Sex education helps us make informed choices

Editor,

I feel the need to write in because I think that some people’s understanding of “Sex Week” is not only incorrect, but misleading. These workshops teach young people how to navigate around all aspects of sex.

Yes, they may “promote” sex, but many of us on campus are sexually active and need advice on certain aspects of our sexuality (since most of us haven’t had much of a sexual education in the first place).

I attended Reid’s “How to be a Gentleman and Get Laid” (workshop) and, although I am a female, I found this event helpful and educational. Not only did Reid go over aspects of pleasure and how to care for a partner, whether it’s a one-night stand or a long-standing relationship, but, more importantly, he stressed consent and cleared up misconceptions while exploring the problems with drinking and/or doing drugs and adding sex into the mix.

There was also information on how to establish your “elevator speech,” or the speech you would give to a first-time partner or otherwise that lets them know a slew of things about your sexuality such as the last time you were tested, talking about using contraception, what you like and dislike in bed and what your boundaries are (among other things). He also stressed the idea of an enthusiastic “Yes!” and that checking in with your partner often is a good way to make sure you are both fully consenting to every activity.

Students on campus need to be treated like the adults that they are and need to be trusted to make healthy decisions about their sexuality with the help of events like this.

If people actually attended instead of just bashing it, they would probably know that these events are about the most important parts of sexual relations like listening and communicating to make sure that you are both on the same page. Maybe learning how to give a blowjob isn’t everyone’s idea of an education, but it is certainly something I am interested in.

To have people that are against sex, except for purposes of reproduction, say what should and should not be happening on campus shows the amount of shame that surrounds issues of sex. If you’re not into it, don’t go. Why ruin it for the rest of us because of your personal beliefs?

Pretending students are not sexually active is ignorant and does nothing to help them make better choices. Maybe if we shamed one another less and supported and educated one another more, sex would actually be considered a healthy experience.

Understanding the complexities of sex is important. I am glad that the WRC and the other sponsors see sex as a positive activity that needs to be understood with maturity, rather than a shameful, degrading act.

Sincerely

Shaya Rogers

Undergrad President of the Feminist Majority

Leadership Alliance