Peter Herrero, Flipside Editor

Since before man first walked the earth, the concept of sex has been around. Long before religions began flourishing in the old-timey days, sex was different than it is today. It has reinvented itself far more than Madonna could ever hope to. In the beginning, when we weren’t so far from our distant relatives, the monkeys, we had sex to satisfy our base urges. We engaged in “intimate” relations to spread our seed and create what only became a problem. As humans began evolving, a different logic formed behind those actions. Certain people began believing it was meant for one purpose and one purpose only: to create more little ones to live out fulfilled lives and to carry out different purposes.

For others, it served as an explanation for the beginning of society as a whole. Most civilizations tie in human sexuality with abundance in nature. In one ancient civilization, the people believed their god masturbated onto primordial ground; His semen formed a river; the river from which all life sprung.

For centuries, people have been placing a stigma on a natural thing the greater population enjoys. This has created a society in which people are running around doing the deed, but they are reluctant to discuss it or get offended when they see it.

People are rarely ready to speak openly about sex. The word itself raises concerns. For that very reason, we have created euphemisms for the act such as ‘doing it.’ Anything with the word sex nowadays is considered edgy and risky.

One instance where I experienced this was in the production of this Flipside issue. The second I mentioned focusing an entire issue on sex, eye brows raised, people cringed at the very thought of discussing something so controversial, something so taboo that they did not want me to run this issue. I heard comments from people stating that running this issue would destroy the credibility of the entire newspaper.

This issue was originally set to run March 13, but kept getting postponed for various concerns from other people. Sex has become a little more mainstream though. The media is not as censored as it once was.

Schools, like PCC, are starting to offer classes like Human Sexuality and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Musicians are singing about it openly. Actors in movies discuss and engage in sex. We even have a grandmotherly figure giving us sex advice on the Oxygen network, Sue Johanson.

Sex will be around for as long as there is life on this planet. Humans are not the only ones that have sex. There are videos on YouTube showing monkeys and dogs having sex.

We can’t continue to punish ourselves for doing things our bodies were meant to do and enjoy, even if we’re not doing it solely for the purpose of reproducing. There are some precautionary measures that need to be taken when having sex. In the words of sex therapist Sue Johanson, “If you feel a draft, cover your shaft!”