Last week, Yale’s president announced that the student-run “Sex Week” will not be permitted to use Yale’s name or facilities, basically banning it from campus. The week-long event started as in 2002 as an informative “interdisciplinary sex educational program.” However, Yale’s administrators and conservative groups on campus feel that in recent years, too many of the week’s events were hosted by porn stars or people involved in the porn industry. Even though many of the talks provided by people from the porn industry were not about pornography, people are in a tizzy about it.

In the president’s letter he stated, “We have no intention of suppressing the students’ right to free expression. But we will not allow the University’s facilities or name to be used in the service of corporate sponsors and the private inurement of student organizers.” Well, they kind of are suppressing the students’ right to free expression, but the mention of corporate sponsors seems to be the real concern. It appears that the majority of the events from Yale Sex Week were actually educational, but the administration doesn’t want this week to be backed in any way by members from the porn industry.

Harvard University’s organization, Sexual Health Education & Advocacy throughout Harvard College (SHEATH), has planned their own Sex Week to discuss sex and sexuality. SHEATH has removed association with Harvard from the name of their event in response to the ban of Yale Sex Week. This Sex Week features seminars and workshops about various topics on sex and sexuality, without the involvement of the porn industry.

I honestly feel that Yale Sex Week is something that could benefit their campus, especially in light of last year’s fraternity scandal where Delta Kappa Epsilon pledges marched around and chanted misogynistic slurs. Granted, I understand why the administration doesn’t want events to be sponsored by the porn industry. But just because someone is in the porn industry doesn’t mean they don’t have important things to say about sex. A Sex Week should be all inclusive, which seems to be why Yale’s Sex Week had the porn industry involved in the first place. It’s a forum to speak openly about sex and take away the stigma. If anyone can speak openly about sex, it’s people in the porn industry.

Banning Yale Sex Week seems to be an extreme solution to a sort of non-existent problem. If the porn industry situation is the real problem, why not tell the organizers that they can’t have people from the porn industry sponsor discussions? Why ban the entire week altogether? It’s important for college students to be informed about sex, in all aspects, whether it’s about health, sexuality, sexual harassment, or hooking up. Sex is a part of culture, so why are people so afraid to talk about it? By banning Yale Sex Week, the administration is perpetuating the taboo that we’ve been trying to get rid of.

What do you think? Is Yale’s administration right to ban Yale Sex Week?

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[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like the internships! ) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Having gone to a liberal arts college in NYC, it really wasn’t any big surprise to me that a) there were exactly four straight males in my entire school b) there were a lot of “angry feminist” types hanging around in any class even vaguely related to gender or romance. As such, I got to sit through a lot of empowering vs degrading arguments about everything from Voltaire to Batman, and you wanna know what topic comes up the most often? Porn. Yep, the battle has raged, well basically since cavemen first figured out how to draw boobs on their walls and this week, for no apparent reason, the issue came up in congress. Seems like it’s about time we put our vote in on this one, ladies! Read More »

Welcome to the first official week of 2009, which is clearly the most important week of the year as this is the week when resolutions are made…and broken. We went through a lot this week and realized it really sets the tone for the year ahead.

So, we are going to look back to look forward.

We will avoid these people. And this guy.

We will never watch Grey’s Anatomy again.

We will involve ourselves in world issues and politics.

We will not hook up in our parents’ house.

We will learn to do our makeup right so it stays on all night.

We will save the porn industry.

We will not let the cold weather deter us from getting cute.

We will cook.

We will do things right this semester.

We will not go to class hungover. (Ok, that one may not actually happen.)

We will manage our time better.

We will try new things….on the phone...with boys (or girls).

The porn industry may be suffering, but the same can’t be said for the sex-toy sellers of the world. Business is booming!

According to a recent article in the New York Times, sales of high-priced pleasure toys have been on the up and up since the economy tanked last year. Bank accounts may be dwindling, but women are finding a way to indulge in personal pleasure.

This comes as no surprise to me, as I always turn to intimacy (most recently with myself) in times of stress or hardship. Sure, I have to be a little more thrifty with my cash, but that only means I need to be more deliberate about where and how I spend it.

Do I need that Starbucks? No.

Do I need a release after a long day of classes? You betcha.

Is a vibrator a better investment than, I don’t know, weed? Yes, yes, ohmygod YES.

Some women work out when they get stressed. Some shop.

It seems that most, however, are choosing to stay home and have some mind-blowing “stress relief” on their own.

Sex sells. We all know that.

Otherwise, the porn industry wouldn’t be so profitable and I wouldn’t consider hooking myself out sometimes because I’m so poor (kidding!).But as TV and the Internet merge into one, the porn industry is thinking of taking it live… straight to your hotel room.

Eventually, you could trade in your $9.99 pre-recorded porn Pay-Per-View movie for the real deal. Albeit, the real deal as it happens live from somewhere else, not in your hotel room bed.

Gregory Clayman, owner of Video Secrets a live-action company, told the New York Times that “live, right now, is coming of age.”

And with about one-third of America’s On-Demand and Pay-Per-View movies (which are profiting $1.6 billion a year) being adult films, I guess the question is why not? Read More »

No, I’m not saying that it’s gone for good, but with recent online advancements, the huge industry is going down.

The New York Times reports that “the established pornography business is in decline — and the Internet is being held responsible. The online availability of free or low-cost photos and videos has begun to take a fierce toll on sales of X-rated DVDs. Inexpensive digital technology has paved the way for aspiring amateur pornographers, who are flooding the market, while everyone in the industry is giving away more material to lure paying customers.”

Some of these amateur photographers happen to be college students. Take the example of Indiana University co-ed, Keira, who caught a lot of heat for the amateur soft core porn site she was running out of her dorm room.

With free options like this, who needs to go out to the store and actually spend money on a DVD?

Read More »