Sex Week at Yale begins What’s going on this week at one of America’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning? Why, it’s Sex Week, of course!
Yale undergrad Jake McGuire sends e-mails:
The biannual “Sex Week at Yale” began today at Yale University, and will continue through next Monday. The Yale Free Press, Yale’s only conservative student publication, will be covering the week’s events on our blog. Expect pictures, interviews, and student reactions to an event which won a Campus Outrage Award from the Collegiate Network for the YFP’s reporting in 2004.
The schedule for Sex Week can be found at
http://www.sexweekatyale.com/schedule.htm. Saturday, February 16 will be the culmination of events and our week’s reporting with a pornographic film screening and panel discussion with Vivid Entertainment porn actresses Monique Alexander, Savanna Samson, and director Paul Thomas, followed by the “Skull and Boned” party with a dress-like-your-favorite-porn-star contest…
Best,
Jake McGuire ‘10
Yale University
Former Editor-in-Chief, Yale Free Press
Gail Dines adds a critique from the left in today’s Hartford Courant:
The real story of porn, one which looks nothing like the chic media image, will be well hidden next week at Yale. The student organizers have invited mainly representatives from the porn industry and their supporters, with the only voice of opposition being XXX Church pastor Craig Gross.
Missing are the voices of women who have left the industry after being brutalized and exploited, for whom a college education, let alone at an Ivy, is unaffordable and almost unimaginable.
Also missing is the anti-pornography feminist voice, which sees pornography as sexist, violent and harmful to women. After 30 years of researching the industry, the business practices of the pornographers, and the effects on women and men, we anti-porn feminists are “disappeared” from the debate.
Two years ago I spoke on a pornography panel at Yale Law School. Of the six people invited, I was the only speaker to criticize the porn industry, with the others either being pornographers, or bar one, so pro-porn, they might as well have been industry representatives. After the panel, some students came up to me to express their disgust with the way the panel had been organized, and how they felt cheated out of a thoughtful dialogue.
“Thoughtful dialogue?” Not much of that going on at university campuses these days.
Here’s a message from the “director” of Sex Week at Yale:
A LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
Sex Week is an interdisciplinary sex education program designed to pique students’ interest through creative, interactive, and exciting programming. In February 2008, renowned professionals from a wide variety of industries, from models and television stars to professors and relationship specialists, will convene at Yale University to challenge students’ conceptions of sex and sexuality and question the way sex is presented in our society.
Sex Week explores love, sex, intimacy and relationships by focusing on how sexuality is manifested in America, helping students to reconcile these issues in their own lives. We strive to get beyond the awkwardness, the discomfort, and the taboo of conventional sex education programs by treating sexual behavior as the reality it is, not as it has been portrayed. Through debates, seminars, fashion shows, concerts, and discussions, students are given the chance to interact formally and informally with professionals who deal with these issues every day, so they can learn about sexuality from those who are responsible for shaping it. Relationship therapists offer advice on all aspects of relationships. Media executives discuss sex in advertising. Court judges explain the still-controversial ruling that protects pornography as a freedom of speech. And porn stars comment on the reality of pornography in America. Sex Week covers sex and sexuality from the most practical aspects to the more personal facets, and everything in between.
There is no ideology behind Sex Week. Its mission is simple: present students with a range of perspectives about sexuality to get them talking, so that they can begin to reconcile serious issues of love, sex, and relationships in their lives. Let the discussion begin.
Joseph Citarrella
Director
And a sample from the schedule:
Tuesday, February 12WHAT A GIRL WANTS
Logan Levkoff
The Female Orgasm
Patty Brisben, founder & CEO, Pure Romance, Inc.
Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know about Sex*
(and sex toys!)
Free Pure Romance product giveaways!
*100 FREE tickets to the Great Porn Debate on 2/15 (see below) will be available.
First come, first serve.
Wednesday, February 13SEDUCTION
Matador, from VH1’s The Pick-Up Artist
Seduction: How to get the girl you’ve always wanted*
Mystery, from VH1’s The Pick-Up Artist
The Mystery Method: Ladies want him, guys want to be him.
Friday, February 15The Sex Week at Yale Fashion & Lingerie Show
AIDS Awareness Benefit, $5 suggested donation.
All proceeds will be donated to various AIDS research
and awareness organizations
Business attire requested
Cocktail hour, 6pm.
Show starts 7pm.
Ron Jeremy & Vivid Girl Monique Alexander vs.
Craig Gross & Donnie Pauling
The Great Porn Debate*
Moderated and televised by Nightline ABC, with host Martin Bashir
*SEATING LIMITED.
Saturday, February 16
VIVID DAY
Steven Hirsch, co-founder and co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment
The Business of Pornography: How Vivid made it mainstream*
Vivid Girls Monique Alexander & Savanna Samson, with acclaimed director Paul Thomas
Panel discussion and Q&A with Vivid’s adult superstars
Yes, there will be a screening.
Skull & Boned Party @ The TOAD*
Featuring: The Who Looks Most Like a Vivid Girl contest!
With judges Paul Thomas, Monique Alexander, and Savanna Samson!
*Free Vivid DVD at the door