Emory hosted its first Sex Week Wonderful Wednesday on Feb. 19 after being forced to reschedule the week of events due to last week’s snowstorm that closed the University for three days.
Emory’s Sexual Health Advocacy Group (SHAG) and Emory’s Office of Health Promotion (OHP), along with several other campus organizations, collaborated to organized Sex Week.
Before the previous week’s snowstorm, the group planned Sex Week as a weeklong event on campus, which was to include a variety of activities, including sex trivia and sex education.
But with the unexpected snow, the team had to scatter the events through a few weeks.
“It has been kind of disappointing because we have been working so hard on it,” Dixon said.
The specific programs the organizations planned included a speehc called “How to Lose Your Virginity” by Youtube celebrity Laci Green, a poetry reading by poet and Assistant Professor of English/Creative Writing Jericho Brown, “Sex Trivia,” “SexEd101,” and “Q and A with Hanne Blank.”
College sophomore Emily Dixon, president of SHAG, and SHAG member and College senior Rachel Ezrol coordinated the week’s events, particularly “Sex Trivia” and “Misconceptions About Contraception.”
The event also invited speakers such as Laci Green, the YouTube phenomenon who hosts a channel discussing sexuality, and writer and public speaker Hanne Blank, to promote healthy sexuality on campus, according to Dixon.
Despite the unexpected delay in hosting the events, the team pushed on by putting on Sex Week Wonderful Wednesday.
The event included free food and drinks, gifts like iPhone cases and laptop stickers, sex-themed cakes and free condoms and lubricant.
Ezrol gave credit to several organizations on campus, which also helped SHAG and the Office of Health Promotion in organizing the week’s events.
“The Office of Health Promotion has been a huge support for us and a great resource to find speakers and sponsors,” Dixon said.
“But all of these other organizations have also helped to make this work, and contributed in different ways to get the word out.”
Sarah Corrigan, first-year graduate student in Candler School of Theology, noted the importance of providing college students with this experience and common misconceptions of students regarding “sex talk.”
“College students tend to think that sexual education was an awkward lecture that happened in high school,” Corrigan said.
“But it is important to recognize that sexual education and identity are ongoing processes that need attention and care.”
Ezrol expressed her satisfaction with the turnout of Sex Week Wonderful Wednesday.
“Considering the craziness associated with the date change, we were ultimately really excited with how things turned out,” Ezrol said. “People seemed to enjoy the food, drinks, activities, and swag.”
– By Catherine Pilishvili
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