News Outlets Competently Tackle Prom Grinding Epidemic

Nothing gets me less hot and steamy than watching mainstream news outlets do the annual round of articles about grinding at the prom. This year - as usual - the only thing funnier than the parochial media descriptions of gymnasium dry humping are the goofy prude school administrators who make this an issue.

Here are some highlights:

From the New Hampshire Union Leader

-"Exeter High School isn't Sexeter High School."

-"Grinding is a dance in which two or more dancers rub their bodies together. Some have argued that the dance is too sexual, while others say there's nothing sexual about it and that it's nothing more than a dance style."

-"Parent Jane Duarte said she wants the school administration, police and the county attorney to look into the dance to see if it's even legal for students who are under 18 to be grinding in a public school."

From WMUR New Hampshire

-"When you're grinding, you're doing that as a sexual thing," said Tony, a student from Exeter. "I'm pretty sure people know what I'm talking about."

From Seacoast Online

-“Grinding is not a safety issue — drugs and alcohol is,” Benotti said. “I have not seen any statistics that (grinding) has caused a teenage pregnancy here at Exeter High School.”

-"Benotti said he wasn’t as concerned about grinding. “I remember when I was doing a bunny hop at my sister’s wedding, I didn’t consider that sexually explicit, but it had some of the same moves (as grinding),” Benotti said."

From the Associated Press

-"Officials at a New Hampshire high school where students were kicked out of a dance for rhythmically rubbing their bodies together are thinking about setting up some rules for the dance floor."

From WBZ

-"Grinding, similiar to dancing displayed in the film "Dirty Dancing," is the topic of conversation at Exeter High School where 19 students were kicked out of a school dance."

And some from the archives:

From The Wall Street Journal two years ago

One boy was up close to a girl's back, bumping and grinding to the pounding beat of the music.

"I thought, 'That's just dadgum nasty,'" Ms. Miller recalls. "It really had me sick to my stomach.""

From Portland, Oregon two years ago

-"Some call it grinding. Others call it freak dancing. It basically amounts to two or more people rubbing their bodies against each other in a sexually suggestive manner."

From The Boston Globe three years ago

-"Grinding is described as a style of dancing where the girl leans forward and the boy puts his pelvis against her backside and thrusts."