A few semesters ago, The Voyager printed a column titled “Sex and the U.” The column involved the issues of sex as it related to the life of college students.
Though it was practically a sex column, “Sex and the U” tended to stay away from hot-button topics such as abortion or homosexuality, but it was still educational and answered some of the questions that most were afraid to ask.
Unfortunately, the column was cancelled and in all of my time writing for The Voyager, no one has given me a clear answer as to why it was abandoned. I believe there were murmurs of some people being offended by the column.
Sad. It seems that Americans are still uncomfortable with talking about sex.
Which is odd when you consider the popularity of shows like “Sex and the City,” “Desperate Housewives” and the recognizability of the phrase, “If you have an erection that last more than four hours, call a doctor” in pop-culture.
From Hooters restaurants to Cinemax, Americans are surrounded by sex, and, yet, we can’t have an adult conversation about it!
So, whenever I hear outlandish assertions about sex, I am not surprised.
Enter Rick Santorum. If you’re not sure who he is, the pull out your fancy smartphone and Google “Santorum.” Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Hilarious, right?
At any rate, Santorum is a former Senator from Pennsylvania who is running to be the Republican Party’s presidential candidate for 2012, and he wants to outlaw condoms.
I’m serious, folks. If Santorum were to become president, he would outlaw condoms.
In an interview, Santorum said, “One of the things I will talk about that no president has talked about before, is, I think, the dangers of contraception in this country, the whole sexual libertine idea.”
Libertine idea? Preventing unwanted pregnancies and the spread of diseases is libertine?
Santorum flatly went on to say that contraceptives are not okay because “it’s a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be. They’re supposed to be within marriage, for purposes that are, yes, conjugal … but also procreative.”
Santorum is totally out of touch with the inevitable notion that people are always going to have sex, and they have been for a long time.
Since he’s a devout Catholic, I’m sure Santorum is familiar with the Holy Bible as it shows that prostitution is one of the oldest professions, proving that people are going to have sex — for pleasure and not just to make babies.
So, wanting to ban contraceptives is not only counterintuitive, but also idiotic.
And that’s another thing that gets me about Tea Party people. They constantly yell, “The government is too big” and “We don’t want the government telling us what to do!”
It’s interesting that the same people who think the government is too big are okay with it telling us who to marry, whether women are allowed to practice abortion and if we can have sex unless we plan on having babies.
We constantly hear in the news about some kind of sexual perversion being committed.
You would think that having open conversations about sex would be a welcoming trend on college campuses.
I do not know if The Voyager will ever have another sex column, but I would love to write it. The column would be about three of my closest friends and me who live in the city, as we deal with relationships, careers and sex. Now, that’s original.
Freedom Whiting
Contributing Writer
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