This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Chicago chapter.
Campus was buzzing this past week, not just about midterms, not just about Valentines Day, and not just about college break day. What was the excitement all about? Sex Week. From a public porn screening to “kinky” sex, people had been talking and asking about Sex Week.
So what was it all about?
Sex Week was first started at Yale University in 2008 after students commented on the insufficiency of sex education in high school and in college. Students believed that there weren’t enough open avenues for conversation about sex beyond abstinence, protection and STD’s. Sex Week strove to provide a comfortable place to have open conversation and to address questions on sex ranging from sexual acts to the culture of sex.
UChicago’s Sex Week leaders Angela Wang and Stephanie Grach began assembling a team in June 2012, and pulling together a group of ten people to bring the whole event together. A few years after the original Sex Week, Wang believed now is as good as a time as ever. UChicago students are…well, a little nerdy and awkward, making Sex Week a prime opportunity for students to ask questions about sex that go beyond high school education.
“I think that shyness is a hard habit to change– to step out or speak up is to be starkly different from everyone else,” commented Wang on the student body. “Sex Week is a good excuse for us to begin a conversation about sex, but hopefully increase communication about everything.”
Both Wang and Grach took action to start a Sex Week team in order to help start conversations and raise awareness about sex, now an everyday aspect of society.
The themes of UChicago’s Sex Week highlighted communication and consent, but the schedule included topics ranging from sex acts to history, art, and industry. Everything about sex was open for discussion,with guest speakers ranging from bloggers about sexuality, sex workers, to religion advisors talking about all aspects of sex, from oral sex to social constructs. These speakers were not hard to find and were incredibly supportive through the whole event, commented both Grach and Wang. The harder part was pulling the student body in as Sex Week seemed a little overwhelming at first glance.
However, Sex Week events were well-attended, with an average of 40 attendees at each event. Most events run with an average of 20 to 120 attendees.
“This has been very exciting for us because we were worried that the Monday-Thursday events would suffer attendance-wise due to them not being quite as centralized as our Friday-Sunday ones (almost all of which are being held on the 8th floor of Logan Center),” explained Grach. The overall goal and hope the Sex Week team had for participants, and themselves, was to encourage communication and knowledge about sex, which is often considered taboo.
But the week wasn’t without its critics, who fired accusations that the event degraded women. Grach weighed in on the topic, “In my opinion, the most interesting claim from these commenters is how we are promoting the degradation of women. If you look at our events, you will see that we focus a great deal on empowering women.”
In fact, the majority of the Sex Week team were women and as Grach re-emphasized, “We are [Sex Week] first and foremost educational in nature, and we include many events having to do with health, consent, and religion in sex.”
Aside from speakers and massage workshops (lead by Miss Angela Wang herself), campus performance groups and Sex Week teamed up to add some laughs and break the awkard silence that often surrounds conversations about sex. Off-Off and Occam’s teamed up for the first time ever to do lukewarm readings of porno scripts, including one of a famous scene involving a favorite VP candidate from Alaska. On Friday, Off-Off peformed a show titled Genitalia at 8:30 p.m. in the UChurch. After much hard work and dedication, the Off-Off writers, actors and student musical collaborator Xander Wilstrom (composer) put on a show that touched on gender, love, and listening to your genitals with a comedic angle.
“Our goal, first and foremost, is tears. Laughter is, of course, permitted and encouraged. But this is art. And for art, you cry,” says Off-Off Publicity Manager Natalya Samee.
While at UChicago you will learn about Global Warming, dabble in some Marx readings, struggle through a math course, and learn the best position to sleep in the Reg desks, there are times when you need to take your education one step further. In this case, take it one step further and get some higher sex education.
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