Different Strokes
Hugh Oram profiles Anne Sexton, noted sex columnist for Hot Press

Motoring journalists road test new cars but dedicated sex
columnists do vibrator trials. Anne Sexton, who writes Sexed Up very
two weeks for Hot Press, has been a busy woman lately trying out some
new vibrators – all, of course, in the interests of journalistic
authenticity.

Sexton tested a new vibrator called the Cone, which is shaped like a
pyramid. She found that while the blurb promised much to buyers, the
Cone delivered little in the way of personal satisfaction, information
which she dutifully passed on to her readers.

Writing
in The Irish Times last year John Waters went into an overdrive of a
rant against his alma mater, Hot Press, berating it for, among other
things, its obsession with sex. But Hot Press editor Niall Stokes is a
cool head with much experience and when he asked Sexton to write the
new sex column nearly three years ago, it was an inspired move.

Firstly, the column brought in a lot of new female readers to the
magazine, all eager to find the whys and wherefores of sex. A wider
demographic is good news for advertisers. Secondly, Sexton does a lot
of media interviews about her column, mostly on radio, sometimes on TV,
and every time she is on air, it is free exposure for Hot Press.

Not surprisingly, Sexton adjusts her broadcasts to the time of day.
If she is guesting on a late night show, fine, but recently she had to
be suitably coy while discussing 'fuck buddies' (regular sex with a
friend but with no strings attached) on a breakfast show.

Sexton is 33 years old and was born in the Lady of Lourdes Hospital
in Drogheda, Co Louth. Her family lived in the Boyneside town until she
was eight, at which time they all set off to live in South Africa.
There is no trace of a flat Drogheda accent, but rather a strong South
African lilt whose owner refuses to mince her words.

Sexton will happily talk at length with anyone about clitoral
stimulation, masturbation or anything else to do with sex. She loves
the subject and does not appear to have any hang-ups about lurid debate
and thrives on writing about it every fortnight.

In South Africa, Sexton's mother Marie, now retired, worked as a
newspaper sub-editor in Pretoria, while her father was an engineer. She
herself has always been into books and writing, but after she qualified
in South Africa, she found it impossible to get a job in journalism.

So she decided on her next course of action, which was to return to
Ireland and the country of her birth. She works full-time as a designer
for a digital print company in Dublin and says that her employers are
most supportive of her writing work.

The chance to write came when she won a competition run by Hot Press
to find someone to write a regular sex column. Interestingly, most of
the applicants were women, not blokes. Sexton won and she started
writing for real about things which sexually turn people on and off.

“There are so many things you can say about sex as a topic,” Sexton
said. “I'm inspired by things in my personal life, by things that other
people tell me all the time and by things which I read”.

Some of her columns are quicker to write than others, but normally
she sets aside about two days to do her Hot Press copy. Niall Stokes
and his editorial team allow Sexton as much latitude as she wants and
there is absolutely no pressure on her to toe a party line.

“They just let me get on with it”, she added, “very hands off, but
very supportive. Niall never tells me to write like this, or write like
that.” Apart from getting a buzz testing vibrators, she still feels a
thrill from seeing her column appear in print every fortnight.

Most Hot Press readers would be in their earlier twenties, the kind
of people she would be happy to sit down and have a drink with in a
pub. Likewise, it has given her inspiration for her other column, Bar
Bait, which she does for the Evening Herald magazine every Friday.

Bar Bait includes reviews and grades the Dublin pub scene. Sexton
has also done some TV reviews for the Herald. Sometimes, her Hot Press
column is controversial, although she does not set out to make it so.

She writes about what she believes. Not long after Sexed Up started,
Stokes decided to promote it by way of a radio campaign. In the
commercial, Sexton spoke about masturbation. But RTE copy clearance
firmly refused to run with it, which she found amusing.

When she wrote a column expressing her support for pornography, a
number of people got upset, but, on the other hand, many people agreed
with the points she made. When she wrote recently about how it should
be easier for teenagers to get contraceptives before they head out for
a night, strong contrasting views on the topic were expressed.

Sexton wrote another piece about how an ex-boyfriend of hers had
dressed up in women's lingerie for St Valentine's Day which shocked a
few people. “It was a fun piece and most people responded to it as fun
writing, but plenty thought he was really weird,” she said.

Sexton believes that most people in Ireland today are more open
about sex generally than they are given credit for and Irish people are
more willing to experiment than people elsewhere in Europe, countries
which traditionally would have a reputation for “free-thinking
liberals”.

As far as Sexton is concerned, not talking about sex causes much
more trouble than by discussing it openly. But while Sexed Up is
disarmingly laid back on the whole topic, its writer still contends
that such a column would not work in Ireland's national newspapers.

Some topics would still be too 'hot' for some newspaper readers'
liking, so it is left to Hot Press to plough a pioneering furrow and
give it a USP in seducing marketers targeting a young audience, as well
as the odd 'Need a Hot Sex Match?' right hand page strip ad.

When it comes to recommending ideal intimate positions, Sexton,
disarmingly replied: “Any position where there is good clitoral
stimulation, such as the woman on top… you know, the cowgirl position,
makes it easier for the woman to have an orgasm.”

Spooning positions are better for a gentler kind of lovemaking, she
added. But Sexton would be the first to admit that the world is full of
positions and that is why they feature in her regular tips. She tries
to keep her readers up to speed on sex toys too.

Sexton rates the Rampant Rabbit, a toy widely publicised by Ann
Summers, as the most innovative, as it combines a clitoral stimulator
with a dildo. “There are great toys like the OhMiBod which vibrates to
music. It even has music mixed by deejays, which can be downloaded from
websites. I was very impressed with this.”

With literally thousands of toys out there, Sexton points readers in
the direction of www.orgasmarmy.com if they want to see what is now
available on the market. For her, assessing the latest vibrator is like
a motor enthusiast getting geared up about the newest Mercedes.
One of Ireland's other sex columnists is Catherine Townsend, who writes
Sleeping Around for the Evening Herald Friday magazine. The column is
about Townsend's fevered couplings with the various men she meets on
her travels. But whether it is all the work of an over-active erotic
imagination or a reality check is hard to say, as several attempts by
this writer to interview columnist Townsend aroused no response.

Someone on the Herald news desk may have given the game away. “I
don't think she's in the country at all – I think she might be based in
London”. It may well be easier to write a sex column from a distance,
but Sexton is real and right in the thick of things here.

If people like or dislike Sexed Up, they come up to her and tell
her. But Sexton is adamant that she does not set out to shock, but
rather she just seeks to write about what she believes would be of
interest to Hot Press readers in making their sex lives lively – or
livelier.
Sexton returns to how nearly all of the aspirants to her job as Hot
Press sex columnist were women, not men. It is no longer a case of the
dirty old men in macks. Women are now much better equipped.

When taking a position on sex and all its joy, women can get away
with much more than men. As regards Sexed Up and Sexton, Hot Press
readers can be sure that what she writes about has been tried and
tested.