One year ago, I wrote an article about venereal diseases on Valentine's Day because the play on the initials "VD" was too much to resist. This year, I'm changing my tune. Aggies are too conservative and judgmental when it comes to sex. Grab the incense, cancel your weekend plans and go buy yourself a roundish bed; it's time to launch a sexual revolution.
When the term sexual revolution comes to mind, people usually think of hippies and the spread of love and sex in the 1960s. Though new methods of contraception and an abundance of sex were a part of that era, Texas A&M history professor James Rosenheim, who teaches a class on sex and sexuality in history, says there's more to it than that.
"People thinking more openly and with less condemnation of sex out of marriage, more acceptance of premarital sex, more willingness to experiment and a greater engagement with and acceptance of same sex sex," Rosenheim said. "The condemnatory attitudes that associate with the 60s are not so strong, and in the public market of ideas, there is more conversation about sex."
Texas A&M students are sadly lacking in knowledge of sex and respect for its various practices. That's why a sexual revolution needs to happen. In the spring 2007 American College Health Association National College Health Assessment survey, 829 Texas A&M students self-reported their sexual behaviors.
One sad realization drawn from looking at the data is that Aggies enjoy pulling out early as a method of contraception more than the average college student. I've got a little story for ya, Ags; pulling out early doesn't reliably prevent anything. It just creates a mess.
According to the survey, 57 percent of Aggies had sex in the previous year. The national average was 70 percent. Given how much the average Aggie likes pulling out early, it may be a good thing Ags aren't getting it on as much as their peers across the country.
With proper education about safe sex, there is no reason Aggies can't get their groove on just as much as our ancestors did. This may come as a surprise to some Aggies, who may consider the notion of a "sex life" as a modern one that their puritan ancestors would have scoffed at.
You may not want to picture it, but people were having sex before you. Forty years ago, the hippies were engaged in a sexual revolution. During the Civil War, prostitutes earned the moniker "hooker" after Union General Hooker used their services to keep morale up among his troops. And according to a 1973 study on American dating, in some parts of late 18th-century New England, 30 percent of marriages featured women who were pregnant at the altar.
The fact of the matter is sex without procreation in mind isn't a novel idea, so students shouldn't hide from it as if it were a great modern evil. Instead, Aggies should revolutionize the way they think of sex. Go to Beutel. Ask questions. Don't be afraid to learn how to have safe sex.
Sexual revolution isn't just about having safe sex; it's also about learning respect for others. I hate to make some readers squeamish, but sexual revolution isn't just for heterosexuals. Gays and lesbians should get in on the action, too. It's a modern travesty that homosexuality earns the ridicule and stigma it does today.
This stigma in part comes from an uneducated understanding of homosexuality. Many Aggies have probably been taught from birth that homosexuality is unnatural and a sin, yet this idea can easily be dispelled by looking at nature.
Just over a year ago, two penguins in the Central Park Zoo of New York City caused a ruckus for being openly gay. The monogamous penguin relationship was even reported to have shown yearning for a family by attempting to incubate a rock that resembled an egg. When the caretaker offered an egg, the penguins cared for it until it hatched and then fed and raised the baby penguin as their own.
A couple of penguins in a zoo may not be the end all be all of scientific evidence, but it's a good start. Join the revolution, ask questions, and go learn for yourself before you cast judgment on an entire segment of the population.
Aggies, like most Americans, could go so far as to be called ignorant when it comes to sex and sexuality. Safe sex should be embraced and a sexual revolution needs to bring acceptance to America's cultural awareness of everything that is sex.
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