Sex and the College Newspaper Student Columnists Explore a Familiar Campus Topic

TlioiDM McOonmki for The New Yart Times Natalie Krinsky, 20, a sex columnist in The , says she gets most of her material from classmates.

By SARA RIMER reflecting a striking openness among many undergradu NEW HAVEN — It wasn't Natalie Krinsky's idea. But ates when it comes to the discussion of sex. The columns the editors at The Yale Daily News were sure she would be Include "Sexpert Tells All" in 's a natural: She was a good writer. She was funny. But most Washington Square News, The Daily Califomian's "Sex on of all, she was not easily embarrassed. Tuesdays" at the University of California at Berkeley and Now, a year later. Ms. Krinsky, a 20-year-old junior, is Meghan Bainum's odes to experimentation and safe sex In a campus celebrity, writing the most talked about column The Daily Kansan at the . Subjects in The News. She does not opine about the burning issues of range from sexual arousal to oral sex etiquette to bondage. the day: the univrt^sity's labor negotiations or the possible "If you've been missing a spark in your sex life," Ms. war in Iraq. Bainum, a 21-year-old senior in Lawrence, Kan., wrote in a Ms. Krinsky's subject is sex. recent column, "adding a good pair of handcuffs or a "Girls fake all the time," she wrote in one column. spanking or two to your normal routine could be the way "But'why? Convincing everyone in the room that you're for you to put the sprinkles on your ice cream cone." As wearing a diamond when in reality it's a cubic zirconia IS always, Ms. Bainum made a point of adding that this sort of fun, but it still doesn't beat a good, hard, quality — rock." sex is only for willing partners and should never involve In her sassy "Sex and the CIty"-inspired voice, Ms. pain. Krinsky talks about everything from the Yale man's fear But all this talk about sex does not necessarily mean of commitment ("I have been here for two glorious years that a majority of college students are more sexually and I am still waiting for love, actually, scratch that. experienced than past generations. ANYONE who is interested in commitment to knock on my Jordan Friedman, 's director of door") to the finer points of oral sex, the details of which health education, who is in charge of the university's will not be printed here, but prompted more than 200,000 popular health and sexuality Information Web site, "Go hits on the Yale paper's Web site last year. Ask Alice!" said many of the students' questions show Ms. Krinsky is one of a growing number of sex columnists at college papers across the country who are Continued on Page B5 Sex and the College Newspaper Column

Continued From Page Bl toy anyway. But no matter her sub lisher and author, graduated from ject her humor is distinctive. Yale in 1972, and now teaches jour All this candor is a little much for nalism at his alma mater. Natalie their level of inexperience. "It's not Ms. Krinsky's father, Itzhak Krinskywas one of 15 students, out of just about 'Dear Alice, help me have Krinsky. Mr. Krinsky, 50, an Israeli- a pool of 60, he admined into his a better orgasm,'" Mr. Friedman bom college professor turned Man seminar this fall on the strength of said. "It's about 'Dear Alice, help me hattan investment banker, found out her writing submissions, which in have a better orgasm because I'm about his daughter's column through cluded two of her colunms. not sure if I'm even having them.'" some young investment bankers who StiU, he said, "When I was reading Nor are all students entertained by had been reading it on the Web. (Ms. her writing samples, I said to my the candid discussions of sex, though Krinsky said she had been planning wife, 'Can you believe this goes in there has been little organized pro to tell her parents about the colunm.) The Yale Daily News?' " test Meghan Clyne, a 21-year-old "When I was there," Mr. Brill said, senior who is a conservative political "The Yale Daily News was editorial columnist for The Yale Daily News, izing for the Vietnam War. It was run said she found it offensive that Ms. Writing aboutthe by a bunch of nerds." Krinsky writes about "various sexu As last year's editor in chief at The al behaviors as if she were talking Daily News, Christopher Michel, a about decorating your living room." favorite subject of 20-year-old senior, approved the sex Sex, Ms. Clyne added, "is not some column last fall. "We're in the busi thing that should be joked about" many classmates. ness of covering student life," Mr. But with interest in student papers Michel said. "And, for better or waning along with the rise of the worse, sex is an integral part of Internet some undergraduate news "It's not pleasant for a father or student life." papereditors may see the discussion mother to read those kinds of col Ms. Krinsky, who mingles with a of breast stimulation and favorite umns," Mr. Krinsky said, adding wide range of students, says most of positions as a great way to increase that he found the one on oral sex "too her generation is so bombarded by circulation. "School papers are doing extreme." He and his wife, Roni, sexually explicit material that her more to make themselves more rele considered telling their daughter to columns don't seem so outrageous. vant and interesting." said John stop writing the column, he said, but "Anj^imeonepicks up a Glamour Katzman, chief executive of The ultimately decided they should not magazine, or Cosmo, or perhaps Princeton Review, the college prepa Maximor Stuff, there is often a cover censor her. ration company, which studies stu story about sex how-to's or other "Some of the columns are really typically taboo subjects," she said. dent attitudes. And what could be funny," Mr. Krinsky said, referring more interesting, said Mr. Katzman, " 'How to drive your man wild in to the ones that were not sexually than sex? bed' is a title that always comes up." explicit His favorite, he said, was a Ms. Krinsky's persona in her col Yet Ms. Krinsky, the 20-year-old umn is part tUp, jaded Carrie Brad- recent column in which his daughter expert, says she also believes there shaw from "Sex and the City" and compared the Yale ritual of shopping is a lot more talk — endless, analyti part insecure, romantic and eternal for courses to the Yale male's love of cal all-night talk — than action on lysingle Cathy, from the comic strip. playing the field. college campuses, at least at Yale. In In one column, she buys a vibratoron Even some people who came of a colunm for incoming freshmen, she a shopping trip to Manhattan with age during the so-called sexual revo began: "You are young, you are hip, her impossibly sexy friend, Veroni lution of the 1960's and 70's are taken you are beautiful and you are smart, ca; but then it fall^ out of her bag on aback by today's student sex colum- and if you're anything like anyone of the No. 6 train, and she later decides vnists. , your classmates, you are ready to she is too young for this sort of sex Steven Brill, 52, the magazine pub bonk. You are ready to bonk a lot "niomas McDonald for T^e New York Times Natalie Krinsky, the sex columnistfor The Yale Daily News, with a friend on campus. She says that" most of her generation is so bombarded by sexually explicit material that her columns don't seem so outrageous.

Well,freshmen, you have come to the quist, 20, and two of his friends. Mr. an in the column. A history major, wrong place. At Yale, it seems we Stromquist was telling Ms. Krinsky she lives in a dorm at Timothy discuss sex far more than (admitted about his life as a sexual exile, with Dwight College. She has a stuffed pig ly) we actually have it." his roommate banishing him from and a red-haired doll on her neatly She says she gets most of her his dorm room whenever his girl made single bed. There are Friday material from listening to her class friend spends the night. nights, she said, when she is alone mates. On a recent afternoon, "That's rude," said Ms. Krinsky, with David Letterman and a bowl of dressed in stylishly tight bell-bottom adding that sexual exiles would microwave, low-fat popcorn. jeans aiid,high-heeled black leather make a good column. So, has the sex columnist ever had boots, ^e was at a table in the com Everyone who knows her says that sex? -i can't answer that question,'* mons dining hall with Brian Strom- Ms. Krinsky is not the worldly wom she said.