Talking taboo: Newspaper advice columns and sexual discourse

If the available venues for public discourse concerning sexuality in America are divided into “formal” curricula including community and school-based sexual education programs, and the “informal” curricula of the mass media, the popular newspaper advice column sits at a critical site of convergence of these two venues. In a culture that is detemined to restrict talk about sex, and particularly those sexual practices such as masturbation that are labeled “taboo,” this paper argues that a widely available and culturally mainstream venue for otherwise limited disourse becomes an important site for talking, learning, and debating issues of sexuality. By using Ann Landers’ discussion of masturbation as a case study, this paper offers an overview of the cultural utility of newspaper advice columns as a safe space for taboo talk about sexuality.