I was going to write about why people shouldn’t fake their orgasms this week, but that was before I had a rather awkward encounter with a friend’s ex-boyfriend.

“I read all of your sex columns,” he said, and then paused. “I certainly didn’t know that about you.”

“Know what?” I wanted to yell at him. “That I feel comfortable saying the word vagina without blushing? That I can list every existing STD faster than most people can list what they ate for breakfast? That I know the difference between nonoxynol-9 and progestin?”

I started writing this column to remedy what I perceived as the overwhelming sexual ignorance of Northwestern students. I don’t know if it’s the national policy of abstinence-only education or our self-proclaimed nerdiness, but people at this school seem to be oblivious to even the most basic of human anatomy.

I’m one of the lucky ones. Between the Seattle Public Schools and my uber-liberal Unitarian church, I had sex education nearly every year from fourth grade until I graduated. Couple that with the fact that I live in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, where there are nearly as many sex boutiques as restaurants, and you can see why I feel as comfortable discussing people’s intimate lives as I do the weather.

As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing shameful in talking about sex. It’s the lack of conversation that is shameful. I write this column in the hope that people will read it and then go talk about sex.

Why? Because the more sex is shrouded in mystery, the more disinformation there is. And despite the arguments for abstinence education, we’re not doing our school children any service by keeping them ignorant of the facts.

Fact: The United States has both higher rates of abortion and STD infection than most other First World countries. Reason? These other countries consider sexual education a public health issue. Also a fact: Teenagers have sex. Abstinence-only education will only make them ignorant of how to protect themselves.

In a nutshell, these columns are for people who missed out on sex education. They are meant as an educational resource. They are not, however, a chronicle of my personal life. Although the anonymous sex lives of my friends are pretty much up for grabs, this is not my personal sex diary.

On the contrary, knowing what I know about STDs and pregnancy, it’s any wonder that I don’t wrap myself in a body condom and go hide out in a cave somewhere.

As I looked at this friend’s ex-boyfriend and his judging eyes, I couldn’t help but giggle to myself. There he was, thinking that he knew so much about my bedroom habits. But thanks to his ex, I’m confident that I know more about his sex life than he’ll ever know about mine.