To the Editor:
I disagree with Matthew Nolan '07 ("Sex: Not at all Like Steak," Feb. 21) that "sometimes the reason we do not talk about certain issues is that they are not acceptable." As a senior fellow writing a book on sexual expression, I would argue that those professing more "wholesome" brands of sexuality, like Nolan, are the reason others keep their more "perverse" sexual acts and desires to themselves. Many people don't want to risk stigmatization or being labeled as "perverse" for the myriad ways they have sex. Meanwhile, Dartmouth students are having threesomes, using sex toys, role playing, blowing each other in bathrooms and masturbating to all kinds of pornography because it's fun, pleasurable and makes them happy. What's "unwholesome" about that? Why should Nolan, or anyone for that matter, set the standards of "acceptability" for others? Keeping quiet about our sexualities simply reinforces a hierarchy of sexual acceptability -- the effect of sexual silence, not its cause. Those who are most silent never come out on top.
