Sex columns; a source for awareness

DAINA HAVENS ASST. PERSPECTIVESEDITOR DMH724@CABR1NI.EDU

As an avid reader of Cosmopolitan magazine, I see no predicament with the addition of a tasteful sex column to any college newspaper. Yes, I attend a Catholic college and I write for a newspaper that not only represents that college but also places the college's beliefs and standards in a showcase window available to anyone using any number of Internet search topics.

Considering that the Loquitur, or any piece of published media, is printed for an audience, I feel that boundaries must be set parallel to the acceptance of the audience on that subject. Colleges would have no point in existing if there were no students, and many college students of this generation are considerably open-minded and exposed to the topic of anything having to do with sex.

This co-ed audience may be covered, but the other end of the audience spectrum includes professors, religious persons, people funding private colleges and even the parents of the high school students Google-searching admissions departments.

The next thing to consider is the actual content of the sex column in question. Everyone blushes when they hear the word sex uttered in public, but let us take a step back and think about what sex really means in society today.

Sex means sexually transmitted diseases and increased teen pregnancies. Sex means rape victims and abortions. Sex doesn't have to be about strawberries and champagne in a romance novel, or 101 ways to find the best orgasmic position. Sex is evolving into a serious topic of awareness, especially among college students.

As a Loquitur staff writer and an English and communication major, I am fully aware of the responsibilities of the media. If a sex column is presented properly in a newspaper, it will not only increase the amount of readers, but will also increase the amount of awareness among readers on an unarguably relevant topic.

Everyone is doing it now, I mean; everyone is opening up to the subject and starting to read and write about it. Sex is on the radio, on television, in movie theaters and somehow finagles its way onto every evening news channel. William Shakespeare jested and poked upon the subject, and educated and cultured people have been reading his admirable work for hundreds of years.

I feel that a respectfully executed sex column can become a piece of newsworthy media rather than just simply a novelty, taboo or disrespectful piece of writing. It can raise and answer important questions that many college students share, and attract students that don't usually pick up a copy of the newspaper, whether it is a campus paper or the New York T1D1es.

Students need to be fully equipped with knowledge, awareness and most importantly, a strong foundation of news. College is where good and bad habits are commonly formed for life. I see a sex column as a creative approach to urge others to pick up the paper, read it, retain it and use that gained information to make crucial life decisions, which could include how to get into graduate school, what political leader to vote for or how using an oral contraceptive can increase the risk of stroke and other health complications down the road,. which it can.