10B the university daily kansan
monday,september 15,2003
sex on the hill
American dating, sex cause culture shock
By Cole Robinson correspondent@kansan.com Kansan correspondent
Sex is everywhere in America can society. Just try to find a television show, magazine or movie that doesn't discuss some facet of sexuality.
But what if you weren't American and hadn't been raised in a culture that encouraged more cleavage, less clothes and "gettin' some?"
Some international students at the University of Kansas face this culture clash as soon as they hit campus.
"In Peru, most of the time you will get to know a girl and start dating her," Arturo Benavente, Lima, Peru, junior, said. "But there won't be any kissing or physical stuff."
business. Don't confuse us about here," he said. "Back home, you're sure that you're with that girl, but in America you're not really sure. You're just 'dating' her, and people sometimes will date more than one person."
Dating and relationships are much more clear-cut in Peru than they in America because the couple must discuss whether or not they want to begin a relationship, Benavente said.
Sex, however, plays a similar role in Latin-American culture as it does in America. Intercourse among young couples generally depends on the feelings and beliefs of each individual relationship. Premarital sex is not uncommon, nor is peer pressure.
"Guys will sometimes get made fun of if they haven't had sex by a certain age, around 17 or so," said Gaston Araoz, La Paz, Bolivia, junior.
Some societies have held fast to their customs and concrete views on sex and relationships.
Jomana Qaddour and Marwa Ghazali, both Overland Park sophomores, were raised in the United States but with strong, conservative Muslim roots.
"Sex in our culture is very
"Dirty magazines, nudity in movies those sort of things are all banned in China."
very sacred." Ghazali said. "It's not something you do for fun."
Xiaobang Yue
Chengdu, China, sophomore
Ghazali said dating works much differently in Muslim cultures. Instead of approaching a girl personally, a boy will go to the girl through her parents and ask if she is ready for marriage. If the parents say their daughter is ready and they approve of the boy, the couple becomes engaged.
Engagement, though, does not carry the same connotation as it does within American culture.
"Basically, people get engaged and unengaged all the time," Qaddour said. "It's a lot like dating here. That's when you really get to know the boy and decide if you want to marry him."
For students from other parts of the world, simply the amount of sex and sensuality in American culture can be an eyeopener, as in the case of Xiaobang Yue, Chengdu, China, sophomore.
"People in China don't talk about sex very often," Yue said. "Dirty magazines, nudity in movies — those sort of things are all banned in China."
Yue said things have opened up considerably in China during the last decade.
"Older people in China are very conservative. I would estimate that 90 percent of people in my parent's generation didn't have sex until after marriage. Now, that number is probably closer to 30 percent," he said. "Our culture is becoming more American."
Edited by Ashley Marriot**
Mixed dorm thriving in Connecticut
By Catherine Odson
correspondent@kansan.com
Kansan correspondent
A Connecticut university experimented with mixed-gender dormitory room assignments this fall to help meet the needs of transgendered students. The University of Kansas has yet to make a similar change, but could consider it in the future. Photo illustration by Zach Strauss/Knoll
Walking into your residence hall room and being greeted by a roommate of the opposite gender is a far fetched idea for most universities.
But at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., gender-blind housing has been introduced to meet the demands of an ever-diversified student body.
The innovative housing, in which students are assigned roommates without consideration of gender, was introduced this fall after the university instated a new non-discrimination policy including the terms "gender identity and gender expression."
gender expression While this concept was developed primarily to meet the needs of transgendered students, the gender-blind floor is open to all students in the Wesleyan community. The floor includes five two-room doubles and two singles.
Diana Robertson, associate director for residential life, said that although she had not heard of any requests for alternative housing, Wesleyan was meeting the needs of its students and remained open to the diversity of lifestyles present at the university. With campus housing constantly becoming more liberal, co-ed room assignments may
be in the future.
With the exception of GSP-Corbin, all of the University of Kansas's residence halls are coed, with gender separation by wing. Naismith Hall, which is privately owned, has both genders in the same wings.
Peter Kautz, Leawood senior
is a residence assistant at Naismith Hall and lived in KU residence halls for two years. He saw many advantages in having a female roommate.
female students "I'd probably have a tendency to clean up more after myself," he said.
because of the miscommunication between a male and female roommate, creating more stress and more complex problems.
But as a residence assistant,
Kautz said it might be difficult
"I think I'd be too nervous all the time," Carrie Held, Minneapolis Minn., freshman, said.
Edited by Erin Riffey
Alternative tabloid sexed up University
By Crystal Futrell
correspondent@kansan.com
Kansan correspondent
If you couldn't give a hoot about The University Daily Kansan,you aren't the only one.
Nearly a century ago, 16 members of the University of Kansas junior class honor society, developed an illustrated journal called The Sour Owl. It quickly became the tabloid trash of the University, said www.kuhistory.com.
The initial intent was to provide students an alternative to the Kansan, which Sour Owl staff felt was driven too much by administrative bias.
The first issue was published on May 9, 1914. It started out innocently enough, but with an editor-in-chief baring the pseudonym I. M. Smatty, things were bound to get raunchy.
Soon, thanks to its detailed accounts of who slept with whom and its lists of which sorority girls were most promiscuous, The Sour Owl was headed for trouble.
In May 1915, after receiving numerous complaints, the University's discipline committee demanded and received an apology from The Sour Owl. But even this slap on the wrist didn't restrain them.
In November 1944, The Sour Owl was issuing another apology. But this time, it was to the federal government. Local U.S. Post Office authorities claimed the November 1944 issue of The Sour Owl was unavailable due to its obscene literature and offensive cover, featuring a Kansas football player reaching out, not to catch the flying football headed his way, but the girl's bosoms instead.
University administration barred the student-led staff from participating in any other student activities and suspended the journals publication entirely.
Alas, diehard fans of The Sorry
Contributed by University Archives
Owl managed to sporadically publish the journal until 1956.
- Edited by Dave Nobles