Yale Sex Week Attempts to Make a Comeback

By Caitlin Corsetti

A few weeks ago we talked about Yale administrators banning Yale Sex Week, and it’s been a hot topic ever since. The Marshall Committee, which was put in place to help advise the university on dealing with sexual misconduct, advised President Levin to ban Sex Week. Other schools have sex weeks on their campuses, but the administration at Yale obviously felt that Yale Sex Week was becoming more about porn and having sex instead of being informative. Well, most students at Yale aren’t too happy about it and rightfully so.

Sex happens. Whether you’ve had sex or not, it’s a part of life. If sex and talking about sex makes you uncomfortable, then don’t get involved with talks about it. One of the most important things about sex is being informed, which is exactly what sex weeks do. So they had some porn stars there, big deal. The administration is missing the big picture: keeping students informed about sex. Not only is it about safe sex, but also queer culture and being accepting towards sexuality. It’s about consent and how to deal with sexual misconduct.

Well, President Levin is now allowing the student directors to propose a plan for Sex Week 2012 on the basis of free speech. They put together a proposal broken down into categories like relationships, psychology and biology, female sexuality, culture and sexuality, consent and communication, faith and sexuality, law and politics, sexual health, creative expression and performance, and pornography. Yes, pornography.

They state that they “envision a campus where self-loving students shape, articulate, and achieve compassionate and practical desires. This can only be accomplished if we provide a resource-filled and comprehensive sexual education that acknowledges and facilitates an understanding of desire and pleasure.” In aiming to make Sex Week 2012 as inclusive as possible they also “have not included a separate category of events for LGBTQ individuals because we are committed to making every event at Sex Week 2012 not merely ‘friendly’ but relevant to the LGBTQ members of our community. To fulfill this goal, we will work closely with each guest speaker to ensure that their event provides well-rounded information for the whole community regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity expression.” Basically, the student directors rocked the proposal, and hopefully the administration will approve it. They requested that they receive a decision by the end of this semester.