Tara Tainton

The Mapping Sex in America endeavor bids us to record our "personal sex history and become a part of this ongoing archive chronicling Americans' stories of sexual practice and the evolution of America's sexual customs." I'm all for recording history, mapping a culture's evolution (slow as it may be), and providing an outlet for individual voices, but I have a bit of a problem with the seeming narrowness of the project. Yes, we need to come out with what has happened in American cultural, but the project doesn't touch upon the sometimes difficult concept of defining yourself as an American in the first place.

Do they want only US citizens to share their stories and pin them on the map? Do they want the voice of all of the residents of the US who have passed through this country? What about the ex-pats who no longer live in the US and might not even want to consider themselves Americans? What about all of the travelers from foreign lands who've passed through and added to the sexual culture we label as our own?

Most importantly, I encourage you to add your own individual sexual history to the map of the US however you see fit. For one, there's no criteria for determining if you qualify to tell the tale of American sexual culture, so let's ensure that all of it actually is told by all of us who have had a sexual experience within the international borders of the US adding to the records. Besides, if I was to add my own sexual history, I certainly couldn't pin it to any one location. I'd have to begin with what my parents first set as my primary relationship example and model in Indiana, the further impressing of which took place in across the sea in Germany for three years before gracing northern Indiana again. From there, my sexual growth continued in the state of Alabama, into North Carolina, then Tennessee, and Kentucky, then into North Carolina again. Of course, then there was rapid growth taking place during my latter high school years in the Republic of Panama and then wrapped up in Indiana again before being carried over to Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji.

What about the special intimacies that happened to occur on trips to Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Utah, Nevada, etc. etc? How do I fit on the map to tell my American story?

So, hop on over to the western-themed pages and tell your story, as short and sweet and in as many places on the map as applicable. You'll find the interactive map fun and pinpointing exactly where your excursions occurred a little difficult, but it's important all the same. As the site promotes, every story should be told "from the mundane to the passionate to the scandalous and everything in between...to captivate us, heal us, and educate us; but perhaps most importantly they connect us in a colorful world heretofore shrouded by the conventions of discretion."

Now, go have your say, and help to taint the map of the US as appropriate.

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Anonymous | 2009-11-13 18:38 Vasper Janik 06/04/2005 03:32 PM I wish the INS viewed things as you do Tara, then I would indeed be a US citizen and be able to continue my love affair with America. Here in the UK all you need do as a foreigner is to work full time in the UK for 3 years and then you can apply for permanent residence! If that were the same in the US then I would still be there now.

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