Correction appended
“If you like female orgasms, let me hear you say ‘oh yeah,’” shouted sex educator Marshall Miller at the beginning of AU’s third annual “I <3 the Female Orgasm.”
The event is a nationwide program designed for college campuses to combine sex education with messages of female empowerment. The Women’s Initiative and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion sponsored the event held in theButler Boardroom on Oct. 3.
“I believe the event teaches us that sex and self love are normal, healthy human experiences that we are meant to enjoy, not feel guilty about,” Women’s Initiative Director Hannah Sydnor-Greenberg said.
Students of all gender identities packed the Butler Boardroom to learn about one of the most taboo, yet widely in-demand sex topics: the big O. The room split up into gender groups as women shared stories about their first orgasm and men shared their conceptions of the female orgasm.
“Sex is such an important component of people’s lives and events like this one allow people to ask questions and explore ways to have better sexual relationships with others and themselves,” Sydnor-Greenberg said.
Many female students said they had never been told about their bodies’ orgasmic capabilities, sharing a range of sad and funny stories. One student said her mother warned her that masturbation would make her vagina ugly.
Kate Weinberg, one of the sexual educators of the night, shifted the focus toward female empowerment, asking students to compile a list of things that contribute to an orgasm. At the top of the list were befriending one’s own body and feeling comfortable in one’s skin.
“I want things to change,” Weinberg said about messages women receive about their bodies.
Women’s Initiative will hold more events about female empowerment this year, including domestic violence awareness campaign in October and a showing of the Vagina Monologues in February.
Correction: A former version of this story misspelled Hawkins’ first name. It has been corrected.
