Students enrolled in a course on sexual communication at North Carolina State University participated in an on-campus sex fair last week.
The well-attended event — designed to look like a typical school science fair — featured 13 booths decorated with all manner of sexual apparatus, reports the Technician, N.C. State’s student newspaper.
The fair was the final class project as well as a graded assignment. Students who entered the winning project received permission to skip the final exam.
The winner was determined by attendees, who received a voting ticket upon entry.
Each booth was a themed affair, managed by a group of students in the class.
For example, one group’s theme was discerning sexual myths from sexual facts.
“We get so much of our information from places like the internet,” said senior Alaina Beck, a member of the group, according to the Technician. “It’s kind of scary that we take so many things at face value.”
Another group focused on sadomasochism education.
“There’s a lot of negative stigma around S&M,” junior Sarah Alston Trent told the Technician. “It isn’t just about hurting each other; it’s more about an intimate connection. It’s more intense than a typical sexual relationship.”
At another festively adorned booth, sexual arousal was the focus. There were rose petals and red candles; there were two breast-shaped chocolate cakes; there was a modified roulette wheel suggesting a variety of sexual activities and positions.
Senior Ravyn Tyndall handed out a lotion that causes a warming effect when you rub it in your hands and then blow on them. Tyndall pointed out the many benefits of the lotion, the Technician reports, including its attractive low price.
Still another group chose to feature the benefits of sex education in schools.
“We would rather have that awkward conversation with your kids than have to help them raise a kid,” senior Julia Venegas told the Technician.
At the sex education booth, Venegas and her group members offered attendees the opportunity to outfit a banana with one of several condoms strewn on the table.
The N.C. State professor who teaches the course is Dr. Kami Kosenko. In addition to organizing sex fairs, she has been a recipient of a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.