Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy

By Evan Sparks | Saturday, February 7, 2004

As I sauntered into the latest event put on by SexEd, Dartmouth's new student organization devoted to raising sexual awareness on campus, I knew it was going to be a long hour. I was greeted by four event organizers and, barely outnumbering them, a meager crowd of six people (five guys and one girl). There was also a table scattered with candy and condoms, which bore a distinct resemblance to the kind you buy for a quarter in a gas-station bathroom.

The function was advertised by the ambiguous tagline "Do you ever think about sex?" and promised to answer all my questions about sex. It was a bit hard to tell exactly where things would go, but I knew it would be sexy.

Attendees were given a pad of paper and a pen and told if they had a question they didn't feel comfortable asking, they could write it down and give it to an event organizer. They said the queries would be answered anonymously, though it would be a difficult task with the meager attendance. After a "We're going to talk about sexual activity but we're not encouraging you to do it" disclaimer, and after a few stragglers came in (raising the gender balance to nearly fifty-fifty, and bringing the total number of attendees to a soaring ten), we got down to business.

The first activity of the night involved everyone getting a card with something one might have to say in a sexual situation. They were composed in fairly technical terms. We broke into groups and were supposed to discuss a way of saying what's on the card in more everyday language. Ours said, "I would like to engage in sexual activities with you, but only if we can honestly discuss our sexual histories." One member of my group thought, "So, how big of a slut are you?" would be acceptable for that situation, but we settled on a more tactful, "I want to be completely open with you before this goes too far." Unfortunately, we were wrong, at least according to the event organizers. We were reminded that "goes too far" means different things to people, so we should be explicit when describing what we mean.

Other cards had things on them ranging from "I am not ready at this point in my life for a sexual relationship, but I would like to date and kiss you," to "I would like to watch you masturbate, please show me how you do it so I can give you more pleasure," to "I would like to engage in BDSM with you." The latter was received with giggles, and spurned a lecture on how one can safely engage in bondage and sadomasochism.

At the conclusion of the exercise, we were cautioned that the diplomatic interpretations we came up with were done by a group of several sober people with nothing to lose, and that it's often difficult to think of exactly what to say on the fly. To quote event organizer Sheila Hicks '04 "It's hard to know what to say after a few games of pong." Thanks for the advice, honey.

After this rousing card-interpretation game we were confronted with a "Contraceptive Grab-Bag" in which we put our hands into a bag filled with various contraceptives and pulled one out. We then spent a great deal of time going through each person's contraceptive device and discussing how each one was used. Comments like "Ooh, that one is my favorite," were not uncommon from event organizers. While I have not ranked prophylactics, the event was fun and whimsical.

After a few questions about which birth-control method "sucked the least", everyone swarmed the food-table, jamming pretzels and heart-shaped candy into their mouths and voraciously stocking-up on cheap multi-colored condoms. I left feeling a little more educated and a lot more confused.

Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy

Article Tools

Related Articles