With its photo illustration of a bare thigh and dark-painted nails amid the bedsheets, Kate Taylor's nearly 4,800-word “Sex on Campus†article dominated the Styles cover on Sunday.
The article, titled “She Can Play That Game, Too,†had the ability to startle. For example, in a paragraph very likely to give pause to parents of college students everywhere, Ms. Taylor wrote:
One girl, explaining why her encounters freshman and sophomore year often ended with fellatio, said that usually by the time she got back to a guy's room, she was starting to sober up and didn't want to be there anymore, and giving the guy oral sex was an easy way to wrap things up and leave.
But no one should be startled by the article's rapid rise up the most e-mailed list to the top spot on Sunday and Monday morning, or by the almost 800 readers who wrote comments, or by the way it was discussed among college students and the parents of college students - though not necessarily in the same room with one another. It was also the topic of outside comment, including from Philly Magazine and The Atlantic.
I heard many comments and concerns about the article from readers, and I asked Ms. Taylor to respond to some of them â€" as well as to some of my questions. What follows is a condensed version of my e-mail exchange with her over the past two days, as reader e-mail arrived. (Ms. Taylor mentions Glenn Kramon in answering the first question; he is a Times editor who works on enterprise stories.)
How did this get started and how did you decide to focus on Penn?
Glenn Kramon had the idea of sending a reporter to a college for a semester to talk to young women about their social lives. We wanted a school that was elite but also had a fairly typical collegiate social scene, and after considering a few different schools, and talking to some students at various schools, I chose Penn, because it fit that bill, was large and diverse, and not in New York City but not far from it either. Originally we had thought of focusing on drinking, but as I started talking to women, their feelings about relationships and sex seemed more central and interesting, with alcohol obviously playing an important role in their sexual interactions.
Are you surprised by the amount of reaction, and how would you characterize the reaction over all?
I am surprised, though not completely, since I was pretty fascinated by what I was learning as I did the reporting. I feel as if the readers who appear to have read the article carefully â€" which is important, because it has many layers, not reflected in the snappy headline â€" have had very thoughtful reactions. From the comments, many older people seem to have been disturbed and saddened by the picture painted of college sex. Some commenters have reflected on some of the factors that have shaped young women's attitudes about sex and relationships, like the economic pressure they're under to succeed. I've been particularly interested in the reaction of current and recent college students, and a good amount of that has been positive. The response I've gotten so far from the women I interviewed has been very positive, and I've gotten very interesting e-mails from women at other schools about their experiences.
One thing I'm hearing is that by focusing on one Ivy League university, you got a certain kind of young woman - highly competitive, career-oriented, etc. Some people think reporting it more broadly would have been worthwhile. Why this particular choice?
From the beginning the editors felt that it was important to do the reporting at one school, to give the story a sense of place and as much of a narrative as possible. There would have been other benefits in an approach looking at several schools. It would be very interesting to know how these issues play out at, say, a big state school, and even at community colleges. If this had been a series instead, that would have been wonderful.
How difficult was it to get the women to speak freely?
It was very difficult, which is why I had to use middle names and even middle initials. Understandably, students were worried about future employers Googling them and seeing that they once talked about their sex lives. But beyond that, even students who said that they themselves didn't have any regrets about their sexual experiences were concerned that other people would judge them for being too promiscuous.
What has been the criticism you've heard most and how would you address it?
I've heard criticism from some young women at Penn that they think I painted the picture of relationships there too bleakly â€" that I didn't pay enough attention to the women who do have boyfriends, whether at Penn or long-distance. I certainly met girls who had boyfriends, but they were the exception, not the rule, and I included the voices of several girls who either were dating people or had dated people in college in the story. The most prominent voice was that of Mercedes, whose experience was also distinct in that she came from a working-class background, did not participate at all in the “hookup†culture, and was still a virgin. It seems as if some students felt that having the only major character in the story with a boyfriend also be a virgin made things seem too black and white.
How long did you work on this? Were you working on it exclusively?
I worked on it exclusively from September through January, and then on and off (while reporting on the mayor's race) since February.
Why now? Was it pegged to a study or did it just grow organically from your interest? Is there any time peg to it?
It grew organically â€" first from Glenn presenting me with the opportunity, and then (as I started talking to women) from my interest in how things had changed even in the 12 years since I graduated from college. But I think it turned out to be unexpectedly timely, with Hanna Rosin's “The End of Men†and Susan Patton's letter to The Daily Princetonian bringing up similar issues, and, in the case of Patton's letter, causing quite a furor.
There are no men quoted in the story - students or experts. Was this a decision you made in advance? Wouldn't including men's voices have provided a more well-rounded story?
Because of the way the story evolved, it was always focused on women. I did interview male students, though not as many and not in as much depth as the female students. At a certain point their voices were in the story, as a discrete section, but my editors found that awkward, so it got cut. Obviously what men want and how men feel is a critical part of the picture, and in my fantasies it might have been a pair of articles, but that wasn't possible.
What about gay and lesbian students? They aren't mentioned here. Why?
I did interview several lesbians and bisexual women in my research, and found their experiences and perspectives fascinating. One argued that the “hookup†culture was itself inherently heterosexual, and said that, while there was certainly its equivalent among gay men on campus, there was not among lesbians. Another lesbian expressed attitudes similar to that of many of the heterosexual girls I interviewed, that career preparation was her first priority and she was not going to have a relationship that was too time-consuming. I would have loved to discuss the similarities and differences between heterosexual and L.G.B.T. students, but I just didn't have the space.
Finally, some readers believed your article didn't give enough attention to the fine line between the alcohol-fueled “hookup†culture and sexual assault. Although one section described Haley, who experienced sexual assault, how do you respond to those who say it was not enough?
I actually feel as if it was handled quite well. The role of rape was flagged up high. (A sentence early in the article read, “Some women described a dangerous edge to the ‘hookup' culture, of sexual assaults and degrading encounters enabled by drinking and distinguished by a lack of emotional connection.â€) Haley's story came about halfway through the story, and, at 911 words, it was by far the longest of any of the individual sections of the article.  My intent was not to write a whole article focused exclusively on the problem of sexual assault in college.  That would have been a different story. Some readers have objected to including a discussion of rape at all within an article about the college “hookup†culture. I think people would prefer these subjects to be completely separable, but the take-away from my reporting, and what I think the article accurately shows, is that they are not. In a context in which young people are drinking a lot, and having sex ual encounters in which there is often little clear communication, there is a real danger of sexual assault.
Here's my take: The story, though certainly not the final word on this topic, was fascinating and worthwhile.  The article itself was more nuanced than the headline and presentation got across, which is hard to avoid.  (Try telling a complex story in six engaging words sometime; it's not easy.) Like many articles of this nature, which depend heavily on anecdotes and personal experience, this one can't be seen as definitive, but as a snapshot that gets people talking and thinking. Unquestionably, it did that.
