I am as sex-positive as the next perverted bisexual liberal, but I don't think sex-positivity should be solely the domain of any political party or that it means policing others' sexuality or judging it. There's no "better than" or "less than," if that makes sense.

I like sex writing that makes me think, makes me cringe, makes me angry, makes me look at it in a new way.

I think some of the best sex writing is going to come from the unexpected sources, not the same old same old. Like I'd love to see a memoir by a submissive man, because we've seen one from a professional submissive and dommes and strippers and hookers. I'd love to see more men writing frankly, not jokingly, about sex.

I'd really like to see smart sex writing, writing that can take sex apart and try to put it back together, that doesn't just put a box around "sex writing" and give it glaring neon lights but assumes that sex is part of everything else in our lives.

I started out writing largely about my own sex life, but I always tried to bring that around to the bigger picture, and how I was or wasn't in sync with the rest of the culture. And I think people appreciated that I was frank and honest about sex, but also political.

Why can't we talk about sex just to talk about it? Because it's fun and silly and gross and exciting and disturbing and confusing and totally hot, sometimes all at once.

I think blogging and the ability to instantaneously respond to news items has changed the way we approach all media. We're seeing people talking back to columnists, and going much further in the sexual realm than most papers, even alternative weeklies, will publish. I'm surprised more papers aren't having people do what you're doing with an online only column, and to be honest, I read almost all the media I do read online, and plenty of other people do, too, so I don't know what's stopping them.