Two sex educators helped make AU students life a little more pleasurable Monday night with an interactive lecture on the clitoris, multiple orgasms and so much more.
A diverse group of women and men from the AU community filled the seats of Ward 1 Nov. 16 for a presentation called “I Heart Female Orgasm.”
Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller — co-authors of a book named after the presentation — led the evening with a combination of discussion, sharing, laughter and education about a taboo topic: women’s physical pleasure. Solot said she and Miller are a couple, allowing them to have “both professional and also personal experience” with the subject.
Miller and Solot kicked off the event with some humor from the movie, “When Harry Met Sally.” They showed the clip in which actress Meg Ryan demonstrates a fake orgasm in the middle of a diner. The audience responded with applause and laughter.
“This is a really funny subject,” Solot said to follow up the clip. “And tonight we are actually going to have a chance to laugh and to talk about a subject people don’t get to spend very much time talking about: women’s sexuality and female orgasm.”
This was Miller and Solot’s second year presenting at AU. Miller said the pair gives sexuality presentations at about 50-75 colleges and universities per year. This particular event used to be open only to women, but they decided to open it to people of all genders based on persistent attempts by men to sneak in to the event, according to Solot.
Mark Lyubovitsky, a senior in the School of International Science, said he came to the event with his long-term girlfriend last spring and noticed more men were present this year.
“I think there’s a greater awareness of women’s sexuality,” Lyubovitsky said. “It’s not all about the guys.”
He also recommended more men attend in the future.
In addition to the silly side of orgasms, Solot demonstrated the seriousness of women’s sexuality. She told the story of discovering a cancerous lump in her breast at the age of 26. Solot said familiarity with her own body might have saved her life.
“I am so thankful that I wasn’t one of those women who would have internalized all those messages that it’s bad or dirty or shameful to touch your own body,” Solot said. “Because if I hadn’t absent-mindedly run my hand across my breast that day - and obviously I’d absent-mindedly done exactly the same thing enough times before that I noticed this small lump - who knows how many weeks or months or years would have gone by before somebody noticed I had cancer in my breast.”
The duo also led an interactive discussion about what members of the audience had previously heard about female orgasms, which dispelled rumors and illuminated the concept of “thinking off,” in which a woman climaxes merely through mental fantasy.
Solot criticized some current sexual education programs for focusing only on how to abstain from sex.
“That’s important, absolutely, boys and girls need to know how to say ‘no’ to sex, but if that’s the only thing people ever teach you in your life ... a lot of the women are like, ‘I don’t even know how to think about saying yes to sex in a positive, healthy, responsible way,” Solot said.
In the middle of the event, Miller and Solot split the crowd to have a more private discussion about topics relevant to each gender and to those who chose not to identify as male or female.
After returning from the groups, Miller and Solot wrapped up by explaining the “G-spot,” the scientific arousal cycle, Kegel exercises, multiple orgasms for both males and females, tips on having a first orgasm and an unexpected use for Mattel’s Harry Potter Nimbus 2000 vibrating broomstick.
Though Miller and Solot have not made definite plans to appear at AU again, Miller said he enjoyed working with Women’s Initiative and that he would like to see it become an annual event.
The event was co-sponsored by Women’s Initiative, Queers and Allies, AU Students for Choice, the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, the Wellness Center and the GLBTA Resource Center.
You can reach this staff writer at sparnass@theeagleonline.com.
