You know all those college sex journals and blogs that keep cropping up? Yeah. Newsweek thinks they might be full of crap.
As Dr. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, codirector of the National Center for Children and Families, says, "What's interesting is, why are these journals gaining such popularity even though you're not seeing a big increase in sexual activity among college students?" One answer is that in an era of online exposure, where changing definitions of privacy have shifted sexual mores for the young, enterprising students no longer see a distinction between their bedroom behavior and their publishing activities. Rather than something to destroy upon graduation, they may even consider their magazines, blogs and columns résumé builders.
Apparently, when it comes to sex, write what you know doesn't always apply. "Everyone assumes because of the magazine that I'm sleeping with everything that walks," says Alecia Oleyourryk, editor of Boston University's Boink, who posed nude for the first issue. The magazine claims 40,000 subscribers, and has spawned the new book "Boink: College Sex by the People Having It." "It's not the case. Respective to my girlfriends, I'm the most prudish."
First off: it makes perfect sense to us that people would read more about doing it at a time when they're not actually doing it. Wasn't that, like, kind of why porn was invented in the first place?
More importantly, though: what's disconcerting about this article isn't that people who work at sex publications aren't getting as much sex as you thought -- e-mail [email protected] and they'll probably tell you they could use more action than they're getting. What's depressing about this piece is the inescapable impression it leaves that so many of these kids are writing about sex solely to advance their career -- but they can't even figure out how to make that work.
These publications are not purely academic exercises: their creators hope they lead to professional opportunities after graduation. "People think it's a stigma, but I think we're in changing times, and it can open doors for me," says Oleyourryk, who recently moved to New York and is looking for work as a waitress while she continues publishing Boink. "I continually tell my mom this is a great résumé builder," she says, though she's vague about what she'll use her résumé for.
So, suddenly sex writing is, like, the new metro desk? Great place to get your hands dirty but can't wait to move on, whenever that is? We're not gonna go so far as to assume that's what Alecia Oleyourryk actually thinks, you understand; could easily just be Newsweek's mom-and-dad-friendly spin on the topic. But either way, it sure does take some of the fun out of Boink Magazine, don't it? And maybe that was the point.
Yet another illustration of why Penthouse Forums is the best smut ever: it doesn't break your heart to learn that it's all total bullshit.