Feb. 2, 2007
www.guilfordian.rnm
FORUM
Page 13
Greensboro. N.r
Adra Cooper | Staff Writer
The pervasiveness of online "net
working" sites has become irrefutable:
MySpace, the Internet's most popular
Web-community site, currently has over
106 million registered users.
Recently, families of five teenage girls,
who claim they were sexually assaulted
by men they met through MySpace, are
suing the site. The lawsuits, all separate
cases, allege negligence, fraud and mis
representation by the Web site.
MySpace has reacted by initiating a
new feature called Zephyr, expected to
be launched later this year. Zephyr will
allow parents to view the name, age and
location details entered by their child on
his or her profile.
I do not have a profile on MySpace or
any other Web-community site. I will not
deny that these sites have some merit;
they are great networking tools and can
provide exposure to music, art, writing,
etc. that wouldn't otherwise be avail
able.
should
Is MySpace safe?
But 1 shy away from MySpace, be- er, then perhaps their parents
STfuLnae condone look at themselves to see who is talTre”
crel’Xss Ten. ' Shouldn't it be the job of the
joy some level of ^rents to know where
anonymity and do The National Center for
ablJr' “thSg and Exploited The nIhLT'L-
pictures of myself ^^l^dren says 33 percent *er for Missing and Ex
on the internet or of 13- to 17‘year-olds Children says
keeping in touch reported that thpir 17 *0
with people that leu rnai tneir 17-year-olds reported
I haven'^ seen know very little” that their parents know
since elementary Or “nothing” about what • "noth-
"'‘’so!'' 1 do 0“ the Internet d7or,teTnte™!
think MySpace More than likely, par-
is sketchy and I am not surprised that because their chddren^are^ dohig^thtnS
viaftesite BuUo blamrthl. ^now their parents wouldn't
th^se situahons i^a^Tous ^
Sexual predators have molested chil- rato^Instead'^of shamef^T®
tanelTttt'yXnWsX fh P"“‘® opeTcom"
ernet. ir mese young girls did not have mumcation with them
the common sense to know that it's a bad According to THp n
Idea to meet up with a complete strang- Chronicle, an attorney represenhng'one
of the families said that MySpace is like
a daycare facility that doesn't adequately
protect its customers. Does it make sense
for a Web site to have more liability for
young teens than their parents?
No matter how many Zephyrs are
created, a networking site with over 106
million users will never be safe or well-
regulated, unless MySpace performs
background checks on all of its users.
Even that wouldn't make the Web site
secure. The problem with MySpace pro
files is the very reason why people are
compelled to create one in the first place:
you can become whoever you want to be.
Fourteen-year-old girls can become 19-
year-old women and 45-year-old sexual
predators can become 15-year-old boys.
In this day and age, the dangers of
online networking are well known.
MySpace cannot take responsibility for
the millions of people who join the site.
It is up to the people who choose to cre
ate an online profile to do so in a safe
and smart manner and look out for peo
ple who don't.
Lauren Nagao | Contributing Writer
How do you ask someone
to go down on you?
We are living in a culture
saturated in sex. So why is it
that asking someone to plea
sure you is just as hard as
ever?
This is probably not a prob
lem for everyone, but if you're
a slightly awkward woman,
like me, then please read on.
There is a lot more mystique
surrounding the vagina than
Honest answers to awkward questions
ONTRiBUTiNGWriter the penis in our ^
the penis in our everyday
lives. Blowjob, fellatio, head;
these are all words that com
monly come up in a fifth-grad
er s vocabulary, but the female
genitals and their stimulation
seem like top-secret knowl
edge. Vaginas simply don't get
a lot of time in movies, songs
or general conversation. The
result is that men and women
alike know little about that
area: geography, maintenance
or pleasure.
Cunnilingus (oral stimu
lation of the vagina) is one
of those 10-point words that
eluded me in my adolescence.
Although the respectability of
the name "blowjob" is debat
able, at least the penis has a
slang term. Vagina vocabulary
is still stuck in the clinical tri
als, which is why asking some
one to perform, the act can still
seem really awkward, though
definitely worth the trouble.
Even in my most comfortable,
ardent-feminist, body-loving
moments, I still have a hard
time popping the question:
Would you like some vagina
with that?
So this is where I finally
give you the magic formu
la: (1) Ask. Okay, well that's
about it. For example, "I think
it would be really hot if you
went down on me right now,"
or perhaps, "Would you like
to go down on me, because I
think that would be fabulous,
darling." "It looks like it's go
ing to rain today. How about
some cunnilingus?" Add ex
pletives as needed. Write a
note. Have the courage to ask
for what you want, when you
want it, nicely.
Does tequila really
make you horny?
Our brains aren't the
only things overloaded:
our livers are working
overtime, too. College
students these days are
boozing like it's nobody's
business. We're drowning
in the stuff. This being the
case, a lot of the sexual
situations we're experi
encing involve alcohol
as well. The rules say no
drinking and sexing; you
can't give consent. Agree
or disagree, it's worth
thinking about. Though
thinking and tequila do
not seem to get along.
We certainly seem to
get crazier with tequila,
and more often than not,
a little more randy with
this particular evil. Even
though it's alcohol, I can't
remember the last time
Illustration by Charlie Clay/ Guilfordian mellowed out af-
Communication with your partner about intimacy can help avoid awkward situations, j "st thfbody'Tots!' o'r is
tequila really the Viagra of li
quors? If alcohol is a depres
sant, then why does tequila
make you feel so feisty?
One thing that does seem
suspicious is that tequila is
made with a lot of sugar-cane
water. My personally favorite
theory is that people equate
tequila with liveliness and
therefore sexuality because
they are simply on a huge,
drunken sugar high. This
seems to make sense if you've
ever been on a tequila binge
(like a kid the day after Hal
loween, but drunk).
In order to answer the ques
tion "does tequila really make
you horny?" I'd say no. It just
makes you crazy. Alcohol can
lower your inhibitions and
loosen you up for a fun night
with the friends, or the toilet.
Unfortunately, it also lowers
your ability to engage in key
activities, such as coherent
decision-making, or say, walk
ing. These are both things you
need to be able to do in order
to give and receive consent for
sexual activity. Please be safe
if you're drinking, whatever
it is. Take a rain check and
make sure that special some
one seems like just as good of
an idea over coffee as they did
over a bottle of tequila. Don't
let your friends drink and
drive; don't let them drink
and sex either.
This article is presented in
conjunction with Cobb House,
Guilford s Sexual Health and
Awareness alternative house.
To submit a question, e-mail
Lauren Nagao at Inagao©
guilford.edu