editorial Why "Let's Talk About Sex" month succeeds where symposia fail

Author: [no author name found]

Sex sells - and "Let's Talk About Sex" month, sponsored by the Office of Health and Wellness and a slew of on campus organizations, knows it. Boasting events as diverse as discussions about the College's hook up culture, performances of "The Vagina Monologues" and speed dating, the month-long focus on sex has generated unexpected interest among students on campus. Trumping the admittedly cynical outlook of editors seasoned to expect low turnout, students rallied for a raucous sex toy workshop and to cheer on their classmates in a Middlebury reenactment of "The Dating Game."

Middlebury students are largely an inhibited - and overextended - crowd. What prompted students so often paralyzed by an insurmountable work load and even more insurmountable social anxieties to embrace these events? On one level, the apparent success of the month's events is rooted in what can only be deemed a hunger to candidly discuss relationships and sex. But the College plays host to any number of thought-provoking lectures and symposia in any given term. What brought flocks of students to the Grille to listen to the "Date Doctor" while seats sit too often empty in lecture halls?

Aside from an interest in sex, the month's events point to an even stronger desire among students: the desire for a sense of daring that the traditional approach to symposia rarely provide. In putting together a remarkably well-balanced docket of events, the love fest's organizers managed to both educate and entertain. Speakers invited to campus have proven racy but also thought provoking, and some events - speed dating and "The Dating Game" leap to mind - have been fun for the sake of fun. Even in these early days of the semester, the respite from strictly academic work is refreshing.

As Winter Carnival, ensconced in talk of revived traditions, knocks at our doors, and as its odd neighbor the student research symposium looms in the distance, the lesson to learn from "Let's Talk About Sex" month has less to do with sex and more to do with talking. The sense of play that the Office of Health and Wellness (and the students and organizers working in conjunction with the office) have brought to the table this month is worth imitating - in both the expected realm of the Carnival festivities and in the uncommon ring of academia.

Of course, in the short term, let's talk about sex. In the waning days of February, a condom party, "gender neutral" Blind Date Dolci and lecture by sex educator Jay Friedman round out the month's events.