This week: How to erase your relationship doubts by conforming to stilted gender roles; Buster Darkhole is MIA; college students are getting relationship inspiration from The First Wives Club soundtrack. This time with feeling:

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Girls must be girls.

Sex Tips: In a post-Valentines entry, UMD Diamondback advice columnist Esti Frischling administers a remedy to a female student who is concerned that her new beau is getting a bit too sweet on her (his super-serious Valentine's Day plans "freaked [her] out." Frischling's advice: In order to foster romance, ignore your obvious incompatibility, shelve your feelings, and stick to reinforcing traditional gender roles. "To be honest, I very rarely hear of girls complaining about getting too much attention," Frischling writes. "What is appealing about all these niceties and cutenesses, though, is it means someone cares about you. . . .  Perhaps it’s best not to say anything about how you don’t approve of his Valentine’s Day efforts. Instead, slow things down in other ways that won’t reveal to him how picky and alternative you are. If Hallmark has taught us anything, it’s that no one wants those things in a girl."

Life Lesson: A man doesn't like a complicated woman. Who cares if you don't even like him, either? "However you choose to handle it, don’t make him feel bad or insecure about trying to do nice things for you," Frischling writes. "It’s completely understandable that at this time it was too much for you, but unless you want to scare him away, just let it go."

Progressive Meter: And there's nothing worse than scaring away a guy who freaks you out, amirite ladies? :(

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: Sex columnists are MIA.

Sex Tips: None. The AU Eagle's trio of pseudonymned sex writers—Buster Darkhole, Maxwell Hillcrest, and Amber Sparkles haven't churned out a column since "Stereotypes a Problem for Lesbian Community," a piece which caused some problems for the lesbian community on campus, actually. (A sampling: “Many try and divulge the deep mystery that is lesbian sex. However, this is often met with much difficulty. Lesbians, being quite secretive, rarely give out the methods they use for sex, but we have done the research for you and found out some interesting facts.”)

Life Lesson: Sometimes better to burn out than to fade away. The "AU Threesome" started off their sex-writing careers with a vaguely non-consensual bang back in September, and they've kept up the controversy since—until they fell off the Eagle's map three-and-a-half months ago.

Progressive Meter: This one gets a big frowny face, because I miss these kids. :(

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Bette Midler is on the soundtrack to our lives.

Sex Tips: In Hoya "Rounding the Bases" columnist Colleen Leahey's latest, undergrads are advised to avoid festering in "pseudo-relationships" that lie in the gray area between hooking up and exchanging Varsity letterman jackets. Leahey sketches the scene: "After many weeks (sometimes even months) of being together, you and your partner have yet to go on a real date. Many nights, your special friend has a bit too much Burnett’s and passes out, leaving your texts annoyingly unanswered. But when you’re together, everything is perfect. Suddenly, the good outweighs the bad. This, my friends, is another—and the most common for college students—example of when you should leave. Your optimism, hoping to make something good out of a total train wreck, is causing you to trap yourself in an unhealthy relationship. Stay too long and you will end up feeling insecure and unhappy."

Life Lesson: If you suspect that Leahey is writing from a bit of an old-school perspective—beware the Dangers Of Hook-Up culture!— here's some more evidence: "Eventually, you will realize how much happier you are. As great as consistency is, enjoying you’re freedom is so much more fulfilling. And if you’re ever feeling really down, take a tip from my friends and I: Blast The First Wives Club version of 'You Don’t Own Me.' Trust me, you’ll be basking in the golden rays of your newfound singledom before you know it."

Progressive Meter: The First Wives Club is a film about three sassy, middle-aged divorcees who exact revenge on their ex-husbands after they are all discarded for younger women. Is it just me, or is it kind of freaky that a sex column for young people is gleaning relationship inspiration from a movie about cliched, messy divorces caused by hopelessly cliched young women? :-|

The battle for ideological dominance in our nation’s capital’s collegiate sex columns continues. Are our local campus columnists on the forefront of radical sex writing, or are they bringing back the good old days of ice cream sundaes, hand-holding, and offensive lesbian stereotypes?

This week: When fuck-buddies stop fucking; exploring the "mystery" of lesbian sex; parsing the appeal of the "holiday honey."

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

Sex Tips: GWU Hatchet sex columnist Layla is breaking up with her fuck-buddy, "007." The new development helps Layla realize that sex with 007 was just filling another void. "Amidst flashbacks of all of the ways he could make me shiver, I realized that 007 and I tend to fall back into our pattern of hooking up when we're trying to get over particularly bad breakups," she writes. "After a messy breakup, it was always easy to go from innocently hanging out with 007 in his basement, to going down on him."

Life Lesson: Fucking is not as powerful as Facebook. "One of my friends says the best way to get over a guy is to get under a new one . . . At the end of the day, however, the feeling of 007's hands all over me didn't entirely replace the tactile memories I had formed of hookups with my ex," she writes. "I still had to get over my ex using the tried-and-true method of time and patience, not to mention hiding his updates on my Facebook news feed."

Progressive Meter: Layla has sex with dudes she has no interest in dating, and they're both adults about it. Great! I just hope 007 was going down on you, too. Seven.

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

Sex Tips: This time around, AU's anonymous threesome employs a fourth wheel, Beaver McRugmuncher, to help the trio deal with the subject of—guess!—"the phenomena of lesbians." Yes! I have been waiting all semester to hear Buster Darkhole's theories on lesbians! Go on: "Many try and divulge the deep mystery that is lesbian sex. However, this is often met with much difficulty. Lesbians, being quite secretive, rarely give out the methods they use for sex, but we have done the research for you and found out some interesting facts," they write. "Everyone inevitably thinks of scissoring when they think of lesbians. However, from what we have heard, lesbians do not actually do this."

Life Lesson: "Rule number one: don’t piss off a lesbian. They are naturally born with the ability to kick your ass." Umm . . . too late!

Progressive Meter: Let's see here. We're debunking some stereotypes (lesbians rush into relationships) while creating some others (lesbians will "kick your ass"). We're erasing some common fantasies ("everyone inevitably thinks of scissoring when they think of lesbians") and replacing them with some . . . less-common ones (lesbian sex "is like a Jell-O shot: first, you get your finger in to loosen it up, then place your mouth around it to get at the goods.") At the same time, we're reminding everyone that "lesbians are more than just Jell-O shots at parties." Color me confused! Two points. I guess.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Sex Tips: Hoya sex columnist Colleen Leahey introduces me to a couple of new relationship terms: "Holiday Honey" and "DFMO." Leahey got "Holiday Honey" from her mom: "My mom began using it several years ago, when my older sister was a freshman in college. Every break (Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, Winter, et cetera), Kelly and her high school boyfriend would rekindle their flame for several days, then let it fizzle when they returned to their respective schools." God knows where DFMO came from, but it stands for "Dance-floor make-out." According to Urban Dictionary: "Most of the time a DFMO is voluntary, but they can also occur when a drunkard grabs your face and starts making sweet sweet love to it."

Life Lessons: Holiday Honeys "knew you before you went to keggers and made out on the dance floor with several other partygoers in a night. They evoke a general innocence in you, a quality that can seem lost in the throes of chaotic college events. When with them, you’re reminded of corsages, ice cream dates and movies you never actually watched," Leahey writes. "The nostalgia associated with an old flame is extremely comforting."

Progressive Meter: Side-note: I think name-checking your mom in a sex column is really sweet. Too bad she's invoked to make the argument that relationships were so much better in the good old days of the 1950's high school. Four.

Photo by State Library of Queenstown, Australia

The fight for ideological dominance of D.C.'s college sex column "movement" rages on. Are our local campus columnists on the forefront of radical sex writing, or are they bringing back the good old days of borrowed class rings and shoulder-draped letter jackets? This week: A two-timing columnist receives a smackdown; college kids tell you not to have casual sex; the "MRS degree" makes a comeback.

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY:

Sex Tips: No new sex columns have been printed over at the Hatchet since female columnist Layla confessed she was fucking her best friend and male columnist Mr. Darcy outed his little virgin/whore complex. There has, however, been a bit of community push-back to Darcy's double-timing the "nice girl" and the "freaky girl" while he waited for the "nice freaky girl" of his dreams to show up on his doorstep. "Bravo to this studly, virile man, who has so many girls drooling after him," wrote Kristen McCarthy, a senior. "There is nothing we females like more than a complete tool who jerks us around, jumping from one girl to the next, and then decides to 'have [his] cake and eat it too.' . . . . The worst part? The author's audacity to call himself Mr. Darcy. I can assure you that Miss Austen would never have stood for that behavior in a Darcy."

Life Lesson: Choose your pseudonym wisely. Good luck: Buster Darkhole is already taken.

Progressive Meter: Calling a tool a tool is a treasured feminist pastime, and reclaiming Austen was a necessary move. But no woman can speak for all females: Some girls like jumping around, too. 7

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AMERICAN UNIVERSITY:

Sex Tips: The latest gem mined from the AU Eagle's Amber Sparkles, Buster Darkhole, and Maxwell Hillcrest reveals an ideological rift between the trio of sex columnists. Each columnist took turns answering the question, "How long to wait to have sex?" Hillcrest took the philosophical route: "But by asking, you are halfway on the road to your answer," he writes. Darkhole is short on specifics: "I would say try not to have it too soon." And Sparkles sidelines 'em all with her requisite conservative bent. "If you like someone enough to be interested in dating her or him or already are dating them, having sex could be a good experience. . . . As long as you are having sex because you like the person and would be interested in building your relationship, there isn’t a time that is too early or too late. But if your reasons are otherwise, then maybe you should think again."

Life lesson: Don't hit it unless you plan on hitting it for the rest of the semester.

Progressive Meter: Hillcrest hits the nail on the head when he tells students the only way to figure out if they're ready to do it is to "talk to your partner." Sparkles' advice to only sex someone you're "interested in dating," not so much. Why not try having sex with someone you're interested in having sex with? 5

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GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

Sex Tips: Columnist Colleen Leahey's latest informs students about why people you are hooking up with lie to you. The column, typically, includes some strange ideas about men (from Mars) and women (Venus). Among them:

• "Men and women have forever had difficulties communicating with one another."
• "Guys seem to be puzzled by the complex and utterly confusing mind games of women; females can’t seem to cope with the simplistic, one-track male thought-process."
• "Guys are notoriously stereotyped by society as players. After several beers, they’re only after 'one thing.'"
• "Not every college female is interested in graduating with her M.R.S. degree; some only want to have fun."

The column also includes one extremely strange imagined scenario about what hooking up in college is like: "Perhaps their beer goggles were a bit too tight that night. Seeing as you two never made specific rules concerning exclusivity, the hot bro or chick smiling across the bar may seem extraordinarily appealing under the glow of Thirds’ neon totem pole. However, the morning light reveals a pudgy, acne-covered mistake with really bad breath. How mortifying!"

Life lesson: The "M.R.S. degree" reference was enough to tip us off that we're dealing with an old, old soul here. The scare quotes around "one thing" and the exclamation point following "mortifying" seal the deal. Grandmother? Is that you in there?

Progressive Meter: Well, at least not "every" woman only went to college to get married. Zero.

Photo by riptheskull

This week, the Nation’s Alex Dibranco declared that the college sex column represents "a radical progressive movement in the sense of pushing against traditional silence and the status quo." That might have been true when sex columns first popped up on college campuses in 1996, but now, fucking and telling is a normal campus activity for radicals and right-wingers alike. At this point, simply rehashing your heterosexual, vanilla, and gender-role-informed Saturday night hook-up through the campus press does not a sexual revolution make—even if you publish under the pseudonym "Buster Darkhole." Sady of Tiger Beatdown and I talk about where the student sex column should go from here.

References: George Washington University's sex column, penned by "Mr. Darcy" and "Layla" [Exhibits A & B]; Georgetown University's sex column, penned by Colleen Leahey [Exhibits C & D]; American University's sex column, penned by "Amber Sparkles," "Maxwell Hillcrest," and our pal Buster [Exhibits E & F].

SADY: ah, the kids today. what are they up to? other than pretending they know enough about sex to write about it, OBVS, since the kids of many various days seem to believe the same thing.

AMANDA: also, inventing hilarious pseudonyms for themselves, like Rex Butthole and V. Gina

SADY: i know, right? or BUSTER DARKHOLE, Legitimate Writer and Giver of Mature Sexual Counsel [Exhibit E]. somehow, i just hold out the hope that Buster Darkhole is his real name and this is the only career path open to him.

AMANDA: hahaha

SADY: actually, as i read your summary, i was fondest of the work and pseudonym of MR. DARCY [Exhibit A]. i remember the third-act twist in Pride and Prejudice which mr. darcy exclaimed, "verily, miss bennet! our coffee date has involved a most unexpected oral manipulation of my genitals! yet i cannot refuse the fair lady Bingley, who is a superfreak in word and in deed!"

AMANDA: agreed, but at least mr. darcy is better than "layla" [Exhibit B], the name of the female columnist. though i knew a lot of kids in college into Clapton, so i guess it's a cultural thing

SADY: haha. but, you know, reading these things and your summary of them, i was reminded of (CURSE ME FOR UTTERING THE FORBIDDEN NAME) T*cker M*x. [Exhibit douche]. Somehow, it's just not scandalous any more to note that ladies like to have sex and are having casual sex. Unless you are the Pope, in which case all sex scandalizes you to some degree or another. The Kids These Days are pro-sex, including the lady ones. but they're also pro-ridiculously-conservative-gender-norms. and i had somehow hoped that making the point that ladies and dudes can both enjoy sex would change things. IT HAS NOT.

AMANDA: one idea i've seen in a couple of these stories (and from adults talking down to college-age people, too) is: yes, women like to have sex just as much as men do, but they have to not do it in order to be happy [Exhibit E].

SADY: oh, yes. the HOOKUP CULTURE! which is DESTROYING LADIES' CHANCES OF HAPPINESS!

AMANDA: because if they don't not have sex they'll never be in a relationship, which is what they REALLY want.

SADY: right. your vagina has to accumulate enough charge, through non-use, in order to work its Boyfriend-Entrapping powers on the dude of your choice.

AMANDA: i just read a chapter of a new book about young adult sexual experiences, ill remember the name later [Exhibit Laid: Young People’s Experiences with Sex in an Easy-Access Culture], and the introduction compared "hooking up" to a "microwave burrito" — you want it in the moment but eventually, you're going to regret it. the book called casual sex "settling," and insisted that good sex can only be had in committed relationships. personally, i really like being in a relationship, but part of the reason i like it is because i'm not only in the relationship so that i am ALLOWED TO HAVE SEX. i imagine this worldview just ends up with a lot of women settling into relationships with people they they don't really like that also don't provide great sex

SADY: yeah, and the mr. darcy column (i am sorry i keep returning to it! it fascinates me!) sets up the same good girl/bad girl paradigm. like, i COULD be with the girl who i might legitimately want a relationship with... or i could be with AWESOME SEXY TIMES lady. and, you know? it's kind of sad to me that dudes still think this division exists. although hilarious that dude is puzzling out loud over how he wasn't able to "settle down" as a damn college student.

AMANDA: i know. but then at the end, darcy is all, "you know what, maybe i can find a freaky girl that i love!" but you know he's just gonna kinda keep fucking both of them. Whatever. that is the weirdest thing to me about the Concerns over the Hook-Up Culture. why should college students be encouraged to search out their Final Life-Long relationship among the first relationships they've ever had? that makes no sense, and neither does telling girls that hooking up will damage them. they can look for a boyfriend whenever they want to do that. or a girlfriend, which is one thing that none of these sex columns is really addressing.

SADY: YEAH. it's all boys sexing the girls, and ridiculous gender stereotypes of boys sexing girls [Exhibit D], but these "sex" columns often seem more like the work of not terribly reflective or original straight college kids marveling over the fact that they can have sex and not worry about their moms overhearing them or showing up to offer suzy a ride home before it gets too late. but shouldn't "sex" be a more, um, inclusive discussion than this thing about giggling over how you got SOOOO wasted and sexed up someone in your totes heterosexual manner last night?

AMANDA: of course, i would say yeah, but i can see why this happens. when you're in college, those things are exciting to you, as a boring heterosexual person, even if its not terribly interesting to even, say, your classmates. it can be hard to look past your own experience when you're first experiencing all these things. also, it can be hard to write when you've recently graduated from 5 paragraph essays.

SADY: oh, yeah. and, i mean, that's cool and all. but it also – and i speak as someone who is ancient as the grave and yet remembers similar pressures from when i went to college – it creates this weird atmosphere on campus, where you ARE, to some degree, pressured to have enough casual sex to prove that you can do it and aren't some clingy relationship-needing heterosexual female, yet you're also a slut if you don't eventually have a relationship, and you don't exist, basically, if you're queer.

AMANDA: yep.

SADY: like, it's about "freedom," and rebellion, but freedom can only ever take one pre-existing shape. by trying to make sex more public, you should be opening it up, but you end up writing a script for what sex should look like. which is not good for anyone, actually.

AMANDA: no, and it's not particularly fun to read. which should be the main point. though i thought the American University anal sex column was getting there a little bit. at least Darkhole was all, "if you want her to put her finger in your butt, it's cool, man." [Exhibit F].

SADY: well, i mean, you have SEEN HIS NAME, right? he is buster darkhole! this is the column he was born to write!

AMANDA: yeah. I mean, it's possible that Darkhole is a little too eager with the anal sex. i think i noted that the column didn't mention the fact that like, it's cool not to have anal sex, too, if you're not into it.

SADY: maybe his full name is actually Buster Orhis Darkhole III.

AMANDA: i really want to score an interview with this person. but the AU column is an interesting approach because it is three people, two men and one lady, and i don't know if there's any gay or lesbian representation on that board, but that approach does open up the possibility of diversity, and not preaching one person's crazy high school abstinence-only education lessons to an entire campus [Exhibit C]. although god knows how they actually get together and write that thing.

SADY: yeah, i mean, i'm fond of the collaborative approach to all this. maybe if there were like FIFTEEN college sex journalists per campus (and there are probably enough candidates!) you might get one of them that is confident enough not to just say whatever they think will make them look cool and sexually experienced, middle-school style. and hey, maybe one or two that aren't straight people! that would be fun! i mean, i am skeptical of the entire "sex expert" position. i'm a grown lady who has been thinking about this stuff for the majority of my grown lady life, and i'm still not an expert on how my OWN sexual relationships should go.

AMANDA: it's interesting, because the Nation's piece on student sex columns painted them as this really radical progressive movement. and i think there's a confusion there, because people still think that "talking about sex" makes you a liberal and saying "people shouldn't talk about sex" makes you conservative.

SADY: right! and i think it is an issue of the younger generation! battle lines have shifted a bit; now, EVERYBODY talks about sex, liberal and conservative and that's kind of taken for granted. it's what they say that is the issue. or, alternately, the fact that everybody who is given a platform to do so seems to say the same thing.

AMANDA: right. and i don't know what Mr. Darcy or Ramm Bottomham's political persuasion is, but I imagine there's more political diversity in these columnists than there is actual sexual diversity. which is weird!

SADY: yeah. and, honestly, i think T. Otis Notavirgin or whatever are – MAYBE! JUST MAYBE! – feeling more pressure to seem in line with the most widely accepted version of College-Age Sexuality than to actually, seriously think about sex and maybe come up with some insights.

AMANDA: yeah, and seeing as whenever i happen to write about college students they all flood my comments with insights like, "gay," or ... "gay," i can't really blame them [Exhibit frat]. college students are really harshly scrutinized over their sex lives, and college sex columnists must experience the worst of it.

SADY: Honestly! Here is what I think: I think that Buster Darkhole and Layla and Mr. Darcy and whoever are all filing these pieces that are like, "so I got totally WASTED! and had SEX! like PEOPLE MY AGE TEND TO DO!" then they are going home to make microwave popcorn and watch a movie and call their moms. and maybe ask someone out to a movie. that is what i believe. or hope?

AMANDA: i think they're probably also silently weeping over the comments and/or getting shit from their friends [Exhibit single tear].

SADY: oh, god yes. but, you know, if embarrassing college sex columns are what it takes to teach the young people about Dealing With The Terrible Mean Blog Comments That People Will Eventually Leave On Any Blog Ever, I think it's a sacrifice worth making. sort of!

Photo by BodogGirl