Dear Deviants, Degenerates, Debauchees, and Herald Readers,
Around this time last year, the editors of the Herald diagnosed the sexual landscape. Words like gooning, Apple’s new Vision Pro, and birth-dearth-extinction-level-pornography were used. We came to a conclusion: Things are looking worse than ever. And this was all to say nothing of what the kids are doing now: deepfaking with their Replika AI chatbot girlfriend on the phone in their left hand (their right hand, unoccupied, for various reasons). It’s sexless sex accelerationism, everywhere you look. Today’s dilemma is a simple one: everybody wants to have sex, whatever that even means anymore, but nobody wants to fuck.
And so the question guiding this year’s Sex Issue at the Herald is simple: how do we redeem the fuck? Between the pages of this issue, you will find not just one, but countless answers. Apologies to the Missionary truthers among you, but here at the Herald, we’re all for changing up the positions—especially in our writing. Cameron Jones, BF ’26, encourages us to bring porn back into the public, in theaters and in our conversations. Daniel Yim, ES ’28, sits in the “Splash Zone” with director Michael R. Jackson, talking to Jackson about his recent Teeth: The Musical, a story that takes up the ancient vagina dentata trope (yes, she has teeth in her vagina). Gavin Guerrette, BR ’25, spends the night at a family-friendly nudist colony—unsurprisingly, filled with swingers. Finally, Will Sussbauer, JE ’27, walks us through an oral history of Rawdogging, from shoeless showers and bunless hot dogs to taking life itself without the condom.
We hope that the stories in this issue titillate you, edge you just a little. Cruise it. Suck on it. Fall in love with it, if that does it for you—we’ve got our tender moments, too, between the pages. And when you’re all done, well, we hear that you can roll newsprint into a pretty hollow tube. Happy Valentine’s Day, and keep up the good fight.
Sincerely,
Madelyn Dawson