Dear Reader,
The staff of The Harvard Independent is proud to present to you the 2018 Sex Issue! As an organization, this issue is one of the most exciting and interesting for us to put together, and we hope that translates to you as well. This issue is a collection of Harvard undergraduate sexual statistics based on the answers you provided while taking our annual sex survey. The Sex Issue, one of our most widely read issues, is meant to expand and engage in dialogue concerning sex on Harvard’s campus by way of statistics, personal narratives, humorous, but accurate quotations, and poetry.
The Indy’s Sex Issue has a storied mission. For over twenty years, The Indy has aimed to demystify sex among Harvard undergraduates and promote sex positivity, for freshman through upperclassmen. These aims are perhaps more important now than ever as we strive to live healthy and fulfilling lives amidst the stress and new adventures that Harvard brings. We believe that it is vital to maintain an open dialogue for all voices and opinions in order to elevate the discourse of sexual positivity.
The Indy does not wish to trigger sexual assault and harassment survivors or in any way invalidate negative experiences with sex. Instead, we hope that our issue captures the various positive and consensual experiences people have in an affirmative space. We wish to offer this space where we may center ourselves in our feelings towards sex and relinquish judgement, bias, or negative sentiment of any kind.
French philosopher Michel Foucault writes in his seminal work The History of Sexuality, “We demand that sex speak the truth […] and we demand that it tell us our truth, or rather, the deeply buried truth of that truth about ourselves which we think we possess in our immediate consciousness.” We hope that The Independent’s Sex Issue helps each of us uncover something about sex, but more importantly, unearth our true selves.
Thank you for answering our survey, sending in your work and thoughts, and being a part of this year’s issue. As you read the various statistics and anecdotes from your peers, we hope that you all find something that makes you rethink previous conceptions of sex, something that makes you laugh, and something to which you can relate. Enjoy!
Yours,
Tushar Dwivedi and Caroline Cronin