Peter Coates
2 min readJan 24, 2025

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Even though you make valid points, the opening lines frame the discussion falsely. The phrase "body count" isn't used as a neutral expression of the number of partners a woman has had. I've never heard it used that way even once. Women, usually young women, use it either boastingly when they are speaking of themselves or disparagingly when used about another. Nor have I heard men use it about women except in response to a woman't use of the phrase. I suspect that most American men do feel disdain for a women bragging about her "body count." Why would they not? Most men also feel disdain for a man bragging about his conquests. Their feelings differ somewhat for men and women talking this way. When a man brags about his conquests, it seems creepy, weird, and sad. When a woman does it, it seems crude and trashy. Why the nuance difference in the negative emotion it evokes? That's an interesting question. But whatever the reason, it is very different from feeling disdain for the actual level of sexual experience a woman has. It's trashy for any person, male of female to brag about how many people they have had. A lot of what you say about what men feel and say seems to come out of another generation's experiences. It would be decidedly weird for an American man, today, to dwell on the issue of a woman's sexual history unless he is in some particular religion, or of a national origin where this is a big concern. Among mainstream American male culture, this isn't a thing.

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Peter Coates
Peter Coates

Written by Peter Coates

I was an artist until my thirties when I discovered computers and jumped ship for a few decades. Now I'm back to it. You can probably find some on instagram.

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