Current Release: April 28th, 2009 | Vol. XXX Iss. 10

Sext me

By T.M. Taylor

tmtaylor@vwc.edu

Not to turn this into your English class, but  portmanteau is a word that blends two or more words together to make one meaning. We use these words a lot in our generation. Smog and motel. Bennifer and Bragelina. Sexperts and alcoholidays. However, a new portmanteau word is sweeping the nation, and it s affecting people our age.

Welcome to the world of sexting.

Seriously, it s a word: Sexting.

By conjoining two words that most high school and college-age students love (I ll let you take a stab in the dark at which two I m talking about), you create a new craze that is leaving a wake behind.

In Pennsylvania, six high school students faced child pornography charges after three teenage girls allegedly took nude or semi-nude photos of themselves and proceeded to send them to their male classmates via cell phone.

Sexting is a problem for high school kids. I get that. I mean, I know none of us are naïve enough to believe that high school kids aren t sexually active. We were all their age, right? Do we need to remind ourselves of puberty when all our girly/guy parts were making us feel  weird? Middle school and high school dances were the worst places to be for kids who were still trying to figure out how things worked.

But how does sexting affect us? Aside from the fact that while you read this article, you say either to yourself or out loud how stupid the idea of sending dirty text and picture messages to your significant other, boy toy, main squeeze, or flavor of the month/week/day, it really does happen. And it s been happening longer than you might guess.

When magazines became rampant, what came out? Playboy, Hustler, Penthouse, and every other niche or fetish that a person wants to see illustrated when they are in the mood. The Internet came out and the hot thing was cybersex. How many times have you heard or used A/S/L? Even when the telephone came out, phone sex probably started immediately. Lovers separated by state and country lines only have one way to communicate their longing for one another. And as trivial and possibly stupid as it seems, it happens.

You could very well be the next sexter. Fall in love with a military man or woman and let that person get deployed or sent out to sea. Think about how fast you will start sending all things erotic to your other half. VWC senior, fall in love with that underclassperson and go back home and try not to get freaky with technology as hundreds of miles separate you. It really is possible but where is the line drawn?

One has to wonder. With the way that technology advances, how else will people be able to sex it up?