Universities are puritanical and stifle healthy discussions of sex, claims Cosmopolitan.
Throughout 2013, there have been numerous sex-themed events on college campuses. Many universities, including the University of Chicago, commemorated Valentine’s Day by hosting such events as “Sex for Kids” and “Anal 101.”
A student group at North Carolina State University gave away condoms, dildos, and butt plugs at a sex-themed bingo game. And educators hosted numerous lectures about sex, sexuality, and porn — including Brown University’s workshop designed to help gay minority students confront their sexual desire for white students.
But in Cosmopolitan’s view, sex events are an endangered species on college campuses.
“In covering all things sex (from eco-friendly vibrators to penis size) at Cosmopolitan, it’s become clear that sex education is under attack at colleges across the country — and students aren’t taking it lying down,” wrote Natasha Burton in an article titled “Why College Won’t Let You Talk About Sex.”
Burton cites the University of Tennessee’s Sex Week, which raised the ire of a conservative state legislator who eventually persuaded university administrators to rescind public funding for the event. Instead organizers used private donations to pull off the event as planned — blow job lectures and all.
She also laments that Boston College attempted — and failed — to prevent a student organization from passing out free condoms on campus. Boston is private, Catholic institution.
Not all observers agree with Burton’s judgment. Nathan Harden, author of “Sex and God at Yale,” has chronicled the growth of college sex weeks since their inception at Yale University ten years ago, and believes they are stronger than ever.
“The idea that college sex-themed events are in danger in America is absurd,” he wrote in an email to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “On the contrary, never before has so much attention been paid to the topic.”
Administrators have typically encouraged sex weeks. But if universities increasingly decide to forgo public financing of such events, more power to them, Harden said.
“Obviously the college administrators who approve these events believe it’s a good use of their time and resources,” he added. “But I’m not sure parents taking out second mortgages to pay their kids’ tuition would agree.”
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