Tag Archive: Sex Week

  1. Wednesday’s Buzz: 12.12.12

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    THE NEWS

    • Sex Week is returning to Yale this academic year. The weeklong series of events on sex-related topics usually takes place once every two years, but students decided to start hosting the event series annually in order to make Sex Week more institutionalized and familiar to students. Organizers decided to abridge the event series into Sex Week(end), which will begin Feb. 28, 2013 and last through that weekend. Sex Week(end) Co-Director Ruby Spiegel ’15 said she expects the event series this year to be less controversial than last year, when a 2011 report from the Advisory Committee on Campus Climate recommended Yale ban the event series.
    • In an effort to create a safer campus environment, Yale administrators are launching two initiatives to address alcohol and drug use on campus. Yale College Dean Mary Miller and University Secretary and Vice President for Student Affairs Kimberly Goff-Crews announced the Yale College Dean’s Office Task Force on Alcohol and Other Drugs and the University Council Committee on Alcohol in Yale College in a Monday night email to the campus community. The task force will gather information from the campus community on alcohol and drug use and make recommendations to the Yale College Dean’s Office, while the committee will recommend proposals on University policy to top administrators.
    • Early applications for the class of 2017 to most Ivy League schools are more competitive than ever, keeping with the trend of the last decade. Yale’s early applications increased by 4.4 percent this year, while Princeton and Harvard — currently in their second early admissions rounds since reinstating their early action programs in 2011 — experienced increases of 10 percent and 18 percent, respectively. Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeffrey Brenzel said in an email to the News that he believes some of the rise in applications across the board can be attributed to the increased perception that early admission programs, and particularly binding early decision programs, provide applicants with a better chance of acceptance.

    THE WEATHER
    High of 44 degrees, low of 28 degrees, sunny.

    THE FOOD

    In the colleges

    Breakfast: Grits, Waffle Bar, Cinnamon Sugar Bun

    Lunch: Carrot & Coriander Soup, Tomato & Chick Pea Soup, Moroccan Spiced Salmon, Beef & Turkey Moussaka, Penne, Grilled Garden Burger, Mediterranean Turkey Burger Sandwich, Lebanese Ciabatta Sandwich, Turkish Chopped Salad, Chickpea, Peppers, Olives & Charmoula, Chocolate Chip Cookie, Iced Gold Cupcake

    Dinner: Carrot & Coriander Soup, Tomato & Chick Pea Soup, Chicken Drumstick Tikka Masala, Dal Masala, Saag Tofu, Shrimp Curry, Penne, Eggplant & Red Pepper Panini, Grilled Garden Burger, Basmati Rice Pilafi, Turkish Chopped Salad, Chickpea, Peppers, Olives & Charmoula, Creamsicle Sheet Cake

    In Commons

    Breakfast: Steelcut Oats, Cage-Free Scrambled Eggs, Apple Cinnamon Dairyless Pancakes, Waffle Bar, Omelets To-Order, Scrambled Egg Whites, Red Bliss Home Fries, Cinnamon Sugar Bun

    Lunch: Chicken & Cabbage Soup, Minestrone, Baked Cod, Tomato Goat Cheese & Onion Tart, Penne, Grilled All Beef Franks, Grilled Ham & Cheese Sand On Rye, Pepperoni Pizza, Cheese Pizza, Broccoli Bianca Pizza, Vegetable Lo Mein, Chicken & Broccoli, Vegetable Fried Rice, Jasmine Rice, Curried Tofu, Dilled Tuna Lavash Sandwich, Creamy Polenta with Marscapone &  Herbs, Fresh Green Bean-Garlic Sauté, Turkish Chopped Salad, Chickpea, Peppers, Olives & Charmoula, Chocolate Chip Cookie, Iced Gold Cupcake

  2. New book critiques Yale’s sex culture

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    Welcome to Yale, freshmen — now take off your pants.

    That’s what freshman orientation might be like at the Yale portrayed in “Sex and God at Yale: Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad,” a new book by Nathan Harden ’09 that slams the University for allegedly creating a sex-obsessed culture. “Sex and God at Yale” has stirred debate over Yale’s sexual culture in major national publications, even landing on the front page of this week’s New York Times Sunday Book Review.

    Harden, a self-described “post-Bush conservative” who came to Yale already married, also criticized Yale’s treatment of sex in “When Sex Isn’t Sexy: My Bizarre Education at Yale University” on The Daily Beast.

    “During my time at Yale, the university hosted porn film screenings in its classrooms that included glamorized sexual violence and ‘fantasy rape.’…It doesn’t take much to get from ‘fantasy rape’ in the classroom to ‘No Means Yes!’ on the campus quad,” Harden writes, in reference to a 2010 incident when fraternity pledges chanted offensive sexual phrases on Old Campus.

    In response to Harden’s post, former Women’s Forum board members Kathryn Olivarius ’11 and Claire Gordon ’10 posted on the Daily Beast, as well, arguing that Yale shouldn’t blame porn workshops for on-campus sexism.

    “But, in our opinion, bunches of dudes weren’t misogynist dicks because of a talk by a porn star or a workshop on vibrators—the crux of Harden’s book. They were misogynist dicks because they grew up in a world full of misogynist dickishness,” Olivarius and Gordon wrote.

    Harden’s book is the latest in a series of public critiques of Sex Week and of Yale’s sexual culture. After the University’s November 2011 report on campus climate called for the banning of Sex Week, the event’s organizers submitted a new proposal that got the OK from administrators. Sex Week went up in February; the event’s detractors organized a “True Love Week” to run at the same time.

  3. Sex Week puts out video promoting STI testing

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    As part of Sex Week 2012’s “Get Tested!” campaign, organizers have released a promotional video encouraging sexual health.

    The video features a typical Yale student named “Eli,” who rocks a Yale sweatshirt and backwards “Y” baseball cap. As Eli shuffles through the libraries of life, narrator Spencer Klavan ’13 tells viewers about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and sexual behavior at Yale, ending his video with a message to “be happy, be healthy.”

    The video is part of an effort to publicize Sex Week’s STI testing campaign that will take place next Monday and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Staff members from the New Haven Public Health Department staff will bring an STI clinic and mobile testing van to Yale to offer free counseling and STI screenings. In addition, organizers are working to bring Planned Parenthood representatives to campus. Students who opt for an HIV test will receive private counseling and have their blood drawn, and other STI screenings may call for either blood or urine samples.

    “The ‘Get Tested’ campaign seeks to make the [testing and counseling] process as easy as possible,” said Allie Bauer ’12, a member of the Yale Sexual Literacy Coalition. “Countless people have told me that they wanted to get tested but were given an appointment up to a month later, and by that point they did not think it was worth the effort.”

    The video was created with the help of Maya, a student-run advertising and consulting firm on campus. Watch it below:

  4. True Love Week interrupted by “kiss in”

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    At the second event of True Love Week on Monday night, love was certainly in the air — especially for the group of Yalies who staged a “kiss in.”

    As Bijan Aboutorabi ’13, a member of Undergraduates for a Better Yale College, introduced the night’s featured speaker, Providence College Prof. Anthony Esolen, he said he had “heard certain rumors concerning tonight’s event.” He made reference to students who allegedly stole signs from Occupy New Haven as a negative example of Yale students being unable to respect the ideas of others.

    “I’m very interested to see if Yale students, without disruption, can tolerate someone with whom they disagree,” said Aboutorabi. He then proceeded to ask anyone interested in disrupting the talk to leave, but no one did.

    Then, five minutes into Esolen’s speech on “The Person as a Gift,” about 50 attendees staged a “kiss in.” As Esolen delivered a line blaming the sexual revolution for cultural degradation, one attendee’s cell phone began playing the Diana Ross classic “I’m Coming Out.” At that point, around 12 couples, straight and gay alike, rose to their feet and began to kiss. Others looked on and cheered. After about a minute, attendees spilled out of the previously packed WLH 116, leaving about 20 in the room.

    As they exited, the group chanted “one in four, maybe more.” Before the interruption, Esolen had been telling a story about a concert of violinist Natalie MacMaster and Irish step-dancing. As one girl left the room, she yelled, “homosexuals hate stepdancing!”

    After waiting for the crowd to file out, Esolen repeatedly shook his head, then continued speaking.

  5. Yale scientist suggests “G-spot” isn’t real

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    Yale urologist Amichai Kilchevsky published a study in the Jan. 12 issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine suggesting that the fabled “G-spot,” the erogenous zone inside the vagina purported to provide intense pleasure during intercourse, does not exist.

    To find evidence of the G-spot, Kilchevsky ran a search of published work between 1950 and 2011 using keywords like G-spot, Gräfenberg spot, female orgasm, female erogenous zone and others that are less safe for work.

    “Objective measures have failed to provide strong and consistent evidence for the existence of an anatomical site that could be related to the famed G-spot,” Kilchevsky wrote.

    Such objective measures, the study notes, have included everything from “digital stimulation” to MRI scans over the past decade. Kilchevsky notes that “modern investigative techniques” may provide more evidence in the future. The study claims the majority of women believe in the G-spot, which Kilchevsky said is thanks to a myth perpetuated by the porn industry and the public media.

    “My view is that the G-spot is really just the extension of the clitoris on the inside of the vagina, analogous to the base of the male penis,” Kilchevsky said in the report.

  6. Love Week to run alongside Sex Week

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    Not into casual, meaningless, loveless sex, A.K.A. “hookup culture”? You’re in luck — Undergraduates for a Better Yale College will hold an alternative series of events during Sex Week that will be known as “Love Week.”

    Love Week, scheduled to run from Feb. 5-14, is intended to function as a contrast to Sex Week and will emphasize “the greater whole, not just sex,” said Eduardo Andino ’13, UBYC co-founder.

    “It’s the physical, the psychological, the emotional and the interpersonal,” he said. “There were criticisms that [our petition to ban Sex Week] was negative, so this [initiative] is kind of on both sides. We’re offering something negative like ‘we don’t think this should be happening’ but we’re also offering something else too.”

    Isabel Marin ’12, another member of UBYC, said the group considers elements of Sex Week “destructive to a healthy campus culture at Yale.” Still, she said, Love Week is not intended to be a “full-fledged replacement” to Sex Week but will instead emphasize the importance of relationships and “happy sex.”

    Scheduled events include talks titled “Chastity and Human Goods,” “The Person as a Gift” and “Sexual Bliss: The Path to Sexual Satisfaction and Marital Happiness for Today’s Couples.” In addition, Love Week will encourage students to go on “traditional dates,” i.e. dinner and a movie, on Valentine’s Day.

    See the tentative schedule for Love Week below:

    Sunday, Feb. 5, 3 p.m.: Vicki Thorn on the biochemistry of sex and a theology of the body

    Monday, Feb. 6, 7 p.m.: Anthony Esolen, “The Person as a Gift”

    Tuesday, Feb. 7, 4 p.m.: W. Bradford Wilcox, “Sexual Bliss: The Path to Sexual Satisfaction and Marital Happiness for Today’s Couples”

    Wednesday, Feb. 8, 4 p.m.: Dr. Richard Panzer on sex education in the United States

    Thursday, Feb. 9, 4 p.m.: Elise Ehrhard on marriage and contraception

    Friday, Feb. 10, 4 p.m.: Christopher Tollefsen, “Chastity and Human Goods”

    Saturday, Feb. 11, Evening (Tentative): Dance party that will feature “clean forms of dancing with a partner”

    Tuesday, Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day): Date Night, UBYC will encourage students to go out on traditional dates. Will possibly create a function on the UBYC website where students can get set up on blind dates.