I’ve known RKB since we were tiny grasshopper writers, when we both started out trying to offer a new perspective on sex and how we write and talk about sexuality. Her piece yesterday in the Huffington Post sums it up beautifully: writing about sex does not have to exploit sex as a way to get attention. There is room to write about it while respecting the reader and accepting that you don’t have all the answers. (At least, I sure as hell don’t.)

Sex Doesn’t Need to be Sensationalized
I wasn’t surprised to read that newly hired and newly resigned New York Press sex columnist, former child actor Claudia Lonow, had plagiarized her writing from popular sex advice columnist Dan Savage. (Savage has no official comment at present.) When I read the incest question she answered on Jezebel, and David Blum’s flippant response that these are perfectly reasonable topics to discuss right off the bat, I had to wonder why they chose to go that route. Sex is a topic that people are always interested in, and always will be, yet instead of addressing it in a straightforward way, all too many media outlets choose to try to make sex “sexier” rather than giving readers enough credit to think logically and critically about the topic.

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