In light to all of the heavy stuff that’s going on, I wanted to share one of my guilty pleasure websites with you all.
The lovely procrastination website that I have been spending much time on is that which archives New York Magazine‘s Sex Diaries. What are these, you ask? Well, they’re exactly what they sound like! Each week an anonymous New Yorker chronicles seven days of their sex life to whatever degree of detail their heart desires. They’re not only a great source of entertainment, but also are a nice reminder that everyone’s sex life is different … and that’s okay.
Most are very funny, while on occasion some slide over to the serious side. No matter what the tone, though, I find myself perusing the archives for extended periods of time – time that would best be used doing reading for one of my classes, perhaps.
So what is it about reading about sex (and, um, other people’s sex lives by virtue) that we find so fascinating? Every women’s magazine has a regular feature in which they ask readers to send in their “most embarrassing sex story” or to decry their “favorite sex position and why,” so it’s not as if it’s a new and novel thing. Even if we’re ashamed to admit it, most of us will pick up the magazine and read those stories at some point. There’s just something about sex that always draws me in, and according to the popularity of said articles and site, I’m hardly the only one. But why. On the whole, I’ve thought about this for a long while, and I have a couple of ideas. One of them is that sex and sexuality are so intricately wound into all of our lives in some way or another, and it’s apparently natural to be curious about the sex lives of others. I mean, everyone’s clearly doing it. I think another part of the appeal is that we’re all so varied in and out of the bedroom.
What are your thoughts? Am I just a crazy voyeuristic sex article fiend?