Friday, October 23, 2015

Thoughts on Being a Sex Columnist

Apparently, this is not the face of a sex columnist. 


Apparently, this is the face of a "demure quiet girl," of a "conservative lady."

Apparently, people who write about sex are loud, obnoxious, promiscuous and not ladies.

After class the other day, I stood in the hallway and talked to a friend of mine. Someone else walked up, caught on to the gist of our conversation, and with wide eyes proclaimed, "YOU write the sex column?"

The student, seeing the shock mirrored on my own face at their disbelief, quickly tried to amend their statement: "I mean, you just seem so quiet," they said.

More than one person have been shocked about the sex blog and column, and curious about research done to write about them; they expressed similar shock seen in the aforementioned comments.

What bothers me about people being shocked that I--a quiet, sweet, apparently naive and unassuming girl--write a sex column and run a blog is not that people are assuming things about me, but that people assume someone like me could never write a column about sex.

Sex and sexuality are parts of humanity. Sex itself is part of the human experience. For sex to be so stigmatized in this society--still!--that people think only certain personalities can extensively research the topic shocks me.

We clearly have a long way to go towards normalization and acceptance, and equality, when it comes to sex.




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