Envision this: students taking yoga classes around campus, performing scenes from plays, body painting and much more - naked. While it may sound impossible, it's not. These activities all took place during "Sex Week" at Brown University, sponsored by the school's student-run Sexual Health Education and Empowerment Council (SHEEC) last month.
During "Sex Week," SHEEC encouraged students at Brown who were comfortable with the idea to participate in workshops and activities in the nude. Other events offered included Nude Open Mic Night, Nude Body Painting, personal testimonies about nudity, film screenings and a variety of workshops led by both faculty and guest speakers.
In addition to SHEEC at Brown, groups at other universities have also created their own versions of sex week, including at Yale and Dartmouth last February and Harvard this fall.
Freshman Harry Weissman speculated on the potential for a sex week on campus.
"I think we're accepting and liberal enough to have the potential for a sex week, but we're not quite there yet. It wouldn't be appropriate to suddenly have naked programming next week or even next semester," Weissman said. "We could have a program like Brown eventually, but it would probably be a gradual process. For example, initially people only strip down to their underwear, and then in follow-up programs and events they can make it fully nude."
Junior Ruby Vail, president of Voices for Choice (VOX), compared the success of VOX's sex-related programs to those that would be created for a sex week. VOX, a sex education organization at Tufts, is an affiliate group of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. In the past, VOX has put together programming such as a Sex Fair and the Oh Megan! event. Hosted on Nov. 4., Vail said the event was a success.
"Megan Andelloux comes to Tufts every year and gives a workshop on various topics on sexuality and the politics of sex," Vail said. "The lecture this year was about oral sex and last year the event was on orchestrating orgasms. In both cases the presentations follow the same format which also includes issues of consent and communication."
Vail said that hosting Andelloux on campus does much to engage a culture of sex positivity on campus.
"Megan's being here does a lot to destigmatize conversations about sex, and she's very inclusive. There are people who are going because they think it's funny, but these people ... also get a lot of information about oral sex and consent in general," Vail said.
Sophomore Molly Schulman, who is the director of the Vagina Monologues, has a different view on the impact of events like these.
"Some events, like Oh Megan!, are just not that accessible. People here don't want to go to events to discuss feminism or sexuality. Whenever you try to bring up feminism, men and even some women avoid the issue and are scared," Schulman said. "It's almost taboo to be a feminist and learn about feminism and sex."
Schulman offered some insight from the production side of the Vagina Monologues show, and pointed out that a Tufts sex week could change perspectives on campus about sex discussion and positivity.
"People came into the Vagina Monologues expecting it to be sexualized and funny, even a spectacle. But many left with a different perspective," she said. "Through participating in the Vagina Monologues, I became aware that any individual has the power to change what they thought of reality as before. You can say no to someone and stand up for yourself and you can talk about vaginas. A sex week has the power to change both those who participate and those who observe."
Vail pointed out, however, that some of the student body is not necessarily comfortable with discussions of sex, citing the Sex Fair that VOX hosts.
"The Sex Fair is an evening of fun, silly activities, but it also offers more resource based programs, about birth control, consent culture and sexuality. Most people were open to the fair, but I think there were some people who were also definitely uncomfortable with some aspects, like the booth on pornography," Vail said.
In addition, the cancelation of the Naked Quad Run (NQR) poses the question of whether the student body would be able to handle a sex week maturely. The mythic naked run was a campus tradition until it was canceled in 2011 because of excessive alcohol abuse.
According to Schulman, right now the Tufts student body is not ready for a sex week.
"It will be a long time before I start thinking that this campus is mature and open enough to be a completely sex-positive campus and to handle an event like this. I don't think that there is a real culture of sex positivity." Schulman said. "In general, there is a pressure to act a certain way because of your gender and the culture of [perceiving] women as objects."
Vail pointed out, on the other hand, that some of the student body may be mature enough to handle a sex week.
"Tufts is a mixed student body, there are people who came to Tufts for the open and activist environment and they are open to sex positivity, but there are also people who choose Tufts for the typical college experience."
With the discussion on whether to host a sex week and the debate on whether students are mature enough to handle one, another factor to take into consideration is the administration. Interim Program Director of the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Sonia Hofkosh speculated that the Group of Six would probably participate in such a week.
"If Tufts were to have a week devoted to discussions of sex, the [Group of Six] Centers and students working with the centers would mostly likely take the lead. The academic program in WGSS collaborates with the centers and there is overlap in our concerns of course. As faculty, we would most likely participate in such a week of discussion from the point of view of classroom curriculum and research in the field," Hofkosh said.
Regardless of varying student and faculty reactions, many are in agreement on the importance of hosting an event like Sex Week and the benefits it could provide to students at Tufts.
"Tufts is a liberal campus but it's also a very politically correct campus. Issues involving transgender or pansexual people are not widely talked about. People don't know a lot about these issues, and they don't know what it's like to think about sex on a wider scale," Schulman said. "A sex week could give people more education on these subjects, and the way to be open is education."
In addition, Schulman said that a sex week at Tufts could improve the discussions on campus about giving consent.
"There is not a model for sexual assault awareness, and talk about consent, or the moment of consent. I see this reflected in the student body here when I go out and also in the media," she said. "There are so many people here who just don't know how to have these conversations. A sex week could open up discussion and teach people about openness."
According to Vail, the advantage of having a sex week at Tufts - or on any college campus - is that there is no standard for sex education in the U.S.
"Something like a sex week is important in a country where there are no standards for sex education and events like these can make it easier to talk about sex," Vail said.
