“Untitled (We won’t be our own best enemy),” Barbara Kruger

It’s one thing to get laid off from a writing gig: it’s another thing to watch that layoff turn up in a trend piece. And another. And another. My editor and I used to joke, it takes three to make a trend, but two in a recession. Well, now the trend pieces themselves — on the death of the sex writer — are a trend. Don’t choke on the meta. Here, after a few thousand words “penned” on the end of sex writing, is what’s still gone unreported:

• Violet Blue: Laid off from Fleshbot. Claimed she “timed her departure” with that of the founding editor. She lied.
• Regina Lynn. Her Sex Drive column at Wired.com was axed months ago. The issue was that Wired has no idea how to cover sex: as clickbait photo galleries, or as reported facts?
• Fleshbot. Given the cost-cutting motive behind Gawker publisher Nick Denton’s layoffs, new editor Lux Nightmare’s retention indicates she’s the one willing to do the work of a once larger staff, but for a lower rate.

Writing about sex is far bigger than what sex writing has come to mean: sexpertise. Factfinding never had a place in that sort of work, unless the beginning and end of one’s research was between one’s legs. As for “the state of things,” my opinion sits somewhere between The Frisky’s Susannah Breslin and Bonnie Ruberg of the Village Voice — the tits-out, me-me-me approach to “being a sex writer” is over, and it’s about time.  So what new reception will actual reported stories on sex get now?