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 12
WHAT A GIRL WANTS
Logan Levkoff
The Female Orgasm
4pm, LC 102
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 13
SEDUCTION
Matador, from VH1’s The Pick-Up Artist
Seduction: How to get the girl you’ve always wanted*
*100 FREE tickets to the Great Porn Debate on 2/15 (see below) will be available.
First come, first serve.
4:30pm, LC 102
Mystery, from VH1’s The Pick-Up Artist
The Mystery Method: Ladies want him, guys want to be him.
7:30pm, SSS 114
Friday, February 15
The 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.
LoRicco Ballroom
216 Crown St.
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. Be sure to get your seats early at the Patty Brisben or Matador events. 8:30pm, LoRicco Ballroom
216 Crown St.
Saturday, February 16
VIVID DAY
Steven Hirsch, co-founder and co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment
The Business of Pornography: How Vivid made it mainstream*
4:30pm, WLH 119
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. 7:30pm, Law School Auditorium
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
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So if I was Mommy or Daddy shelling out thousands of dollars for a Yale education, or if I were a student who’d spend the next 30 years of my life in deep debt from college loans, I’d be mad as hell that my money is going to this sort of “education”.
And then they’ll all wonder why American students are handily beaten in apptitude tests and job interviews by students from countries who, you know, actually teach their students important things. At least the students from Yale will be well-versed in “The Female Orgasm.”
Note to self: Do not send children to Ivy league schools… If we can afford it.
A range of perspectives from the porn industry. HA! HA!!
Of course there is! Thoughtful socialist dialog.
Debate question - Should the government be spending hundreds of millions of dollars or billions of dollars to bail out homeowners that are threatend with forclosure? Extra credit for blaming President Bush in unique and previously unstated ways.
The sad thing is, even if this kind of event really was a worthwhile use of the school’s resources - something eminently debatable - it still sounds like not much “fun.”
I read the schedule of events, and find myself saying out loud before I can catch it: “What the fuh–?”
Never mind.
Maybe they should just videotape the entire week and show it on MTV. They could call it:
Pimp my college.
Yuppies
Actuating
LLiberal
Egos
ugh… this is truly disheartening and totally unsurprising. love Dr. Ruth though… thought she was dead… hmmm… oh well…
I also love how they can’t even fit all the events into a single week and have to “spill over” into the following Monday…. keep those VH-1, Vivid et al. corporate sponsors happy at Yale!
So instead of studies focused on the three R’s, we focus students on the three X’s. And still we wonder why our education system is failing.
USA going to hell in a handbasket in 3,2,…opps to late.
So they think there isn’t enough obsessing about sex in our society? Get real. It is impossible to pick up a magazine, turn on the TV, surf the internet or go shopping without being bombarded by images, expectations, and various messages about sex. I can’t imagine students need any further prompting to discuss sex.
Um. This is a private school with no religious affiliation. They can do whatever they want with their money. And supporting comprehensive sexual and sexuality education is certainly in their best interests.
This event is going to be hugely popular. There’s a reason every college newspaper has a sex columnist. Part of college is developing a sexual identity. Students should be taught that that identity must be safe and should be satisfying. So what’s the problem with an AIDS benefit and a class on the female orgasm? (Which a sex columnist from, of all places, FOXNEWS.com, claims a quarter of women have difficulty with.)
There are some feminists that are staunchly anti-pornography and others who are pro. I am sure both are represented on campus and there will be all sorts of editorials in the school paper and protests on the quad to raise awareness for both sides.
And I say good. There should be no shame in discussing sexuality. And orgasms and pornography are part of sexuality. It’s one of the most important subjects of the human condition and for people to treat it as taboo is ridiculous.
I thought you were giving them too much time starting at “3″, AJ.
This is so sad, especially since Yale was started at a school for ministers. One also had to be proficient in Greek and Latin before even entering the school years ago. Standards have deteriorated quite a bit.
I’m sure they’re still proficient in Greek.
Thanks for the Secular-Progressive pep talk, Rusty. I was waiting for an enlightened point of view on this.
/sarcasm off
They really should talk sex somewhere else besides using an institution of higher learning for indoctrination purposes. I just escapes me how this is going to advance our lagging position (pardon the pun) in the world with education.
At least some of the more carnal aspects of Greek culture, looking at this event.
#1 On February 11th, 2008 at 9:30 am, englishqueen01 said:
‘So if I was Mommy or Daddy shelling out thousands of dollars for a Yale education, or if I were a student who’d spend the next 30 years of my life in deep debt from college loans, I’d be mad as hell that my money is going to this sort of “education”.’
Been there, done that.
Found out a couple of years ago about a college paper article on a “sex show” at the university our third kid is attending.
So, I wrote to some administration suit (carefully, so as not to risk retaliation against our kid) about how I was concerned that the mandatory fees I have to pay are going to something like a “sex show”, and received the not unexpected, typical, administrative, bureaucratese, B.S. reply.
Well, our kid is almost through there - has to squeeze out one last course (after declaring & changing majors a bit late, thus needing summer school & additional courses after the four years).
Once the kid is done, and not subject to retaliation, I’m going to try to find the time to go on a mission about higher “education” in general. (Needless to say, I no longer donate to the school, which is my alma mater, as well as that of our two older kids.)
I’m thinking there has to be a BETTER, MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE, and MORE EFFECTIVE way to educate the next generation so that it may intelligently assume the responsibilities of citizenship; and may enter the workforce adequately prepared.
I would think industry leaders would be interested in this, and would have to be involved.
Think about it, as I have:
Give me $20-30,000 per student, per year, and I’ll wager I could do a far better job - by light-years - of educating the students than most colleges and universitites are now doing; and, I’d be rich beyond my wildest dreams.
Why do so many students have to go AWAY from home to get a college education?
Room & board, mandatory fees, salary & benefits costs for college security, maintenance, administrative etc. personnel are not trivial.
College today at most places seems nothing more than a rip-off.
It shouldn’t cost anywhere near $20,000-30,000 a year for four years, per student, to teach basics of computation, thinking & reasoning, a foreign language, English grammar and composition, some science “literacy”, and history.
Admittedly, this looks like a subject list from my junior high and high school days.
But, from what I read here and there, today’s COLLEGE, never mind high school, graduates are sorely lacking in these basics.
Public education is broken beyond repair.
I think college education, in many, maybe most, places is also broken beyond repair.
How and where do we start to fix things?
Why don’t they just just have abortion week, since most of them will be indoctrinated into liberal ideology.
College? I though you were in support of middle schools handing out birth control pills? Geez, and I thought part of college was to get an education. Everything is about sex and making sure one “gun” is fired while other “guns” are prohibited.
/max sarc off
On February 11th, 2008 at 10:06 am, Rusty said:
Um. This is a private school with no religious affiliation. They can do whatever they want with their money. And supporting comprehensive sexual and sexuality education is certainly in their best interests.
If you read the schedule there doesn’t appear to be any educational seminars.
No discussions on birth control, S.T.D.’s..ect… and they do recieve federal funding.
Rusty,
Just because you can do something does not mean that you should, or that doing so is not both disgusting and a complete waste of resources.
For the record, my college did not have a sex columnist. It still doesn’t three years later. What the heck is “sexual identity” supposed to mean?
Yale needs to move to Europe.
That’s a pretty good pun. But I still disagree with your point. It’s not like these students get the week off from homework and readings to participate in sex week. They’ll still be burning the candle at both ends trying to get good grades.
Indoctrination? No one is forced to participate. And other groups are more than able to host anti-pornography discussions.
Yale also gives money to Jewish groups, Catholic groups, Muslim groups, fundamentalist groups, and feminist groups (most of which will support Sex Week, but some of which do not support pornography).
If they want to protest, they are more than welcome. Unless of course you think protests will hurt our educational standing in the international community
.
Actually, I’m not in support of that. I sympathize with those who support that plan in Maine, but I don’t support it myself.
But that’s pretty off-topic, is it not?
Rusty,
Actually, we could avoid this debate if we just started sexual education at an earlier age, say 3 or 4. We can start teaching about the female orgasm, multiple orgasms, heterosexual sex, homosexual sex, group sex, masterbation and animal sex. That way students will be able to find their authentic sexual identity and know how to deal with these issues by the age of 5 without having to make judgemental decisions about their peers or being constrained by the prejudices of their parents. Agreed?
So was the “gun” part - sort of.
/sarc
So, you do draw the line somewhere? That is good to know.
My college did not have a sex columnist, either.
Don’t most universities offer class on “sexual issues” and “women’s studies” anyway? At dinner with some friends, one mentioned in her college class on “feminist issues” (a “gen ed” class) she had to - on the first day - construct a vagina out of modeling clay.
There are therapists, there are support groups, there are hovels on the internet where people can go to discover their sexual identity and discuss these issues. Pornography is never acceptable in public and has nothing to do with one’s “sexual identity” unless they want to be a porn star - in which case it’s pretty stupid to drop tens of thousands of dollars on a Yale “education”.
And, if I remember from another thread, my “sexual identity” (and the “sexual identity of all those who believe in abstinence, chaste living, and do not use birth control) was criticized as being oppressive, backward, and outdated.
When Yale counters Sex Week with Modesty Week - then we’ll talk. Otherwise, this screams indoctrination into the Culture of the Groin.
To you! I personally don’t want to hear about anyone’s sex life. What people do in their bedrooms and in private is none of my business.
jsr,
I know you’re making a joke but I don’t really get it. If you want to joke about when to teach people in school comprehensive sexual education, fine. I think high school with basic sex ed in middle school. Surely, many of you will disagree (all the studies showing abstinence-only sex education to be ineffective be damned).
But we’re talking about college students here. 18-to-22-year-olds, very few of whom will be virgins. Some of the events are educational, some are, admittedly, vapid and lame, and one of the events is a charity function.
What is so terrible about that? What am I missing?
Well, shouldn’t we expect more from a “prestigious” college?
Why do we let places of higher education to lower themselves?
So don’t attend these functions! There are plenty of women interested in achieving orgasm and plenty of couples who will want to hear what advice Dr. Ruth has to give.
You’re probably right that this will happen at Yale. EQ, you’ve mentioned your Catholicism before. I assure you there is a Catholic group at Yale. There’s no reason for them not to make a stink about this and to promote their take on sexuality.
But it should be noted that married couples have been using Dr. Ruth’s help for decades.
Must be Freud week or the like.
Rusty; are you perverted?
I admire you EQ. You chose/choose the high road. You know, it is like having McCain forced on you. You have to just shut up and go with the flow. Even a dead fish can float downstream.
It is amazing to me how the human race survived prior to “sex education”. No, somehow we are supposed to believe that this tripe from Yale is supposed to benefit the human race.
Since when? My wife and I enjoy a great relationship without bringing porn into it. Oh, wait, I need yet another moral authority telling me I am denying myself and my wife of something “normal”.
The pornography. The implicit mentality that anything goes when it comes to sex - while ignoring the very real mental, emotional, and social ramifications of the same.
People clamor for “freedom” and the license to do whatever they want, to whomever they want, and if they could just have a little more freedom, push the envelope just a bit more, they’ll acheive supreme happiness.
But it never happens. Why? Because when the “freedom” to have libertine and promiscuous sex knows no bounds, it becomes a vice. They chase something - love, companionship, satisfication - and it always eludes them.
And people become slaves to that vice. And it causes disease, unhappiness, and problems for individuals as well as society.
There is no place for ponography in public discourse. If these college kids (who are all adults, by the way) want to watch porn, let them do it in their dorm rooms and on their own dime. Let them get on the Internet and find a support group, or a therapist, or a message board that will help them explore their sexuality. Women have problems? Let them go to the doctor and discuss it there.
The fees of all students - even those who object - are going to pay for this drivel. And, as other college campuses have demonstrated, those who disagree didn’t even bother to wage a counter-argument because it would be shut down. Dissent is rarely, if ever, tolerated on college campuses if it questions the modus operandi of the liberals in charge.
Is that what they’re calling it now? Kids these days . . .
Sounds eerily Clintonesque. I wonder if Slick Willy will drop in for a lecture on “What a Husband Wants: Or, How to Get Sucked Off in the Oval Office by a 20-something intern.”
I wonder if they will let me audit some of these classes?
I’m not even gonna complain about the porn; its negative side-effects (e.g. sexism, objectification of women) are way too obvious from that schedule snippet!
Mine didn’t.
If sex is the goal of college, why pay $50K for it? Get a hooker, a man whore, and a dog, and see which you like best. It will cost a fraction of the price and you get the same result.
Wow! Pornography is a subject of the human condition? That answers so many questions, about so many issues.
As a libertarian regarding social/cultural issues and other matters involving personal freedom, I say who cares? Participate in Yale’s Sex Week. Don’t participate. Protest Sex Week. Whatever.
eq, have you ever been to Yale or known a student or graduate from Yale? Your comment suggests the answer to be no.
At my college we didnt need a sex week or sex classes.We just needed a partner.
Shouldn’t the kids have learned all this in grade school?
What colleges are you referring to? Because my school, American University, had an editorial in the paper condemning the Pizza and Porn event. There were complaints about the sex columnist (including my own). And the pro-life group covered the quad in little flags representing aborted fetuses. The Palestine and Israel exhibits on the Quad were both on the receiving end of protests.
My school was so liberal that I came off as the conservative voice of reason in a ton of classes. Yet no one ever stifled dissent. I know one school is a ridiculously small sample size, but other than some schools using “free speech zones” (which are ridiculous and awful), I can’t think of any school actively stifling dissent.
EQ, a huge majority of college students don’t share your concerns. They want to experiment with sex and want to watch pornography. Why should the majority of students be disqualified from going to the seminars they want to attend?
Okay, now - so the qualifier in this discussion is whether or not we went to or know someone from Yale? Guess that means 99% of the people commenting here are unqualified to discuss this topic.
*sigh*
Yet another example of the unbridgable chasm, of the irreconcilable differences, between two polar opposite worldviews.
Yet another example of:
If it has to be explained to someone why a strictly casual, public approach to sex is devastating for society - because irresponsible, immature people soak porn in and then run uncontrollably wild, and ruin their lives as well as others’ and others’ loved ones’ lives; even though the responsible, mature, stable folks ignore the porn - well, that someone will never, ever understand…and most likely does not want to understand.
This is not a vicitmless activity.
But, again, one worldview does not, can not, and will not want to understand that.
Is that question supposed to mean something???
Many people graduated from Yale without this “educational” garbage. Are you trying to suggest that they were not rounded students until now?
Decades of waste from Yale - go figure.
But what if you or your partner couldn’t achieve orgasm? What if your sex life wasn’t satisfactory to one of the participants? What if you or your partner didn’t understand the other’s sexual preferences?
#43 englishqueen01:
Don’t bother feeding them; they are
slyly trying to - surprise! - change the topic and focus of discussion.
Then let them do it on their own dime and their own time. I prefer to live a chaste sexual life and I was lambasted for being some sort of prude.
As someone said above - people figured out sex for thousands of years before Yale’s “Sex Week”. Yet today people seem constantly dissatisfied with everything.
As I said above, it always seems that just getting a little more “experimentation” will make people happy, and it doesn’t. So perhaps the solution is not to do this.
I suppose the objectification of women in porn is okay as long as it helps the “majority” with sex issues, right?
And if Yale students get any sort of Federal Aid, my tax dollars are going to fund this - so I have a right to object.
I have to say, while I really can’t see the point of this Sex Week, who cares what these Yale students get up to? Right now there are far more pressing issues to deal with in the world at large. Let’s not get all islamist about this.
englishqueen01 (#34) Brilliantly said.
Rusty (#46) Then there are a million and one ways that those private issues could be handled privately.
I don’t like the implication that because I had a Playboy under my bed when I was 15 or that I bought a pornographic film when I turned 18 that I’m some kind of sex-crazed lunatic.
Pornography doesn’t cause rape or sexual assault any more than guns cause murder.
True. But there’s still a demand for this kind of service. Otherwise Dr. Ruth seminars wouldn’t attract huge audiences.
Let’s see - therapists, books, adult toy stores, oh - and communication (i.e., actually talking to the person you’re hooking up with) might also be a solution. If not, go to the doctor - the reason may be medical.
If you’re not comfortable exploring options for achieving satisfaction privately with your partner - you shouldn’t be having sex with them.
I find it rather ironic that the same people who think laws and morals shouldn’t invade the privacy of their bedroom have no problem dragging their bedroom and sexual dysfunction into the public sphere.
Antaradus (#49) Because this is bigger than what “these Yale students are up to.” This is representative of a much larger trend in modern America. It speaks of the manner in which sex and all things sexual are being normalized as ‘just what kids do.’ Rusty partly wrote this off by saying that there are probably few virgins in college anyway. I don’t know if that’s true, I was a virgin in college, but even if Rusty is right, is it okay that college kids have all had sex? Instead of working to expose them to more and more sex, perhaps should we work to lead them to a safer, more chaste lifestyle instead?
I guess if this keeps them from betraying the troops or running their mouths off about sweatshops, let ‘em watch porn.
And that’s the responsibility of a high priced college?
Ridiculous.
It’s not meant as a joke, it was meant as sarcasm.
First liberals are always trying to expand the scope of sex education. Obama came out in favor of sex eduction in kindergarten. What this would include I cannot possibly imagine, but it would not suprise me to see liberals teaching that homosexual relationships being just another lifestyle choice, which may be in direct conflict with the views of their parents.
Then there is this business about authentic self and sexual identity. I hear this alot but it just seems like another excuse to endlessly discuss sex. Liberals may have a a hard time believing it but not everybody likes to discuss and analyze every aspect of their sexuality in a public forum. True, these seminars are not mandatory. The problem is there are many in the education that are trying to push these things into high school education curriculum. Holding these seminars in a highly respected institution of higher education sets the stage to move them into public schools.
If students feel the need to explore their sexuality at these type of forums they are free to do so outside of the university. There are an endless supply of sex therapists that specialize in this that are happy to accomodate them.
I could not care less whether someone likes an implication.
And we are not talking about a stroke magazine under someone’s bed, or someone buying a skin flick.
The fact that, in past days, such stuff was not done publicly helped keep it under some degree of control, for the good of society. A sense of shame can be good and helpful…and one big problem we have in society today is the lack of shame.
We are talking - or at least I thought we were - about the loud, public, in-your-face, feeding-the-sex-addict discussion and display of sex.
Americas No1 schrool of higher YEARNING!
Too funny.
Rusty (#52) Then people should be willing to pay out-of-pocket for these seminars and any other help they think they need in the bedroom.
Why should those who are oppposed be exposed to this as well. You argue that they can just avoid it, but I highly doubt the possibility of that. While I have never attended Sex Week at Yale, I do know from my own college experience that these things are generally prominently displayed. At the university I attended there is a yearly Gay Pride week which features loud, prominent, unavoidable displays and activities on the quad. Unless I wanted to skip meals and classes for a week, I had to be subjected to these events.
There certainly are troublesome aspects to pornography becoming as gigantic as it is. But that’s the problem. It’s too big for people to be ashamed about it. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry. It’s hard to be ashamed of something that so many people consume.
Porn is very much out in the open now. Like it or not, it can’t be shoved back into its hiding place.
As long as people can tell the difference between fantasy and reality, porn is mostly harmless. So an optional discussion of it at a college campus seems more than reasonable.
Rusty (#61) - I beg your pardon, porn is absolutely not harmless. Porn can lead to serious addictions. I have known people with and without porn addictions who can attest to the destructive effects. It leads to problems with anger and anxiety, it causes people to abandon their faith, it causes husbands to become distant from their wives and families, it numbs people to sex which often leads to extramarital affairs and dangerous sexual expolits. And on and on and on.
What you’re arguing is that schools wither feature events that you agree with or no events at all. It isn’t wild assumption to guess that the majority of students want Sex Week to happen. So that means you and the like-minded minority are out of luck. If you don’t like it, protest!
Or the school never features a Gay Pride Week or Sex Week. And they prevent people from having pro-Israel, pro-Palestine, or pro-life rallies. That seems like a pretty dull campus life that doesn’t ask its students to take a stand on any issues. That’s not the college experience I would want.
Seems to me you are a bit confused. So which is it? Is porn a part of sexuality or is it optional?
It’s a multi-billion dollar industry and most of its millions of consumers are doing fine.
A lot of Republicans argue the exact opposite when it comes to guns. “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Well, I think the same applies to porn. Porn doesn’t make people sex-crazed. Sex-crazed people get too into porn.
Given the weather; Is this wise?
Thinks about getting a raccoon coat and infiltrating.
Threesomes are part of sexuality too. Doesn’t mean I engage in them. Same for homosexuality. Same for, I dunno, weird sexual positions. Just because there are aspects of sexuality that you, I, and countless others don’t engage in doesn’t mean it doesn’t fall under the tent of sexuality.
Rusty (#63) - How are the choices either open, unavoidable controversial events or none at all? If a private organization wanted to host gay pride week and host events that aren’t on public display, enjoy. Why should I have to encounter two drag queens simulating sex on my walk to class? It was my understanding that universities are meant for higher education and conferring of degrees. “Sexual identity,” as you put it, was not on my curriculum.
Funny how when the majority votes on something like gay marriage, or the majority favors restrictions on abortion, or the majority votes for someone like George W. Bush the “majority rule” notion is tossed out the window. Or when 250,000 pro-lifers show up, and it’s labled a “minority” not worthy of news coverage or respect.
I guess now the defnition of “majority” and “minority” are clearly defined - either group has weight so long as they support liberal policies, ideologies, and inappropriate behavior such as pornography and Sex Week.
Otherwise, the “majority” is evil and oppressive and the “minority” is unimportant. Got it.
I guess I don’t know how to word this one (help me out anyone who knows what I’m trying to say) but Rusty’s porn is to perversion as guns are to violence argument just isn’t working for me. A person doesn’t get ideas of violence from looking at a gun. I just don’t how to word this one better. (Don’t you just hate when working gets in the way of MM time!)
I wonder how the Muslim students feel about this exploitation of values in which they cannot partake. Sharia law will an end to this type of behavior.
Can we assume that Rusty also indulges or promotes online porn?
Maybe the Malkin website isn’t kinky enough for ya!
So you don’t want anything you disagree with to be in public? Come on.
And EQ, Yale isn’t Middle America. It’s a coastal school that is overwhelmingly liberal. And since the average American across the entire country, “Middle America” included, loses their virginity at 16 or 17, then the majority of Yale students are sexually active. Which makes me think they wouldn’t share your objections.
So the argument is that pornography causes perversion? I guess it’s a chicken and the egg thing. Does pornography cause perversion or is pornography a visualization of fantasies that people already have?
I think it’s clear that answer is the latter. Porn is many things. But, primarily, it’s a business. And things that don’t sell aren’t going to be in these movies.
I very much doubt that people watch porn, see a threesome and think “Wow! I never thought about that! Two ladies and a dude! How novel!”
That is the argument for NAMBLA. It is “just part of sexuality”. Having sex with children? Sex with dogs? Just part of sexuality? By your admission - yes. There are just no bounds for you are there. We can make an excuse for all deviant behavior as “just part of sexuality”.
EQ nailed it. Just because the minority does things that used to be considered taboo, does not mean they are acceptable as the norm. This falls under – shifting baselines. Don’t look back and see how it used to be. Just look at the now and admire the “beauty” of it.
Example: I am a diver. In the 30 plus years that I been diving I have seen less and less habitat and aquatic fish in the areas I dive. Today, a new diver might think it wonderful to see a tropical fish while diving until I explain there used to be millions everywhere.
Now, take the sexual experience. Somehow it is cheapened unless you have toys and videos and all kinds of Dr. Ruth help. If this is true (and it is NOT), where has the experience gone? I will tell you. Just the value of being with someone you enjoy can be the most gratifying of all. To be with the person and not need/require stimulation from an outside source says volumes.
The answer to the question (about porn) that you would not answer is: OPTIONAL (and certainly not needed).
Yale University
Welcome to Babylon
#70 On February 11th, 2008 at 12:01 pm, RaisedRight said:
“A person doesn’t get ideas of violence from looking at a gun.I just don’t how to word this one better.”
Not bad at all, RaisedRight.
But, don’t waste your time.
The other worldview WILL NEVER understand, CANNOT understand, and DOES NOT WANT to understand.
The other worldview engages in sophistry, confusuion & diversion, and plays heads-I-win-tails-you-lose.
The other worldview is like the prosecutor at a witchcraft trial; they cannot be argued with.
And, the other worldview is just fine with cultural parasitism - just mock, scorn, destroy, erode the society/culture; and build, add, contribute nothing helpful nor useful…absolutely nothing.
Their worldview is their religion - their denial of that notwithstanding.
They will never, ever, ever understand.
I don’t know that quite as many folks fantasize about committing murder with their guns, as, let’s say, some guys fantasize about finding a hot female and rutting like wild animals. Problem being, if they can’t find a willing hot female, they may end up finding an unwilling victim. I see it far too often with my work in the justice system.
Raised,
See, Rusty cannot get the idea that looking at a gun does not visually excite someone like looking at porn does. He still thinks his comparison is equivalent. You and I (and most people here) will agree his argument is way off base.
Nice that you exposed it though!
Rusty,
From this and other threads we can conclude you are in favor of free condoms at universities, free birth control at universities, free porn at univerities, free sex seminars at universities. Just what do you think the mission of the university is? Does have anything to do with improving the mind?
Raised Right:
I agree. First, no one - not even I - is calling for a full-scale ban on pornography the way people call for a ban on guns; even though it’s likely the same percentage of rapists who are “inspired” by porn to rape is probably similar to the percentage of law-abiding gun owners who kill (both being low percentages).
There is also a Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing people the right to bear arms - there is no Constitutional Amendment for porn (even the First is a stretch).
I also believe it is liberals who blame video games like Grand Theft Auto for violence, and are incapable of separating the “fantasy” from “reality” - which Rusty says we should do with porn (separate the fantasy from the reality).
Where do you get your numbers on how “many people consume” porn. You can’t go on item counts or dollar figures, since it is not necessarily indicative of actual persons, because people addicted to porn buy/consume huge amounts for their personal libraries.
Well, since children and animals can not give consent, than, no, I don’t see how you can compare beastiality with something like sex between two consenting adults.
Yes, no (should be subsidized in health care), no, yes.
The mission of the university is to help make the transition from young adults to full-fledges adults. That means learning how to deal with those with opposing viewpoints, how to deal with sexuality, and finding an area of learning to specialize in.
If it were just four more years of high school then it wouldn’t be worth the money. Instead it’s an opportunity for people to live away from home and deal with all the new responsibilities that come with it. (Remembering to buy soap, learning how to eat healthy and avoid the Freshman 15, and, yes, learning how to be a good partner both sexually and romantically.)
Oh, EQ, doesn’t even get me started. Senators Lieberman and Clinton are huge on blaming video games. I guess their argument is that video games inherently target youthful consumers. Which may have been true in 1989, but not anymore.
But, yeah, I totally agree with that post. Guns are demonized by the Left, violent video games are demonized by both sides of the aisle, and pornography is demonized the the social branch of the Right.
I think all three opinions don’t give people an awful lot of credit. Almost everyone can separate fantasy from reality.
It’s all part of the Secular-Progressive thought process of how we should not judge others on their behaviors. Of course, that only works one way. They are more than willing to cast their judgement on someone who does not agree with their S-P view. I don’t know that George Lakoff or his friends would ever admit to that. LOL
It’s sooooo scary how culturally and morally empty and dead - how…European - comment #82 sounds.
So sad….
Rusty (#82) I guess we disagree there. You seem to list all those college objectives equally. I would agrue that a student who uses college to learn how to be a good sexual partner is wasting his time and (parent’s) money. I went through college without the type of sexual education that you deem so vital, and yet here I am, a full-fledged adult in a happy marriage.
Empty as in vacuous or as in void, granite?
Oh! Of course not. Where are all the campus feminists concerned about the objectification of women?
Porno Pros are a source of information to “reconcile serious issues”?
Sounds like the same thing as having heroin or meth addicts on campus to talk to the curious about how to bring addiction into one’s young life “knowledgeably”.
Utter crap. Fire this perverted filth that developed this nonsense.
What a load of crap…no more than another example of the left driving America down the waste pipe to the cesspool.
#87 On February 11th, 2008 at 12:37 pm, Barry F. said:
“Empty as in vacuous or as in void, granite?”
You got that right!
“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.”
I’m amazed anyone believes that hormone-driven college kids need to be encouraged to think and talk about sex.
Except that, according to you, those ‘responsibilities’ don’t involve paying for their condoms, their birth control pills, their porn, and their sex seminars.
When I was considered an adult - I paid for everything. My rent. My car. My credit card bills. My cell phone. My health insurance.
No tax dollars bought me birth control, or sent me to a seminar to “explore my sexuality.” Because that’s my responsibility.
If I want to have the freedom to consent to sex as an adult, I have the responsibility to pay for it.
Otherwise, it is exactly like four more years of high school.
So, by my count there are two here, Rusty and dakine (who vacated after one really dumb comment) that think we need “educating”. Well, if truth holds to form concerning liberal mentality - Rusty wins the debate!
/just funning!
Some, yeah. Which is a shame.
Personally I treat the heterosexual couple that gets married out of high school, the homosexual couple, or an open relationship equally. Whatever works for that individual is fine by me.
That’s where I think there’s a problem. Why equate pornography with drug use? Heroin and cocaine are incredibly physically addictive and personal destruction with continued use is inevitable. So it’s nothing like pornography. At all.
Well, if this person is using college for only that purpose, then, yeah. If Sex Week meant everyone got a week off from classes then I’d have a problem with it too. But all of those goals I mentioned can be met at once. I figured out how to avoud saturated fat, save money on groceries, get involved in issues that mattered to me…all while maintaining a good grade point average and soaking in whatever I was learning in class. It’s not a zero-sum sort of thing.
Rusty,
So this should be part of college curriculum because without it one may not be a sexually satisfied adult? What about the majority of Americans that do not attend college? Presumably we should be sending them to sex seminars in high school so they too can have satisfying sexual relationships. Or are only the college educated entitled to sexual fulfillment?
LOL
Good point. Unfortunately, what college is for must also be balanced by pragmatism. When people treat sexuality irresponsibly, the potential harm is too great. An unwanted child, or an abortion, or an incurable STD. It’s in the school’s best interest to prevent those things from happening.
Churchill would sooner get fired. Oh, wait!
There is hope you may get your wish. I, along with you, will not be:
holding.my.breath
You could not have just dumbed down your debate any more than to say the above comment. You want to equate porn with guns. But equating porn (which can be addictive) with drug use (which can be addictive) does not work for you. I only use “can be” because if we want to be honest we could use “is” but you would start a whole new debate.
Keep going because you are making yourself out to be more of a laughing stock than you already are.
Pervert.
…And Soap, you can add this one to the equation:
And we are back to no personal responsibility.
Hasn’t Yale really missed out here? Why no “Sex with Interns While Running the Free World” seminars with Alum Bill himself? Or a “Fighting Global Warming with Icy Stares in the Bedroom” seminar with Alum Hill?
How the school will be able to determine whether or not the students actually use birth control is beyond me… Oh wait.
30,
I love the “An unwanted child”. There are NO unwanted children just unwanted pregnancies. All children are wanted by someone. We just took in 7 more “unwanted” girls!
*Pffffffft*
There went my soft drink all over my desk calendar! ROFLMAO
englishqueen01 (#92) Once again, brilliant point.
Soap,
Exactly. People want to live a consequence free life and when they find out there is no such thing their whole world is turned upside down.
Joseph Citarella didn’t put that in his letter. It’s all just fun and games.
box, you calling one of my comments “dumb” is the height of irony. You’re about the most vacuous individual on this site.
Here’s my position: I don’t care. Libertarian view (think Neal Boortz) on the subject of personal choices made by consenting adults. Individual freedom to live your life free of governmental interference or the self-righteous moral sermonizing of religious zealots.
And God Bless you Soap for the wonder work you are doing.
Do we have to think about Neal Boortz?
Excellent point. Sorry for using the phrase “unwanted children.”
Time to re-read Gov. Lamm’s essay again, on his plan to destroy America…
–Ken
Thanks
No one needs to learn about sex.
Consequences? yes.
Dogs, cats, skunks, elephants, do it and no one had to teach them.
Idiots.
cRusty: This is a know-nothing position you are promoting.
Drug addiction and alcoholism go hand in hand with the pornography industry.
Many of the “stars” might be “clean”. But for every “Vivid” mainstream “star” there are plenty who are either dead, strung out, or infected.
Also, the use of “paid sex-workers” is the same as the use of mules and soldiers to bring the drugs to market. Women and men are killed in that undertaking….and if it isnt physical death there is a psychic death that occurs for the sake of the masturbating public who cannot cultivate human relationships that include sexual intercourse and sensual communion with human beings.
The money in pornography is huge. And as far as the end users are concerned…. i will say this: there are two kinds of people in the world- those who don’t use pornography and those who need to.
And many who do “use pornography” do so with their civilized bottles of wine that they use to prove they aren’t alcoholics. Or who use their prescription drugs to prove they are not junkies.
And some just use pornography so they “feel better” (a little inferiorization goes a long way to turn the sexual function into a form of self-medication.)
The industry and use of pornography is part of a social narcissism complex that is based on addictive complulsions needed to substitute for the lack of spiritual meaning, compensate for the cynicism of liberal fascist rationalizations (cRusty’s philosophy), and material affluence.
Rationalizing smut as some kind of pragmatic approach to the social rot of dysfunction on college campuses is inane.
You are in over your head on this one (again).
Now what time is your next class, cRusty? Or are you an intern this semester.
All moral codes aside….
…. does anyone really believe that porn can teach people how to be romantic and anything remotely good their sexuality has got a serious screw loose.
and Rusty…
“Deal ” with sexuality…..don’t even know what to say about that one…..
Let’s try:
EQ, have you ever had sex without porn mags? Your comment suggests the answer to be no.
Congruent? I should say so - both being equally dumb.
No, it isn’t. It’s in the best interest of the student’s responsibility. That’s part of being an adult. It’s in the best interest of the college to inform these students of their choices, their responsibilities, and the consequences of their actions (for example, that sex – even protected sex – can lead to pregnancy or STDs). And even that’s pushing it - sexual behavior and consequences should be taught by parents, at home, long before colleges get involved.
Then they can make the fully informed decision to engage in behavior which may lead to undesired consequences.
Saying, “Well, if you don’t let college kids have access to birth control and sex seminars, they’re going to jack up your insurance rates or they’re going to have abortions” is emotional blackmail. Not paying for one’s medical treatment after contracting an STD or threatening to have (or actually having) an abortion just reaffirms the notion that these people are not adults capable of behaving accordingly, but rather overgrown adolescents.
The mentality that “they’re just going to do it anyway” or that the school needs to discourage irresponsibility is a slippery slope. If people want to be adults, they need to act like adults. Otherwise, they’re nothing more than perpetual adolescents who look to their colleges, their employers, and – eventually – the government to play Nanny and tell them what they can or cannot do.
If you turn over control for things like your birth control over to a governing body – any governing body – you’re essentially telling said body that they can make decisions for you because you either 1) aren’t capable of making decisions on your own or 2) can’t be bothered to take care of yourself.
Which naturally opens wide the door for that governing body to make even more decisions for you. And, eventually, someone is going to come into power in that governing body who decides she/he doesn’t like the status quo and enacts policies people aren’t going to like – policies that really restrict one’s behavior.
So…Gayle…