Dr. Robin Sawyer, a health educator at the University of Maryland and sexuality specialist, said in a speech last night that improved communication will help prevent date rape.
Sawyer's speech, titled "Let's Talk About Sex: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," took place last night in Collis Common Ground and kicked off Sexual Assault Awareness Week.
Sawyer began the discussion by asking the audience of about 30 people to consider how they communicate about sex.
"Communication of sexuality is especially difficult on college campuses," Sawyer said.
He said many of people's problems talking about sex stem from where they learn about it, according to Sawyer.
He said most people learn about sex from friends and television rather than from parents or in school. This process leads to people's problems in talking about sex. Sawyer said friends often are not an adequate source of information.
People learn from television that only glamorous, good-looking people have sex, he said.
Television depicts an exaggerated degree of sex taking place outside of monogamous relationships, Sawyer said. He cited statistics which reveal there is an 87 percent infidelity rate portrayed on television compared to the actual infidelity rate of 20 percent in American society.
Television also offers a particularly inaccurate portrayal of loss of virginity, Sawyer said. "On television, people always lose their virginity in California on a beach. That's the norm," he said. "Little wonder why people arrive at Dartmouth confused!"
Sawyer said date rape is a major consequence of the lack of communication about sexuality. He said the problem is exaggerated when sex is combined with alcohol abuse.
Sawyer said a common misconception is that date rape can be eradicated simply if women are clear about their decision whether to have sex and if men listen to that decision.
"It all still comes down to 'he said-she said,' because no one knows exactly what goes on behind closed doors," Sawyer said.
Date rape would decrease if women and men understood each other better, he said.
"There is virtually no verbal communication during mating situations," he said. "Therefore, each gender makes incorrect assumptions about the other gender which often leads to sexual assault."
A second consequence of inhibited communication concerning sex is unwanted pregnancies, Sawyer said.
He said 10 female students at the University of Maryland take pregnancy tests every academic day and 40 percent of these tests are positive.
