let her take pictures of them knowingly. Eyes half closed but legs wide open. [The men] sticking themselves inside things they shouldn’t.

Rachel’s age-gap relations went beyond her teen years. For example, when she was in her “late thirties”, her husband was 82 (i.e.,  “[more than] old enough to be her father”).

In the end, Anna’s mother described Rachel in the novel as a “two-faced slut” and a “selfish Barbie doll, who stole [...] men from their wives.” 

Unsurprisingly, His & Hers was a Best of #BookTok and #1 Netflix series. 

SLUT: A PLAY | NYC Teens (Re)Claim Slut Title

Playwright Katie Cappiello and Meg McInerney wrote in Slut: A Play and Guidebook for Combating Sexism and Sexual Violence, which was published by the Feminist Press at The City College of New York, that during the sessions to develop the play at The Arts Effect All-Girl Theater Company in New York City, the word slut kept coming out of the mouths of the twenty East Coast high school students. For example:

“I feel like a slut.”

“I was dressed all slutty.”

“Haha. Oh my [G]od, you’re a dirty little slut!”

Consequently, Cappiello and McInerney came to the conclusion that teens across the United States were reclaiming the title of slut, because being a slut meant that a girl is “fuckable”. Cappiello and McInerney wrote:

“There’s an attempt being made by girls and young women across the country to reclaim the word. Being a “slut” means you’re sexy, fun, experimental, willing, popular, wanted, “fuckable” [...]”

SLUT: A PLAY | PREGAMING

However, the play isn’t only about slut praising, it’s about slut shaming as well. As for slut praising, Jennifer Baumgardner described the PROLOGUE: PREGAMING of the play well:

The play opens with five girls [in spandex shorts and sports bras] dancing around in a locker room—teasing, frank, sweet, hilarious—and having fun as well as playing with their burgeoning sexuality.

Dancing is an understatement, because, in addition to twerking on stage, the teen girls were playing with their burgeoning sexuality by simulating girl-on-girl oral sex and all-girl threesome sex.

After Christina asked, “Okay, what’s everyone wearing to Connor’s?” Grace asked if she should wear tights. “The ones with the seam up the back so they still look really cute.” Natalie replied by sharing that Grace performed a teen “drunken striptease last weekend”; therefore, Natalie predicted that Grace would strip out of her tights at Connor’s party.

In a bit of “routine banter for these girls”, Grace went on to call Natalie the “biggest … dirtiest … sluttiest slut of, like, all time.”

JOEY (Winnifred Bonjean Alpart ). Okay, no way is she the biggest slut of the Slut Squad! I can slut it up with the sluttiest of y’all, thank you very much! Including Natalie.

CHRISTINA. Hey!

NATALIE. Ohhhh Chrissy! You know we respect your sexy slutness. (NATALIE digs though [sic] her makeup bag.)

CHRISTINA. You better. And don’t make me challenge you to a slut-off.

NATALIE. Yep. And you don’t mess with Slut Squad girls. Because we will take you down, motherfucker.

CHRISTINA. Awww, Slut Squad love!

GRACE. Slut Squad crazy love!

The Slut Squad of the Elliot Dance Team even had a chant slash team anthem.

S-L-U-T S-Q-U-A-D!

[...]

YES, THAT’S WHO WE BE.

AND, BITCHES, WE GO DOWN LIKE NO OTHER

GIRLS IN TOWN. AND WHEN WE STRUT

THROUGH THE SCHOOL

YOU KNOW WE MAKE THEM BOYS DROOL.

BECAUSE THEY ALL WANNA PIECE OF THIS.

AND YOU KNOW YOU CAN’T SLUT LIKE THIS.

[...]

In reference to the chant/anthem, the parenthetical states: ([...] It’s goofy and fun, but they kind of mean it …) Kind of?

Joey elaborated by relating that slut is a positive attribute, because, like boys, it should be “totally cool” for girls to be able to “hook up with whoever they want”. Joey said that the Slut Squad isn’t “afraid to be sexual”, and proclaimed that the Slut Squad members are confident and sexy.

JOEY. When I think of what our idea of “slut” [...] and I know it sounds stupid now but... it’s positive. We think it’s wrong that guys can hook up with whoever they want and that’s totally cool, but girls can’t. It’s an unfair double standard. So we're like, “Hey, if we act confident about sex and...”

NATALIE. (To DANIELLE.) We own our shit.

JOEY. And we aren’t afraid to be sexual. If all that makes us sluts, then I guess we’re sluts. So, Slut Squad just means we’re confident and, you know, sexy.

In addition to slut praising, there was slut shaming in the play as well. For example, after Anna was grounded for smashing her 11-year-old sister in the face, Anna referred to her sister as a “stupid little whore” whom was “becoming a real bitch, too.” However, Anna didn’t share what her little sister did to be referred to as a little whore.

Since Anna couldn’t attend the party with Joey at Connor’s, Anna decided to binge-watch Friday Night Lights starring Tim Riggins. Tim Riggins was played by Taylor Kitsch, who played Tim Riggins from the age of 25 to 30, which is why Anna referred to him as her “dream man” whom she, consequently, wanted to “do”.

JOEY. OOOOoooo. Tim Riggins!

ANNA. My dream man. I wanna do him.

(Note: The actresses who played Joey and Anna were teens. For example, Alpart was 16 when she played 16-year-old Joey. )

On the way to Connor’s party in a cab, after dancing in the back seat and making out with George, Joey was forcibly “fingered” by George and Luke, two schoolboys, as the cab sped from Columbus Circle to 78th and Lex .

JOEY. I just sort of slung my leg over George’s.

JOEY. We were kind of dancing in the back [of the cab], and George was sort of keeping the beat on my leg, you know [...] playing drums on my leg.

JOEY. And then George and I started to, like...make out [...] then he started to put his hand up my leg.

JOEY. [...] his hand actually went up my dress and sort of grazed my crotch. [...] So I said, “George, come on, stop. Just wait until we get to Connor’s.”

JOEY. So then, next thing I know, Luke is grabbing my other leg ... [...] so my, um, legs would be more open and George—[...] was on top of my leg, sort of pinning me down.

JOEY. Then George all of a sudden really aggressively pulls my underwear to the side and jammed two of his fingers inside me. (Beat.)

JOEY. I was crying at this point, but I didn’t scream.

JOEY. My vagina was pretty exposed, and I kept thinking if this guy [i.e., the cab driver] turns around [...] we’re going to get in an accident.

JOEY. George had his fingers in me... Two…[...] moving them in and out as hard as he could and as fast as he could. [...] And I’m crying. And the whole time Luke is making fun of George [...] because I’m not coming. Because I’m not having an orgasm. [...] he finally pulled his fingers out. Luke was laughing and he was bragging how he was going to show George how it was done. Then he put two of his fingers in his mouth.

JOEY. [...] then Luke laughs—and then he stuck his wet fingers in my vagina. [...] Then he did the same thing as George except he was trying to show off. I was hysterically crying, and he kept saying things like, “Come on JoJo—you know you wanna come—you know you’re wet now.” [...] And he and George laughed. Luke pulled his fingers out of me and wiped them on George’s shirt. And then they let go of me. (Beat.)

Almost everyone slut shamed Joey for being forcibly “fingered” by George and Luke whom convincingly told everyone that Joey “hooked up with all of them in the back of that cab.” Even Joey’s mother called her a “little slut”. Christina said that Joey “loses control sometimes” and that Joey had “done weird shit before”. Natalie said that Joey was “slutting herself out”. It didn’t help that there were pictures posted online of Joey tasting fruit-flavored condoms, which implied to some that Joey had planned to give George and Luke “blow jobs”. And Leila related that there were pictures from the cab that looked like Joey was giving George a lap dance.

In addition, Leila felt bad for George, because Joey’s accusations could have prevented him from getting into Harvard. Consequently, Leila referred to Joey as a slut and a liar.

LEILA. Because I feel bad for him. Are you kidding me? This whole thing is a real shit show. This type of shit can ruin someone’s whole life, and I feel bad for him. Because, you know, it’s been his dream to go to Harvard like his dad.

LEILA. Because I really like him and I know he didn’t mean anything by it. They were wasted. Whatever—it happened. She’s a slut, and she was all over his shit. Did you see those pictures? She was basically giving him a lap dance. What was he supposed to do?

LEILA. “She obviously regrets what she did Friday night, so she feels like she’s gotta make shit up.”

Interestingly, George was Joey’s first boyfriend, which was in the fourth-grade. Prior to the incident in the cab, after Leila shared with Joey that she and George had “hooked up a little bit”, Joey said, “I mean we all, like, whatever, with each other. It’s nothing. It’s just what you do.”

However, Joey wasn’t the first schoolgirl to accuse George of untoward behavior. For instance, Grace shared that, before she and George started dating, George forced her to give him a hand job in the bathroom.

GRACE. You know, George once followed me into the bathroom and locked the door and wouldn’t let me out until I gave him a hand job. True story. I didn’t tell anyone. We ended up going out for, like, five months...

In terms of the salacious behavior of (some) Manhattan’s privileged teens, the text of the guidebook is just as revealing as the text of the play. For example, Jennifer Baumgardner shared in “Why StopSlut?” that when she was in gym class, another 7th grader said, “Jenny, your sister’s a slut. She had sex at Bob’s party over the weekend.” The middle school slut shaming was in reference to Andrea, Jenny’s 14-year-old sister, because while Andrea was trying to “sober up” at Bob’s party, Andrea’s boyfriend’s best friend “decided to have sex with her.” Subsequently, schoolboys shockingly ran “their hands up her skirt as she passed by” and pulled “her into rooms at parties.” Baumgardner wrote that “literally dozens” of her friends had similar stories. (Interestingly, Jennifer wrote that it took her and Andrea “many years” to come to the conclusion that Andrea had been forced to have sex.)

In the chapter “Reality Check From Young Voices”, Sonia, a 15-year-old sophomore from a small town in Pennsylvania, shared that after she asked her boyfriend what he wanted for his 16th birthday, he replied that he wanted a “blow job”. Sonia:

We had been dating for a little over a month, when I asked him what he wanted for this sixteenth birthday. All he wanted from me was a blow job.

I’d say, “Hey, what do you want for your birthday?” and he’d say, “Head.”

Sonia typically preferred having teen sex; therefore, she reluctantly came to the conclusion: “Fine! I’ll give my boyfriend head because I’d rather that than him yell at me again [for not giving him a head].” To Sonia’s dismay, she performed oral sex for over a year, and when she was on her menses, her boyfriend dubbed it “blow job week”.

13-year-old Fred wrote that when he and Lenny were in the 6th grade, Lenny asked Fred, “You watch porn?” Lenny was on to something, because Fred started watching porn “halfway through fifth grade” (i.e., at 10 or 11-years-old). Fred wrote:

I started watching porn halfway through fifth grade. I had just begun middle school, and befriended a lot of kids in the seventh and eighth grade. Sometimes when I hung out with them they would make jokes about the porn they watched, referencing certain sites.

As for Lenny, an apparent middle-school cad, while visiting Lola, he: “took his penis and slapped it on her leg because he felt like it”.

(“In Porn Before Puberty?”, an ABC News feature, Winnifred Bonjean Alpart shared with a reporter that when she was in eighth grade: "[..] boys mostly, were watching porn during school [...] during independent reading, they would do that.")

And in “I’ve Slutted. Have You?”, 17-year-old Danielle related that she went to a Jewish summer camp in Pennsylvania where promiscuous teen behavior was encouraged and cultivated by campers and camp counselors. Consequently, during summer camp, there were “sexual firsts for everyone”. (Everyone?) Danielle wrote:

I go to this typical Jewish summer camp, where promiscuous behavior is practically encouraged and cultivated. Let’s be real, it’s literally eight weeks of teenagers breaking the counselors’ rules (who in turn egg us on!) in an isolated campsite in the middle of Milford, Pennsylvania—the middle of nowhere. In those two months, with no parental supervision, there are lots of sexual firsts for everyone.

The promiscuous behavior didn’t only happen at camp, it happened during the annual camp reunion night-before-reunion sleepover as well. For example, take Georgia, who Danielle described as “really petite and very pretty”, “the dream girl”, and who was “always hooking up with someone”. Unsurprisingly, Georgia was not a virgin. Danielle wrote:

The group of girls that I'm friendly with define themselves by their flirtatiousness and sexual interests. There is one girl in particular, Georgia, who is really petite and very pretty, and she doesn’t speak that much. She’s always hooking up with someone and she lost her virginity before many of the rest of us. She’s the dream girl for all the guys at my camp.

During the night-before-reunion sleepover, after “[e]very-one got very drunk” and while being filmed and encouraged by her best friends and fellow campers, Georgia performed oral sex on two boys in the back-yard. Danielle wrote:

[...] Every-one got very drunk. Josh and another boy coerced—basically forced—Georgia to give them blow jobs, while others filmed it on their phones. Watching the videos disgusted me. They were pressuring her to take off her clothes and give other guys in the crowd blow jobs—and all of this was going on in the back-yard of someone’s home! Initially Georgia resisted, very drunkenly, and repeatedly declined these boys’ demands. Then she ended up giving in. The scari-est part is that her best friends were doing nothing to stop it, but were laughing and encouraging the whole display.

Slut: A Play, which praised and shamed teen sluts, premiered at the Lynn Redgrave Theater in Manhattan (August 19, 2013). Cappiello and McInerney related that the play was: “[...] authentic, nuanced, and hard-hitting.” And that everything in this play was “inspired by real events,” which is revealing, because it appears that it’s not Dirty Old Men whom schoolgirls need to worry about, it's Dirty Young Boys.

Lastly, take Hunter Gaynes, who hooked up with 13-year-old Nadia “so cute” Boyd while she was on her menses. Consequently, Hunter “got everyone” to call Nadia “Bloody Beaver”, and Hunter, being “a little freshman douche”, even “put that shit all over Facebook.”