First off, my intention in writing my original post on sex@yale was not to “demonize the project as a whole.” I think the purpose of the project is awesome and totally commendable, and I entirely agree that a project of this kind is necessary within Yale’s sexual culture. Students do need a resource to facilitate frank and honest discussions about sexuality at Yale, and I genuinely hope that sex@yale will be able to provide that, especially for new generations of Yale students coming to the university.

I did intend, however, to point out some issues that I felt the Initiative might face. I do not know how the students behind the Initiative intend to solicit writers for the project, but I do feel that there is a danger in not having enough student voices to be fully representative—which, I’m glad to have found out, is a danger that the creators of the project recognize. Speaking observationally, I think that Yale students rarely do anything—because of how busy they are, and involved in their own projects, and stressed, etc. etc. etc.—that doesn’t profit them personally in some way. And while I think that the goals of the Initiative are entirely worthy (and it would be awesome if students were required to post 500 or so words by the University), I think that the Initiative will face many challenges in finding writers who aren’t already involved in issues pertaining to those being addressed by the Initiative itself. If the Initiative could find a way to ensure that a huge proportion of the Yale population does contribute a post, I think the project will be a truly invaluable resource.

Lastly, and generally, the Bullblog is exactly what its title states—a blog. By writing in the first person (and frequently using qualifiers like “in my opinion”), I am recognizing that my opinions are entirely subjective, based on personal experience and observation. Some of those opinions may be wrong, and some may be right. In my opinion, I have often found that the term abstinence is used by religious people, but there are obviously those who call themselves abstinent who are not religious, and there are also, obviously, people who are religious and do not claim abstinence. I did not and would never imply that anything I have written was based on years and years of strict research and study.

To conclude, I think that sex@yale has the potential to be awesome, and I think everyone should have to write for it. I know that I will be doing so. And I’m also glad that the discussion has been started about the Initiative, and pleased to find that the people working for it care so much about seeing it succeed.

THE END (hopefully).