NEWS
1/29/09 6:00pm
By Christine Pao
Recently, ABC News released an article titled "Student-Run Sex Magazines Surface Across U.S." in which Rice University's very own Open Magazine was featured. The article truthfully exposes the origins and the nature of Open, while comparing it to other sex magazines that have been springing up in various schools, including Washington University in St. Louis, Columbia University and Harvard University. After reading through the article, however, I noticed that a host of readers had posted scathing comments criticizing Open for a range of reasons, and I realized that those who have never opened the magazine are interpreting it in entirely the wrong way.What people unfamiliar with Open don't seem to realize is that it is not a porn magazine containing stories of erotica, promoting casual sex, exploiting women or preaching promiscuity. Its approach to sex is completely different: As the mission statement asserts, the magazine "aims to promote a healthy attitude toward sex by presenting a wide range of perspectives on the interplay of sex and culture through articles, editorials, interviews, poems, short stories, photos and art." It's fine to critique Open, but unfair to condemn it without even knowing what it really stands for. It appears that people are getting the wrong impression, that the magazine promotes casual sex while exploiting women, when in reality it serves as an outlet for students to express their viewpoints on various sexual issues.
