Sarah J. Schanzenbach

Uh oh. The Collegian said bl**j*b. Whatever shall we do? According to Elizabeth Wright, the Collegian owes her and many others like herself an apology for offending them. I find this notion a bit ridiculous.

I believe the Collegian would owe everyone an apology if they had provided misinformation or slanderous material; however, this is not the case. All they did was print an article that happened to offend some people. An apology is not warranted. Such a demand is contradictory to the first amendment. Perhaps Ms. Wright should apologize to the Collegian for making such an outlandish request.

What actually prompted me to write this letter is the fact that no one seems to be taking note of prior sex columns.

Certainly, there were a few other racy ones, but there have also been columns that have advocated abstinence, contained information about the use of contraceptives, provided resources for students to learn about safe sex practices and one particularly notable column that urged all female students on campus to take proper steps in obtaining a gynecologist and getting a yearly exam, which is an extremely important thing to do as a young woman, whether you are sexually active or not.

No one seems to care about any of this. All anyone seems to care about are a few choice words that may or may not be considered appropriate. I wonder if the people who are crying in outrage have ever read any of the other sex columns, or if they only read this particular one because of the publicity it received. I also wonder why these same people continued to read the article if they knew it may offend them? The title very clearly stated what it was about; so why keep reading if you aren’t comfortable with sexual subject matter? After all, it’s a sex column; I would hope that it’s obvious the columnists are going to talk about sex.

Personally, the sex column is one of many things I look forward to reading in the Collegian each week, as do many of my friends. Maybe I’m just too liberal for my own good, but I don’t understand what all the fuss is about, and I think we all just need to relax.

To state it in PC terms, people are having “sexual relations” on this campus whether you, as reader, approve or not, and I’d like to say “Bravo” to the sex columnists for not being afraid to talk about it in whatever terms they deem necessary.

Sarah J. SchanzenbachBrookings