To the Editors:
What was promised to the readership of the Orient in the first article of the Celebrating Sex series was a frank recasting of sex "in a realistic but rewarding light." What we got instead was a list of hook-up spots and erotic foods, all written in the cheery, instructional tone of a flight attendant indicating emergency exits.
Someone confident enough in their own sexual expertise to feel comfortable passing down advice from a position of authority should have the experience and awareness to know that focusing soley on "the positive aspects of sex" is without substance or practicality, and is a disservice to all those who believe that there should be a place for frank sexual discussion in the college square.
I don't mean to say that the sex column cannot discuss subjects like sexual techniques or fetishes. As long as there is sex in this world, there will be worries and concerns about that sex, and there will also be a demand for experts who are willing to share their advanced knowledge with the common man. But ignoring the perspective of those who do not subscribe to your overriding manifesto that sex is always good, neither addresses nor negates their very real and important concerns. Especially at Bowdoin, where those people form the majority of our highly intelligent, highly rational student population. Let them no longer be a silent majority.
Bowdoin deserves a better sex column, one that provokes our minds instead of just our genitalia. If you want fifty ways to please your man, go buy a Cosmo. The Orient's sex column should be a place where varying perspectives on sex are introduced, analyzed, supported and refuted, especially after the October 2 Orient editorial calling for more robust campus discussion. To writers of the sex column, surely both smart, likable and attractive people in their own right, I say this: no one is impugning your sexual prowess, but we have yet to see whether you have the nuance to back it up.
Sincerely,
Carlo Davis '12