What was the rationale for putting the April 19 article Sexual curiosity is college columnist's muse on the front page, at the top no less? Was this a pathetic attempt to sell newspapers, i.e "sex sells"? How in your wildest imaginings would this article be considered front-page news? Personally I found the subject of sexually explicit columns in college newspapers disturbing.
I would concede that the information might be considered newsworthy, but please, not on the front page. Surely with what is going on in the world today, you can find better front-page news!
-- Jennie Jordan, St. Petersburg
Spotlight more worthy students
Re: Sexual curiosity is college columnist's muse.
I am appalled by this story. How is it possible that a college student writing graphically about sex acts merits a headline story complete with photo on the front page? Why is this individual held up as some sort of newsworthy role model? Huge portions of this article were crass, vulgar, offensive and inappropriate.
There are numerous outstanding students with amazing accomplishments you could spotlight. Many could serve as fine role models and deserve to have their academic, artistic, musical and athletic achievements celebrated. Surely you could have found someone more deserving than a student who has dubbed herself "sex girl."
Words like decency and appropriateness must seem outdated and old fashioned to your editorial staff. But many do not wish to be assaulted in their homes with this corrosive influence. Furthermore, your paper is used in many classrooms in Pinellas County. No elementary school teacher should have to explain an article that borders on the pornographic, as this one does, to young children. The papers left stacked by the front office will need to be covered if future front-page articles are going to incorporate such explicit, graphic sexual material.
The bar is set far too low at the St. Petersburg Times. Raise it higher or lose those readers who still hold values dear.
-- Katherine Kissling, Safety Harbor
Paper needs higher standards
Re: Sexual curiosity is college columnist's muse.
Once again the lead article is about sex in what I can only imagine is a marketing effort to sell papers.
It certainly is not news that college newspapers carry columns about sex. Possibly it is newsworthy that a 20-year-old woman would discuss her graphic sex columns with her 17-year-old brother and grandfather, but that's a Dr. Phil show!
Raise your standards. If you must print such offensive material, move it inside.
-- Carol Turk, Palm Harbor
What were the editors thinking?
I have canceled my subscription to the St. Petersburg Times. I refuse to support a newspaper that leads its front page with a story on the "kinky" escapades of a young college student, including her musings on anal sex. As a Pinellas County high school teacher, I was particularly shocked that this article ran on the same day that the Floridian carries Xpress, a section devoted primarily to elementary and middle school students. Do you realize how many papers were on school campuses Monday due to the Newspapers in Education program? What were your editors thinking (or not thinking - as their poor judgment indicates)?
I was further angered by what I feel is manipulation on the Times' part. What are you trying to do? Float this type of article to further fuel the public debate that began with the exposure of Janet Jackson's breast during the primest of prime-time television? Enough.
Or was your purpose more crass in that you sunk to titillation in the hopes of increasing revenues? I sincerely cannot - and the lens with which I view the world is pretty liberal - comprehend why you would publish this article, and on the front page, no less. Maybe you need to change your masthead to "St. Petersburg Times: A Playboy Supplement." And I used to defend the Times when family and friends would refer to it as that "liberal rag."
-- Donna Hanak, St. Petersburg
Where is the news significance?
Re: Sexual curiosity is college columnist's muse.
I accept your judgment as to the newsworthiness/public interest of Stephanie Oliveira's sex column in the USF Oracle - but the top of the front page?
On Page 2 are items headlined Arabs promise to avenge death of Hamas chief and Arabs protest killing, denounce U.S. and Israel. Our foreign policy is killing us.
You must categorize news significance with a dart board.
-- Richard J. Lewis, Madeira Beach
Sex and rape are different things
I am writing in reaction to the April 19 article on USF sex columnist Stephanie Oliveira. I am the "sophomore English major" who wrote in response to Ms. Oliveira's Oracle article on rape.
I was both amused and angered by Ms. Oliveira's response to my letter.
"Say I'm a tramp, but don't say I don't care about rape victims" Oliveira is quoted as saying.
I would not call Ms. Oliveira a tramp, first because I don't believe that she is one, and second, because I do not agree with employing such degrading language toward fellow women. If Oliveira truly "cared" about rape victims, let alone women in general, she would acknowledge her position as a (self-styled) "sex expert" and banish such hurtful, judgmental language from her ever-expansive vocabulary.
I never stated in my letter that Oliveira does not care about rape victims, but I am stating it now. The purpose of my letter was not to attack Oliveira on anything other than the fact that rape is an inappropriate subject for a sex column. If Ms. Oliveira would put down her copy of The Guide to Getting It On for a moment in order to scan through Alice Sebold's Lucky or perhaps even Joyce Carol Oates' We Were the Mulvaneys, she would most likely see my point: Sex and rape are two very different things, and to confuse the former with the latter is not only insulting, its degrading, painful and dehumanizing. Not unlike rape itself.
Ms. Oliveira personalized my opinion as an attack against her column as a whole, which I find to be rather selfish. Oliveira can sit and type sexual innuendos and sexual taboos until she is blue in the face. More power to her. But when she crosses that line of tackling sexual abuse in the same vein as she does discussing porn shops and Cosmo articles, then her entire demographic shifts, and survivors of sexual abuse are included in a area under discussion that they most certainly have an aversion to: sex.
Lastly, I would like to state that survivors do need respect and support, even from people like Oliveira. What they do not need is a sex columnist attempting to pull victims back from their pain using the same platform occupied by "kinky" sexual positions and forays into local porn shops. No one can pull anyone back from anywhere. You either save yourself, or you remain unsaved.
-- Ashley Konrad, Palm Harbor
Think of the young people
Re: Sexual curiosity is college columnist's muse.
I think this article is absolutely disgusting and I wonder why the Times would put such trash on the front page or anywhere else in the paper. Is this the type of thing we want to promote in our society? Promoting this activity is what is causing much of our problems with our youth today. Is this subject appropriate for your young son and daughter? Please consider what your articles are doing to our young people.
-- Shirley Gillespie, Hudson
Disappointing decision
I'm very disappointed in your cover story in Monday's newspaper. Our country is in a war. Monday was is the 9th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, and your cover story is about a girl writing a sex column for the USF newspaper. Is this what you consider news?
I am a mother of two young daughters who thankfully can't read yet. I don't think many parents want their children to read about anal sex on the first page of your paper.
I'm really disgusted by what passes for news and feel you are just trying to sell more papers by putting this kind of article on the front page. I truly hope you think next time before putting this kind of garbage in the paper. We have much more serious news going on in the world today.
-- Julie Mendez, Lithia
Reaching far for negative news
Having just moved back to Pinellas after 10 years suffering in Lakeland with their liberal "rag" the Ledger, I am equally miffed at the Times. A good example is the April 16 front page about a Providence, R.I., family who just lost a Marine in the Iraq war (A Marine comes home). I am the first one to mourn over the loss of a fighting man, but Rhode Island? Do we have to go there to find something negative about "George's" war? And then make it front-page news? Slow news day, guys?
Arriving over the Internet daily are pictures of how well we are doing over there. Pictures of soldiers helping children, children receiving gifts, schools being built, drinking water in homes that never had water before. And on and on. But, no. Let's talk about someone who was killed who doesn't live in Florida, let alone the Tampa Bay area! Come on, guys - front-page news? I'd rather read about the bullet train.
-- Jim Hildebrand, Safety Harbor
Compliments are in order
Re: A Marine comes home, April 16.
Regarding your newspaper, it is only fair that I be as quick to commend as to criticize. Accordingly, I want to compliment the staff, including the editors, for the above referenced front-page story. The heartbreakingly poignant closeup photo of the three young women standing vigil as the casket of their 21-year-old friend arrives from Iraq has a political eloquence that words alone could never convey.
Therefore, enough said.
-- Phillips M. Evans, Largo
Capturing a tragic reality
The black and white photo of the three young women on the front page of the April 16 Times by Bob Croslin is excellent. It brings home the tragic reality of war. It should be nominated for a photojournalism award.
-- Jeremy Ray, Tampa
Offer some help for hungry children
Re: Backpacks help hungry children, April 15.
It seems incomprehensible to be able to spend more than $87-billion in Iraq when children in the United States are hungry. The backpack program deserves help from the Bush administration as much as the war in Iraq. I am sure that there would be no opposition in Congress should the administration desire to help fund this worthy cause. There is enough "pork" around Washington to spare some for the children
-- Bennett Hoffman, Clearwater
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