Free condoms, lubricants and information packets filled Collis Commonground for the third annual Sex Festival Monday night. The event, sponsored by the Center for Women and Gender, took place between 5 and 8 p.m. and featured 21 booths represented both on- and off-campus organizations.
The evening was part of a weeklong V-Day series and acted as supplemental programming to Tuesday and Wednesday nights' performances of Eve Ensler's "Vagina Monologues." Ensler started V-Day as a "movement to stop violence against women and girls," according to her website.
The annual Sex Festival began three years ago when the College cut funding for the Center for Women and Gender, and the CWG found itself without the money to hire speakers. The festival is an inexpensive way for student organizations to educate their peers in a relaxed, informal setting.
"So much of sexual education focuses on the negative. It's important to emphasize positive messages about sexuality and sexual decision making," said Wade Meyer, the center's interim outreach coordinator. Meyer co-organized the festival with his supervisor Xenia Markowitt, the center's director.
"We're not promoting sex and sexual activity, but we're promoting informed, healthy decision-making," Markowitt said. "It's a casual atmosphere, and students can feel comfortable to ask questions."
Sexual Abuse Peer Advisors, Panarchy, Soulscribes and the Amarna undergraduate society were among campus groups to set up booths. Off-campus groups included representatives from a Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center human papilloma virus vaccine study, Planned Parenthood and the Women Information Services.
The festival was the only opportunity to purchase tickets for "The Vagina Monologues" and also featured several "latex fairies" that walked around with baskets of condoms. Markowitt said the event is always well received, with about 1,000 visitors each year.
"It's important to have a strong understanding of sex and sexual relationships, and the Sex Festival makes sex interesting and fun," said SAPA Alisha Levine '07.
The SAPA booth featured a "Hot Consensual Sex" board game. Players moved their game pieces ahead if they selected a card like, "You walk someone home and do not hook up with them," but moved backwards if they chose something like, "You ask your boyfriend or girlfriend to go down on you even though they just told you the day before that they don't want to yet."
Armana's table of Play-Doh genitalia allowed students to mold male or female genitalia and sent them away with painted green blown-up condoms on sticks. Panarchy's table was titled, "Where Are Your Erogenous Zones?" at which students pinned a sticker on a paper human cutout. Other booths included a sex toy table sponsored by the CWG.
The festival attracted a diverse array of students, who attended for many different reasons.
"I'm someone who likes to explore sexuality and speak bluntly about it," said Jon Hopper '08, who favored the flavored lubricant booth. Dick's House sponsored the booth to teach the importance and types of lubricants.
"I like anything that makes oral stimulation pleasurable for the giver as well as the receiver," Hopper said.
