Sarah recently blogged about a controversial sex column in a student newspaper, while Politics Daily discusses the trend and concern by some administrations that college students simply don’t possess the required knowledge to write on the subject:

The “qualifications and consistency” that Peak refers to prove to be a tricky goal for many sex columnists and their editors. The challenge editors face is deciding what the tone, or “voice,” as Peak says, of the column, and whether it will tack to the informative side, the snarky, the casual, or somewhere in between. Is the intent to push the envelope for readership’s sake, or is the column’s purpose strictly educational?

The Baltimore Sun editorial insisted that “the whole purpose of student publications … is to train students to become responsible journalists, and for that to happen, they need the experience of learning on their own what is and what isn’t appropriate.” The realm of the student publication sex column is still ripe for exploration, and will continue to serve as training ground for journalists not only concerning free speech issues but also concerning the cultural shifts in the accepted – and not so accepted – norms.

***

Women have come far in the workplace and society… and then backtracked? An op-ed piece by Joanne Lipman asserts that although women are the major breadwinners in 40 percent of families, they are stalling in other areas. According to the article, women earn 77 cents for every dollar made by a man, and only 15 women run Fortune 500 companies.

I completely disagree with one reason behind the pendulum shift backwards. The author says 9/11 is partly responsible– citing the many ways America was torn apart (the war in Iraq, the internet as a soapbox). Could it have made an trivial cut into womens’ progress? Maybe. But I don’t think it’s a significant cause.

The other reason she gives is is much more likely:

Part of the reason we’ve lost our way, part of the reason my generation became complacent, is that many of us have been defining progress for women too narrowly. We’ve focused primarily on numbers at the expense of attitudes.

***

And lastly, depressing news on the status of Sen. Al Franken’s anti-rape amendment.

The proposed amendment that would stop the Pentagon from hiring contractors whose employment contracts prevent their employees from taking “work-related allegations of rape and discrimination to court” is being targeted by– whose else– defense contractors.

According to the article, the Appropriations chairman, Sen. Daniel Inouye, is planning to strip the provision from the bill. However, other sources, including his own office, assert that he voted for the bill and strongly supports it. Confusing much? I guess we’ll just follow this story.