Sexually Obsessed in Madison

From a column by Rachel Eliasek in the Mendota Beacon, the alternative campus paper at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Sex, much like television, is no longer a part of our culture. It has become our culture. The half-naked dancers in music videos, Abercrombie’s “magalog” displaying everything but clothing, random volunteers handing out free condoms, and the girl I saw walking to class with an “I Love Vaginas” pin.

To further submerge our generation in a pool of sex-obsession, we have wonderful campus programs like Sex Out Loud. Two of Sex Out Loud’s exciting programs include the “Pleasure Program” which discusses “sexual anatomy, communication, sex toys, and pleasing yourself and your partner(s)”, and the brand new “Advanced Pleasure Program” which “[delves] deeper into the world of sexuality, such as porn, erotica, S&M, role-playing, and stirring up sexual imagination.”

And guess what? You’re paying for it! Just a small chunk of change (cough),$57,000, of our student fees go towards this program per year. Recently, Sex Out Loud proposed an increased annual budget in the neighborhood of $70,000. It is absurd that such a large amount of our money is being spent educating college students about “porn, erotica and S&M.” This huge amount of money could be spent elsewhere. If the money must stay with Sex Out Loud, how about more money towards relationships and responsible sex if the organization is so concerned about that? It is not the students’ monetary obligation to teach peers how to get kinky in the bedroom.

Note the “(s)” at the end of “partner.” Apparently not only is chastity considered a hopelessly archaic concept by these folks, so is monogamy!

But one would think that learning to have sexual pleasure is something that people would cheerfully spend their own money on – without asking handouts from fees which are really a tax on students.

Indeed, is it really necessary to have training on “sexual anatomy, communication, and pleasing yourself and your partner?” OK, if you want to throw in “sex toys” and multiple partners, doesn’t the same question hold? Don’t some things come naturally? Even for kinky people?

Is “stirring up sexual imagination” something that Madison students can’t achieve without an expensive training session?

By the way, the money allocated for these events came from the same committee that refused to fund student activities sponsored by the UW Roman Catholic Foundation.