University of New Orlean’s newspaper Driftwood
Sex Column Controversy
Judy Morgan
Copy Editor
On September 7, 2006, Printz, the campus newspaper at the University of Southern Mississippi, published the first installment of an informative sex column covering topics related to modern sexuality, such as date rape, safe sex, and romance tips. “When our paper started our sex column Pillow Talk, we didn’t think anything of it,” says Adam Chance, opinion editor of Print.
However, despite the paper’s efforts to run a tasteful, educational column, dozens of the school’s alumni say the column is too graphic, and place it in the same category as porn or Hustler magazine; some wrote letters to local newspapers and television stations. “We have received hundreds of angry letters from them,” said Chance.
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Glory Fink, the author of Pillow Talk, gives another reason for this widespread lack of sexual knowledge: families are spending less and less time together, so many children are not getting “the talk” about the birds and the bees at home. “This has left the children of those families learning about relationships and sexuality through television, movies, and the Internet,” said Fink. “The problem with all of these medi[a] is that there is rarely a sensible voice offering a common sense viewpoint.”
UNO sophomore Alex Zimmerman agrees that sex columns in college papers fill a specific need for many students. “I think a sex column is a great way to pinpoint some of the main issues college students deal with,” said Zimmerman. “I am definitely interested in reading what others have to say about sex and their sexual experiences, because it would help me cope with, or at least feel more comfortable with, my experiences as a college student.”
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