Sex on Tuesday

Carmel De Amicis

Porn confuses me. It makes a mockery of the very thing it is trying to portray by exaggerating elements of sensuality. The girl’s moans are so loud and frequent that they sound like the howls of a dying cat. The guy is so intent on showing off every inch of his female counterpart that he barely touches her with anything except his hard-on. Eventually, the sex on the screen more closely resembles a circus act than real sexual behavior.

Granted, porn comes in many shapes and sizes, so I suppose I am talking about a very specific kind of porn. I am referring to the mainstream, generic kind: the classic “girl with fake tan, fake breasts and bad make-up job has rough sex with anonymous male(s).” In this kind of porn, the bodies slam against each other like they are battling, and the resulting cum is splashed sensationally on a face or a belly. To me, generic porn turns something sexy into something comical.

Read the rest of Carmel’s column on the Opinion Page

Image Source: kReEsTaL’s under Creative Commons

A new television series titled “the Sex Education Show v Pornography” aired in England this week, according to them Brits over at the Guardian. You may think that hearing about silicone chests could not possibly be more titillating than seeing them, but you’d be surprised.

According to the first segment of the show, the average amount spent by 14 to 17 years old watching porn is 90 minutes a week. Don’t worry though my patriotic brethren, we here in the U.S. average a full 100 minutes (according to Fox news, that is). As expected, this heavy dosage changes teenagers’ expectations of sex and tends to exaggerate their perceptions of certain parts of the human body.

Bow chicka wow wow.

Image Source: nwistheone’s under Creative Commons

A father of a likely no longer prospective student at the University of West Florida wrote an outraged letter in response to a sex column in the campus newspaper penned by one Pixie Gonzales. While a fellow peer commented that Pixie’s apparently blasphemous expose on sex with no strings attached was “pithy, honest and hilarious,” aforementioned father had different opinions, which he clearly wrote were from “no shrinking violet and certainly not a prude.”

It appears that UWF has lost a future “not a prude” student as the father claimed, “My 18 year old obviously was shocked but more concerned that his mother and I would never allow him to attend a University that would publish such trash.” Perhaps he just didn’t want to attend a college that boasted an argonaut as its mascot.

Image Source: Simon Collison’s under Creative Commons

Blast from the Past is a weekly special where we probe into the Daily Cal’s archives to show you how sex columns were done back in the day.

If you’ve ever wondered what a sex column written by a clearly sexually-frustrated and kinda bitter Editor-in-Chief would look like, you’re in luck.  This week’s Blast From the Past is coming at you from 1994, when–according to then-EIC Nick Perlmuter–”nice” clean-cut newspapermen had to compete with pseudo-intellectual, breathy-voiced grungers for the attentions of emotional, clingy, repressed co-eds.  Or something.

In any case, it seems like a “nice guy” was a totally different beast back then. So does this mean that we, here in the new millennium, are part of Generation “Do Me?”

Swine Flu and the “Do Me” Antidote -Nick Perlmuter, March 8, 1994

We’ve heard it all before. “Men are pigs” and “nice guys never get (lovin’).” the truth is, men ARE pigs. By nature, men are dirty, smelly and ugly. We also root around where we don’t belong while squealing with delight.

It used to be that if a man showered, wore cologne, put on a pressed shirt, minded his business and laughed with authority, he’d be classified as a stud. Every woman would talk about him, check him out, analyze him and lust after him. (Click here to read more…)

While most say you should think before you act, Carmel would disagree. Don’t think, just act. Read about the  downside to hyper-conscious sex in today’s Sex on Tuesday.

Sex on Tuesday

Carmel De Amicis

Sex is not a thing to be pondered and analyzed during the moment. It’s a thing to be lived, fully. It’s supposed to be the one realm where the brain disappears, leaving two bodies writhing and touching without any third voice between them. From books and movies, I had always assumed that during sex, rational thoughts would be replaced by animal instincts.

But as many of you Berkeley thinkers probably know, the mind does not shut down just because the clothes come off. In fact, for the highly analytical person, the mind can start running on overdrive at the very moment it’s supposed to surrender itself to pure pleasure. It’s the curse of what I like to call hyper-conscious sex.

Read the rest of Carmel’s column on the Opinion Page

Image Source: beatblack’s under Creative Commons

Last week, the U.S. Senate passed the Affordable Birth Control Act, which aims to significantly bring down the price of your favorite patch, pill or ring on all college campuses. Hurrah! One small step for Planned Parenthood, one giant leap for poor, horny college students everywhere.

Prices for birth control jumped a few years ago with the passing of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which caused pharmacies to stop giving discounts to their sex-loving college constituents. Because students couldn’t afford birth control anymore, they just stopped having sex completely. Okay, so maybe that didn’t happen, but at least they tried … right?

Image Source: Shmoomeema’s under Creative Commons

With over 20 performances, titled everything from “Reclaiming Cunt” to “Because He Liked To Look At It,” the Vagina Monologues is “a fierce, wild, unstoppable movement.” Based on 200 interviews collected by the organization’s founder Eve Ensler, the monologues encompass a wide range of experiences including love, war, assaults, insecurities and, of course, sex. To date, the V-day cause has raised over $60 million and is growing rapidly around the world.

So come see UC Berkeley’s celebration of your and mine favorite part of female anatomy tonight or tomorrow night at Pauley Ballroom. The performance starts at 7 pm but show up early for the silent auction at 6 pm!

Image Source: kiskeacity’s under Creative Commons

Booty Call is a weekly round-up of the latest and lustiest from colleges around the country.

Dr. Date from University of Minneapolis gives love advice on everything from how to break the ice to “Is asking a girl out through e-mail okay Doc?” The answer to that one is no, that’s creepy. You Facebook stalk her, duhhhhh.

Denise Nilan from Cal Poly’s Mustang Daily writes some seemingly simple but obviously not widely followed advice: Do not dump your significant other via Facebook. While this social networking tool is amazing for expressing your love for holidays like “Free Hug Day,” it is not so classy for your makeups and breakups.

Pheromones, red and a voluptuous hip sway are all sure ways to attract some hunky Berkeley males <insert laugh here> according to The Clemenson University’s Tiger. Think you can’t quantify attraction? Think again.

Image Source: Extra Medium’s under Creative Commons

“Sweet Nothings with Carmel” gives Carmel an opportunity to respond to reader feedback, so post comments on her column or e-mail questions to sex@dailycal.org.

I guess I’d like to start by apologizing to all you co-opers out there who feel like I misrepresented the co-op experience. Before writing the article, I did talk to some of my friends who are in co-ops to see if they mirrored my sentiment, and all of them said they did. The women said they felt like they could sexually express themselves without fear of being socially stigmatized, and the men said they felt like sexual dynamics were much more relaxed and less predatory in the co-op scene. Obviously, their perspective is not agreed upon in the co-op community, so I apologize for presenting these opinions as though they were truth.

That being said, I do write an opinion-based column. I was writing based on my perspective and my experiences, and I’m a little confused as to why my positive co-op experiences would anger so many of you. I know you scorn the “outsiders” who show up in your home sometimes, but I certainly have never treated the co-ops disrespectfully. If your co-op does make me a PNG, please let me know, and I’ll never show up on your doorsteps again. In my column, I didn’t intend to take ownership over the co-op system. I was simply trying to capture my experiences in the co-ops: most namely, the accepting vibe that I feel when I step through co-op doors. I also wasn’t trying to say that parties and sex are sole purposes or defining characteristics about the co-op system. I write the SEX ON TUESDAY column, so obviously I’m writing specifically about sexuality.

(Click here to read more…)

Oh, Kristen Juras, University of Montana law professor and protector of the innocent, you are so noble and good in your crusade to keep students from reading the filthy pack of lies that is the Montana Kaimin’s sex column.

It is true that its author, Bess Davis is not a professional sexologist, ergo, she obviously can’t have a view worth publishing, nor can adult college students be trusted to decide for themselves whether or not they find content in their school’s paper offensive.

It is also true that simply because the Kaimin receives some of its funding from student fees that its content is automatically beholden to the state and the values of state employees. Attempting to exercise editorial control over student press using the state legislature is not at all excessive, nor is it in any way a violation of First Amendment rights. (Click here to read more…)