There’s been a lot of talk on this page lately about sex. Two weeks ago, guest columnist Marshal Staggs said losing your virginity is awesome. Then a sophomore English major told us waiting until marriage is awesome. And finally, Jennifer Healey, junior business and marketing major, proclaimed enough was enough. Healey called on the Stater to give up its reckless promotion of sex with multiple partners and align itself with the university’s “theme statement” to promote excellence.

What planet has she spent her time at Kent State on? Obviously not the same one the Kent campus actually exists on.

Admittedly, I love sex. I love having sex, with as many people as I can, as often as possible in as many ways as possible. I simply love it.

But this comes as no surprise to anyone. Sorry to my fellow gays if all I seem to be doing is playing to a stereotype, but hold on a second.

How about some perspective?

Every semester, the American College Health Association conducts a National College Health Assessment. In fall 2007, more than 20,000 students at 39 schools across the country filled out surveys. The results showed:

&bull Sixty-eight percent of men and 70 percent of women reported having at least one sexual partner within the last 12 months. Ten percent of men and 6 percent of women reported having four or more sexual partners within the last 12 months.

&bull Of the sexually-active respondents, 70 percent of men and 68 percent of women had participated in oral sex, 68 percent of men and women had participated in vaginal sex and 30 percent of men and 22 percent of women had participated in anal sex.

&bull Of those sexually-active respondents, 5 percent used a condom the last time they had oral sex, 50 percent used a condom the last time they had vaginal sex and 25 percent used a condom the last time they had anal sex.

&bull Seven percent of men and 6 percent of women who had participated in vaginal sex reported using no method of contraception.

All of this proves the immutable point in this tˆte-…-tˆte: People are having sex.

True, these data show about 30 percent of those surveyed were not sexually active.

But the other 70 percent of us are sucking, fucking, fingering and everything in between. You can call a public discourse on sex abominable, sacrilegious, offensive, pornographic and morally destructive, but this dialogue is crucial. If events such as Sextoberfest and columns promoting losing one’s virginity are actually, as Healey deemed it, “smut,” I say keep it coming.

This weekend, for my birthday, my best friend took me to “Spring Awakening,” a wildly successful musical based on a late 19th century German play. Complete with masturbation, abortion, rape and suicide, it paints the ideal picture of a sexually repressed society. The children are fervent to discover something about themselves they have no idea how to handle, and their elders are petrified of their uncovering and expressing sexuality.

I’m an advocate for more than sex education – what we need to do is raise sexual awareness. I am a “haughty” writer who doesn’t “tip-toe” in getting my message across, as Healey suggests we Stater columnists work. If anything, we should be running a sex column on this page every single day. Everyone would read it. Those who wanted to have it would have it. And the critics would get their field day, too.

Just like those kids in the 1890s, college students are going to do what men and women do with other men and women. Sex is a biological act. The societal concept of it has been weighted with moral blasphemy and emotional strife.

Take the Human Sexuality course. Talk to your friends when you have a “bizarre” sexual desire. Wait until “marriage” if you want. Just don’t hate on the smut, because at one point or another, you’ll enjoy it, too.

Adam Griffiths is a junior visual journalism major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].