The below genius question was in response to our posting of the “Feminist Hack of Maxim Sexist Photospread of Audrina from the Hills.”

Q: Dear elephantjournal.com [well, they didn’t say ‘dear’ ~ ed.]

Why does every other post of yours have near-naked women in it? You’re using sex to sell too.

Answer: I would never, cross my heart, use sexy to get traffic.

Okay, seriously: we do not use sex in every other post?! It’s like every third post, man. And if we’re using sex to make money, we’re doing an awfully bad job of it.

We love sex. Don’t you? Nothing’s wrong with it. It’s awesome! I love it! You love it! My friends love it! Thankfully, my parents loved it!

Not sure if they do anymore.

We have a page devoted to it. We’re not puritans. We don’t equate spirituality with abstention from pleasure, nor do we believe that avoiding sexuality or any of the issues surrounding it (like objectification) is admirable, even if it were possible.

And, oh yeah, our readers click it up. I’m sure this post will itself be an example of that.

That said, we try and stay away from objectifying men or women in the ladmag manner. After all, every lady is someone’s daughter/sister. Every dude is someone’s boy. You know.

There’s been many times when I could have used a (way) sexier image to get (many) more clicks, but it didn’t feel right, so I didn’t do it. Why? Tacky-sexy hurts our brand. It’s not good for elephant, and it’s not good for our readers. When readers go to Huff Post and see five blogs about Tiger Woods’ mistresses boobs, and three blogs about nip slips, it kills loyalty to that brand.

Anyways, here’s a fuller answer.

Next question?