Since 1977, there has been a subset in American female literature, the tales of well educated women so comfortable with their education and empowerment that they spend their lives looking to be mangled by male jerks. The first novel within that subset was LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR    by Judith Rossner which was inspired by the 1973 murder of schoolteacher Roseann Quinn. THERESA DUNN is a college educated    woman who is a gifted teacher of deaf children. But she is so empowered that she needs to become reckless and go mess around with jerks… ”  loses her virginity, to her much older, married college professor Martin. He ends their affair just before her graduation, leaving Theresa feeling used and lonely. Theresa takes a job teaching deaf children, and proves to be a gifted and caring teacher. ….She frequents a bar at night, where she meets Tony, a charming but vain Italian-American. She ends up taking Tony to her apartment, taking cocaine with him and sl...