Sexperts host first SexTalk of winter

By Sophie O ' Mahony | 1/26/12 11:22am

Break ing news, Dart mouth stu dents: Con doms and lube are not just props to be uti lized in the me chan ics of sex ual in ter course. No, they are not. May I in tro duce you to the flu o res­cent-yel low, straw berry-fla vored, glow-in-the-dark, ribbed, stud ded, sen sa tion-en hanc ing va ri eties of con doms? Topped with warm ing yet tin gling lu bri ca tion?

This is the de scrip tion of con doms and lube that was blitzed to the Dart mouth com mu nity by theSex perts, a sex ual health peer-ad vis ing group spon sored by Dart mouth's Health Pro­mo tion De part ment, invit ing stu dents to the first SexTalk of the Win ter term. The blitz was met with in trigue and a mul ti tude of ques tions: Can rub bers re ally be “yummy?" Do I re ally want my gen i tals to glow in the dark? And how do fe male con doms ac tu ally work?

“Our goal is to get peo ple talk ing,” Sha rang Biswas ’12, the cre ator of the SexTalk se ries, said. “When peo ple have these con ver sa tions, sex is de mys ti fied. It’s no longer some thing that’s kept be hind closed doors.”

Per son ally, I was sold on the small print at the end of the blitz — “There may be food.” Choco late-dipped straw ber ries served to us by naked men? A girl can dream.

So I paid a visit to my first SexTalk, which will cer tainly not be my last if the fu ture events are any thing like what I ex pe ri enced in Col lis 101. I walked into a room that was full — the Sex­perts' pre ceded them — and was of fered cook ies and or anges (alas, no nude wait ers. But plenty of choco late and Vi t a min C!).

“Who can tell me the three types of con doms?” Sex pert Lucas Katler ’15 asked.

Er. I kept my head down and ate my cookie in si lence.

The an swer, boys and girls, is latex, poly eth yl ene and an i mal skin. Ew. And what do you do be fore you open a con dom? No funny an swers please. Just sim ply check the ex pi ra tion date.

I’ll be hon est: I stopped tak ing notes for Dart beat and start ing writ ing down every thing the Sex perts told me, be cause de spite my 22 years of age, ap par ently I don’t know every thing about the birds and the bees. But this was one of the most in for ma tive talks that I have ever at tended, told in the most hon est and down-to-earth way. No avoid ing awk ward is sues here. Kids, don’t use tin gling lube when doing anal.

Wooden penises with dif fer ent types of con doms on them were passed around for in spec­tion.

“Please don’t be afraid to touch them, but if you don’t want lube on your hands, just hold them by the wooden balls,” one Sex pert an nounced. Once the ap pe tizer was cleared away, dessert (com plete with nap kins) was passed around: the lu bri cant. I strongly rec om mend the wa ter melon.

“There’s a gen eral lack of aware ness that dis eases can be passed through oral sex,” Biswas ex plained. “So you should use a con dom even then. But fla vored lube can hide the nasty taste of the rub ber.”

Duly noted. What do I do if I have any more ques tions?

“Peo ple can be em bar rassed talk ing about sex stuff, par tic u larly col lege stu dents,” Katler said. “We want to offer peo ple an un bi ased third party to whom they can speak to about ab­solutely any thing.”

An other good re source is theSex perts’ blogwhere stu dents can post ques tions anony­mously.

“Dart mouth in gen eral is a won der fully open col lege,” said Sex pert Holli Weed ’14, who also is Pres i dent of the Real Beauty Ini tia tive and aSAPA-in-train ing. “That’s why I got in volved: I wanted to con tribute to this, as well as im prove stu dents’ aware ness of gen der is sues and sex ual as sault.”

The SexTalk se ries con tin ues its cam paign to im prove sex ual aware ness with an HIV pre sen­ta tion (Mon day, Feb. 6), Sexfest (Wednes day, Feb. 8) and the Know Your Sta tus cam paign (Feb. 6-10).

I learned more that af ter noon than I could pos si bly write down, so I’ll high light what I think are the two most im por tant things: Stay away from the numb ing sen sa tion lu bri cant, and it’s il le gal to have sex in Nevada with out a con dom.

“I found the talk hugely en ter tain ing,” one at tendee said. “Plus they give away so much stuff.”

In deed: I re turned to halls with my ruck sack filled with con doms, lube and or anges. I was a lit tle wiser, a lit tle safer and a lit tle more pre pared.

Cor rec tion ap pended: The orig i nal ver sion of this ar ti cle said Holli Weed '14 is pres i dent of Sex perts, when in fact she is pres i dent of the Real Beauty Ini tia tive.