Sex-Crazed Sunnettes

Some years back, The Sun opinion section employed an Ombudsman who, like the New York Times’ public editor, turned an introspective eye to the happenings of the paper. In the absence of such a fellow, I am compelled to comment on a trend I’ve noticed recently: The Sun’s sudden sexist sexualization (try saying that ten times fast).

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the politics of intimacy are a mainstay in a college paper, but the frequency with which our female columnists have so far grounded their opinions in a language of sexuality is, at least to me, notable. While male writers mention “hooking up” or dating in passing, it’s the females who opine most regularly in erotic expository.

Let’s start with the obvious ones.

Yes, it’s self-evident that The Sun’s sex columnist writes about sex, but bear in mind that the last three writers to take up this position (no pun intended) have all been females. Undoubtedly, part of the fun is that it’s generally men who reveal that “mostly I was just horny,” or comment on the finer points of the “pullout method” — as semi-anonymous sex guru Jenna B. did in her last article — so casting a woman against type is certainly amusing.

However, the female print monopoly over the birds and the bees now extends to dating as well. Having tightened the teeth on her “Cornell Unzipped” series, former sex columnist Nikki Nussbaum ’09 is now writing a “relationship column,” which, in its first two iterations, struck the same chord as its former incarnation; that is, a sex column sans sex.

Let’s forgive these lascivious ladies for filling their job descriptions, and instead look to many of our other female columnists, who also frame their opinions in a sexually charged discourse.

Consider Ariela Rutkin-Becker’s ’09 first column, “What Not to Do in a First Column — Or on a First Date” (Aug. 28). Claiming to know “next to nothing about going on first dates or about writing first columns” — a provocative, but ultimately arbitrary analogy — Rutkin-Becker elucidates her own anxiety in opinionating by likening it to dating.

Then there was Shannan Scarselletta’s ’09 tribute to awkwardness, “Granddaddy of Game” (Aug. 30), which gracefully and hilariously proffered that it’s better to be yourself than to succumb to maladroit tendencies. The metaphor? A poignant retelling of a drunken conversation between Scarselletta and her grandfather about his own first sexual experiences.

And more recently, on Sept. 6, contributing columnist Christy Kidner ’08 recounted her summer at a law firm, finding that women are challenged not only by the perception of law as a man’s position, but also by “another component”: romantic relationships. Kidner wonders if women need to tone it down or turn it up to succeed; whether “having it all” means finding an “elusive middle-ground in both [their] professional and romantic endeavors?” Sarah Jessica Parker couldn’t have said it better herself!

The common thread among these otherwise diverse opinion pieces is that in each case, the female writer employs some rhetoric of sexuality to convey her message. Whether it’s describing the arduous process of writing a first column, advising freshmen on Cornell life or remembering a watershed family moment, the metaphor for our female columnists is often romantically or sexually charged.

To be sure, other women columnists have skirted the issue of sex, but why do our female reporters so often venture to where The Sun don’t shine?

I attribute much of it to the aforementioned Carrie Bradshaw Effect: the seductive coupling of a young, single woman and her reliable laptop that made Sex and the City so popular with the fairer sex. Certainly the other characters from that show resonate with Cornell women — the Samantha-esque Johnny O’s table dancer; the proper Charlotte types, who I was happy to meet at our Alpha Phi mixer; and the go-getter library girls who will grow up to be Mirandas.

But for a lady reporter, it’s the show’s featured protagonist who must be most desirable, a party girl with the wit and aplomb to serialize her secrets. Like a finely cropped mullet, it’s a professional face for a crazy back-story.

Yet, on a college campus where, I suspect, women are too often mistreated, I wonder if our female reporters aren’t doing themselves and their gender a disservice by continually highlighting their affiliation with dating and sex, even when the metaphor is superfluous. Cornell’s most intellectual and outspoken women seem to be buying into the sexist maxim that “sex sells,” while the male columnists are skirting the issue.

With two regular columns now devoted to the topic, sex is a veritable Sun spot. In the interest of being fair and balanced, it’s time for some of the “60 Guys and Counting” (Sept. 10) whom Nussbaum and her friends have made out with to come out of the woodwork and respond to the wave of sexualized pieces that are coming mostly from female journalists.

Until then, the women reporters will have to go at it alone — I guess they would call that intellectual masturbation.

Rob Fishman is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at rfishman@cornellsun.com [3]. Agree to Disagree appears Tuesdays.