by Carlos Pedraza
Dildos, cock rings, and ropes, oh my! With the cooperation of the Peer Health Center, Check it, and Queer Humboldt, The Womens Resources Center hosted “Kink on the Quad” on Monday. Sex positivity was the theme of the event; it promoted open discussion of sexuality, sex education, and just plain sex, with an emphasis on violence prevention and LGTBQ+ identity.
There were mutiple sex-themed games for attendees, featuring pin the dildo, porn hole, and condom kerplunk. Students seemed distinctly unhesitant while holding a dildo to pin onto the image of a vagina, or when throwing bean bags into cardboard vaginas labeled with the names of popular porn categories.
Isabela Acosta, the Head Coordinator of Sex Health Body Politics at the WRC, did notice a difference between how students interact with the activities.
“Women are way more open to this,” Acosta said. “Men are so guarded and stuff.”
Tables covered with red table cloths had condoms, rows of sex toys and dildos pointed high in sky waiting to be grabbed. Acosta described how some students were very supportive, while others were weirded out by the dildos. Acosta wants students and people in general to be more open about sex.
“Just be comfortable,” Acosta said. “I know you’re having sex, we all do.”
Check-it and Students for Violence Sex Prevention were there to educate, not just about safe consensual sex, but also about preventing sexual violence.
Check-it focused on informing students on the 3D’s. The 3D’s are methods for helping someone get out of a harmful situation. They stand for “direct, delagate, and distract.” The groups saw the event as a way to open discussion on sexual violence.
“It opens the door for more in-depth conversation, for survivors to understand what consent is,” said the Students for Violence Sex Prevention team.
Queer Humboldt hosted their own game to educate students on sexual identity. The game involved identifying celebrities, historical figures, and activists, along with their connection to the LGBTQ+ community.
“A lot of the time most people have no idea these figures are in the LGBT community,” said Avery Sidonia, a volunteer with Queer Humboldt.
Sidonia called the event awesome; she was excited for it since it combined fun and education in a way that got people interested.
“Kink on the Quad” ended with a raffle of sex toys. A huge, boisterous crowd gathered in anticipation of hearing their name and winning a free sex toy
One Comment
At the risk of being labeled a “thought-criminal” (described in Orwell’s 1984 novel), these exhibitions cheapen sex and promote lust, promiscuity, and adulterous hearts. Lust is a deception of the human heart and it obscures the significance of our bodies. The medicine for lust (one of the seven deadly sins) is chastity. Chaste and intimate sexual relations between a married man and woman, who are deeply committed to each other and who become “one flesh” through marriage, are immensely beautiful and mystical. They also point the way to God – who is the author of life and of human human sexuality. For the truly open-minded out there, I encourage you to read and reflect on Pope John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.” Since God-is-Love (He really is!), we fulfil our existence by loving others. And what stronger love can there be than to fully and unreservedly gift ourselves to our spouse – and to be open to new life – through married sex? Our physical bodies were made precisely to show us this, and to be the means by which we accomplish this.