The writers surveyed, who include the very talented Rachel Kramer Bussel and Nerve editor turned Salon employee Sarah Hepola*, had various opinions on why sex writers are getting the ax, from lack of innovation to a mainstreaming of sex writing to lack of talent to an excess of exhibitionism or all three at the same time. What they failed to mention, however, is the Carrie Bradshaw effect.

Before Sex and the City, very few papers had columns exclusively devoted to the sex lives of a single (almost always young, female) writer. After Carrie Bradshaw and her minions became a cultural touchstone, I think many, many media outlets scrambled to have a Carrie to call their very own. The problem is, they weren't looking for originals, they were looking for real life facsimiles of an already sort of annoying fictional female. So, when the time came to cut some unwanted fat, these Manolo-clad also-rans were kicked to the curb.

*None of the sex writers mentioned here or in the Salon article are Carrie Bradshaw-esque at all. They are clever and talented and do not talk about expensive footwear!

Sex Writing Goes Limp [Salon]
Sex Doesn't Sell [SF Gate]

Over on the pro-foreskin side, "Esther Goldberg" (does she use a pseudonym because she fears the Jews will drum her out for loving foreskins?) argues on behalf of uncut penises, because, well, she's lazy. Goldberg finds that an uncircumcised penis is easier to help get off (especially when you're giving a hand job). Where she agrees with Bussel is on beauty: "A flaccid uncut dick can seem uncomfortably reminiscent of a sea cucumber or a shar-pei," she say., "But you know what? It's a penis, not a painting in an art museum. It's not there to be stared at for hours and admired, it's there to bone you."

Speaking of the penises that have boned us, well, true story: I've only ever been with one uncut dude, and it was the guy I lost my virginity to. I was so inexperienced at the time that I didn't notice he was uncut in the first place — we were always using condoms anyway so it didn't really matter in terms of sensation. Tracie's been with lots of both kinds of peens, and her only issue with uncut is that they sometimes "smell like Parmesan cheese." [Thanks. I was eating lunch. -Ed.] Anna prefers the uncut because she has good associations with them and thinks they're cute, Jen's never seen one, guest-blogger Megan says they weird her out a little, and Dodai has a good attitude: "If i like you enough to get that close I'll work with what you've got."

Circumcised Guys Do it Better [Jewcy]
Foreskins: Bring 'em! [Jewcy]

"There are more hot Jewish leading ladies now than maybe ever before — Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johanssen, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rachel Bilson — but they never play Jewish characters," she says, but not before adding that sexiness in Jewish women is becoming less of a liability, particularly in the form of "an explosion in the past several years of Jewish women emerging at the forefront of movements about sexuality." (Former Village Voice columnist Rachel Kramer Bussel (who conducted the interview with Shukert) and alt-porn star/entrepreneur Joanna Angel come to mind.) Plus, says Shukert, "A lot of non-Jewish girls [have come] up to me... how their Jewish boyfriends always told them that the girls they went to camp with gave better head." Ha! I guess if Monica Lewinsky did nothing else for our people, at least she can get a little credit for making "Jewish women and blowjobs... inextricably linked for a generation."

I Jew — Radar's Resident Shiksa Hunts For This Year's Hot New Accessory: A Jewish Husband [Radar]
Interview With Rachel Shukert On Jewish Girls And Blowjobs [Best Sex Writing Blog]
Invisible In Hollywood: Jewish Women [Boston Globe]