As you probably all know by now, I am about to begin two years of part-time study alongside my full-time job. I’ve spent the last few weeks planning and chatting to colleagues who have also done an MA whilst working, and it’s slowly been sinking in. Even if I cancel my entire social life or only update this site once a week, one thing was sadly inevitable: I will no longer have time to write for BitchBuzz.
I have enjoyed the last two years and ten months tremendously. BitchBuzz is a wonderful website with great content and I am so proud to have been able to contribute. With the help and support of Cate Sevilla, her team of writers and the lovely BitchBuzz readers, my own writing has improved considerably and I have learnt so much along the way. Back in December 2009, the first of many articles I’ve written for BitchBuzz was published. Entitled Respect & Protect: Condoms, HIV/AIDS and Ignorance, I started as I meant to go on. My aim for my weekly sex column was to educate rather than titillate. After all, there were plenty of people already doing that on the internet and they were far better at it than I could ever hope to be! My blurb on the credits page said:
“The ethical non-monogamist known as Lori has spent over 17 years involved in extensive field research in order to ensure BitchBuzz readers are well informed about sex. It’s been a long and winding road, taking her from young ingénue to woman of the world, via an appearance on Channel 4’s More Sex Tips for Girls. She is hoping to be able to fully reclaim the word slut for the good of womankind some time in 2012.”
So, did I achieve what I set out to do? It’s pretty much impossible for one woman alone to change the opinions of the western world, but I like to think that I did a tiny little bit to help. If I changed the opinion of one reader, opened someone’s mind to new possibilities, encouraged even one person to be proud that they are gay/bi/straight/kinky/slutty/asexual/whatever, then it will all have been worth it. I may have started out writing about sex because I thought I knew something about it, but I soon realised that there is so much more that I don’t know.
Over the next week I shall share some links to my favourite BitchBuzz articles that I have written on sex, relationships, style, culture, feminism and life in general. I hope you’ll enjoy re-reading some of my ‘best bits’ from the last few years, and I also hope that you’ll continue to read what the site’s current writing team have to offer. Goodbye BitchBuzz – it’s been fantastic!