Sex Columnist

A sex columnist is a writer of a newspaper or magazine column about sex.

Sex advice columns may take the form of essays or, more frequently, answers to questions posed by readers. Sex advice columns can usually be found in alt weekly newspapers, women's magazines, health or fitness magazines, and student newspapers. While some are written by trained sexologists, many are penned by people lacking credentials in human sexuality and relationships, yet willing to divulge their opinions or personal bedroom antics.

In the new-look sex column, every detail of the writer's psyche is splayed across the page, its every curve and contour. The sex column is confessional journalism at its most intimate. The new sex columnist is also far removed from the agony aunt, a maternal figure who would offer clinical and consoling advice which looks tame compared to the modern, super-confident, super-candid sex columnist.

Anka Radakovich was the first of the new breed. She had written for the old Details magazine when it was a manual of downtown fashion and night life. After James Truman became editor in chief and transformed Details into a men’s magazine, he offered Anka a column in September 1990. She became the first modern day magazine Sex Columnist working for a mainstream men’s publication creating a job description that others would soon follow.

The television series Sex and the City protagonist Carrie Bradshaw was a sex columnist, which author Candace Bushnell modeled after herself in her original non-fiction book based on a column of the same name. The show, which first aired in 1998, is credited with the increase of sex columnists found in college campus newspapers and blogs, such as at Ivy League colleges and many other schools. One such columnist, Meghan Bainum, at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, placed in the 42nd annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation Journalism Awards Program (2001–2002) for her column.