Sex & Grace Winter 2002

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At the end of a long day I came home to a package containing copies of Re:generation 8.2. Eager to see the new issue on sex, I quickly opened it. Before the entire magazine was out of the box, my jaw dropped. Was this a crotch shot? What was I looking at, Hustler? Had there been a mistake? I was surprised and confused.

I had wondered what RQ would do with the cover of this issue, and I expected it would be clever and edgy. But I did not expect a shocking, in-my-face image of a vagina in the technologically rendered form of an apple. I scratched my head for a bit, trying to figure out what this image was asking me to affirm or experience.

The next day, with some hesitation, I took the issue to share with my colleagues. I watched each person respond to the cover. The reactions were entirely negative, ranging from, "Show me a fruit that looks like a penis," to, "Why would your article on sex trafficking appear in this?" to "This is gross, what are they thinking? Why is this even necessary?" All day, as I listened to the responses of my co-workers (who include Muslim, Jew, Christian, and agnostic; male and female; twenty-something to fifty-something) my own disappointment, discomfort, and frustration churned. One colleague came back to me at the end of the day and said, "The only reason I could think they would use this image is to get more male readers."

My first question was, and is, why only a female image, with the seed the only reference to male sexuality? The female body is, to be sure, a beautiful creation. Despite the endless objectification of women's bodies, it remains a place of beauty and reverence; a temple for a woman to live in fully and to offer to the one she loves. It's no wonder that we might prefer her body ...

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