Alexandria La Flair, Contributing Writer |
On Wednesday, February 22, the Resident Advisors (RA) of Wilber Hall hosted a Sex Ed talk with their freshmen residents. The previous week, the residents were asked to submit any questions they had pertaining to sex. The original “sexpert” of the talk, Dr. Gilbert from the GSRC, could not attend, so the RAs teamed up to answer some burning questions. The incentives to attend the raffle were sex organ-themed treats and LEAD credit.
The overall atmosphere of the presentation was very relaxed, located in the main foyer of the building. Sitting in a circle, the RAs picked each question out of the sex box and answered them to the best of their abilities. Some were silly inside jokes, but the majority were legitimate questions.
One question confronted was, “How often do condoms break?” They informed everyone that it is roughly 10 percent of the time. This is most commonly caused by expiration, holes, or not knowing how to properly put on a condom. From this, they completely lightened the mood by demonstrating how to correctly put on a condom, via a bright red rubber and a banana.
The second thought-provoking question was, “Can heavy drinking and drug use affect your sperm/ability to get a women pregnant later in life?” Yes; if drugs are abused, one’s future sperm count and potency can diminish, making it more difficult to get a woman pregnant.
The light banter and informativeness of the presentation could, in the long term, help bring sex and every aspect of it to the forefront of public education. If young adults can be open about sex now, then maybe the next generation will have the facts earlier in their lives, leading to better overall statistics for teen pregnancy, STD rates, etc.
There was one downside to this presentation, though. Since the “sexperts” were Wilber’s RAs who are roughly the same age range as the kids who asked the questions, it wasn’t the most detailed or insightful advice. It’s appreciated that they looked up answers to the best of their knowledge, but the information seemed limited to heterosexual couples. It may not have been their intention, but an educator usually has no idea what someone’s sexual identity is.
Still, RAs Samantha and Katie still did well with what they could facilitate. They gave a relaxed, yet useful, presentation for the freshmen. Samantha stated that they held this event because it was successful in the past. Hopefully, group discussions like this will become more prevalent campus-wide!
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