The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/casual-sex/)
Growing up gay in a small Upstate New York town was not easy, so I stayed closeted until college. Even after coming out, I was so scared of having sex to the point that I didn’t lose my virginity until this past January. But right after ripping off that bandaid, I became a real horn dog.
Even as I try to avoid the dreaded senior spring waves of self-reflection, no period of my college life has stood out to me more than my self-proclaimed slut era. The online discourse surrounding “slut eras” highlights their intentionality: the choice to lean into an aura of sluttiness and an influx of casual sex. My own slut era began, as many do, after a breakup. Coming back from winter break and the end of my high-school-turned-long-distance relationship, my exploration of the borders of singleness would define my sophomore spring semester. I embraced my first foray into fun, meaningless sex head-on.