Thursday, January 18, 2007

Sexerati Interviews: Miriam Datskovsky


filed under: Erotic Elite, Sexerati Interviews by Lux Nightmare | 1 Comment

In New York City, there is a group of women – sex writers, sex educators, and those otherwise involved in encouraging a discourse around sexuality – who meet on a semi-regular basis to talk, eat, and hang out. At the very first gathering of these women, I ended up sitting next to a girl I’d never met before. We talked, and I learned that she was Miriam Datskovsky, the first ever sex columnist for the Columbia Spectator (the Columbia University student newspaper) – a position that resulted in a good deal of campus controversy, fame (and infamy), and many good columns on sex, dating, and life at college. It is my pleasure to introduce this brilliant young woman as the first ever subject of Sexerati Interviews, our newest weekly feature.

miriamWhen did you start working at the Spectator?

I started working at Spectator as the sex columnist in September 2004, but I didn’t really get involved in the organization until I became an associate opinion editor in January 2005.

How did you decide to become a sex columnist? Was it something you’d always wanted to do, or were you simply inspired when the Spectator decided to hire one?

“Simply inspired” is a good way to think about it. I saw the ad in the Spectator, and I really missed writing, so I thought to myself “What the hell?” If I’d only known… just kidding (sort of).

What kind of reaction did you get from your friends when you took on the job? From family? From the Columbia community?

My friends have always been fantastic about my column. Some of them were a little put off, or maybe scared, when I started writing it, but they got over that as soon as it printed. They loved it whenever I mentioned them, or someone they knew, in the column—they almost treated it like a guessing game, you know, which guy or girl is she talking about in that sentence? My family has also been very supportive. My mom likes to tell people she is proud of me—in spite of the subject matter. Her favorite column is “Butters Knows Best,” she gets all her friends to read it. My uncle, whom I’m very close to, is also a regular reader and we discuss the column and its implications constantly (or at least we did).

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