Breaking the silence

By: Alex Best, Contributing Writer

To challenge societal shyness toward sexual health, students were given the opportunity to explore and further educate themselves about the wonders of sex at the first ever “Let’s Talk About Sex!” night held in Paws April 1.

The Sexual Assault Peer Educators (SAPE), in cooperation with several organizations including the Sexual Harassment & Assault Prevention & Education (SHAPE) Committee and the Center for Student Diversity set up tables that featured games and activities ranging from “consent is sexy” underwear making to a lube tasting station.

The event also featured a “mockgarita bar” and sex-positive trivia stations where winners were able to walk away with their choice of condoms and lubes of assorted flavors. In addition to these giveaways, students were able to enter a raffle to win one of three “ultimate sex gift baskets” that contained an assortment of sex-related prizes.

The second half of the event was comprised of a presentation by Dorian Solot and Colin Adamo, two sex educators from “Sex Discussed Here!,” the organization behind the popular “I Heart Female Orgasm” program that is featured at Towson each fall. The presenters offered a thoughtful, yet lighthearted discussion on safer sex that concluded with a question and answer session with students.

“I thought it was a really great program to have on college campuses,” sophomore and history major, MacKenzie Scott, said.  “It was a fun and unique way to open up discussion about sex, and Colin and Dorian were a great addition to the overall atmosphere of the event.”

Alexandra Shiflett, a graduate assistant from the Counseling Center who was involved in the organization of the event, discussed the reasoning and goals behind the event.

“We wanted to have a sex-positive event to help educate individuals about consent, as well as to decrease this stigma surrounding talking about sex education in general,” Shiflett said. “We were lucky enough to have a university that was supportive of our event. Meaning, no one told us that what we were doing was wrong or too risqué.”

Shiflett said that SAPE intends to sponsor at least one sex-positive event each semester. While the next “Let’s Talk about Sex!” night is still under development, the organization is partnering with the Feminist Collective to hold their “Take Back the Night” event in observation of Sexual Assault Awareness month.

“Take Back the Night” will be held April 7 at 7 p.m. in Freedom Square.