Sexy Week encourages more than sex education

Delta Force’s Sexy Week kicked off with “Sexy is Ourselves” on Monday

By Jessica Wicks

Published on Tue., April 29th, 2008

Students colored pictures of vaginas and penises on Wescoe Beach Monday to kick off Delta Force’s Sexy Week.

The pictures were meant to educate students about their own bodies.

“Sexy is ourselves,” Elise Higgins, Topeka sophomore, said. “It is important to know what we look like all over.”

Each day of the week, Delta Force has a new definition for sexy. Monday was “Sexy is Yourself.”.

“Personally, I wouldn’t feel comfortable coloring vaginas on campus, but maybe I should,” John Cross, Kansas City, Mo., senior, said.

Cross said that it was interesting to see how little people were willing to talk about sex beyond a joke.

“A lot of people can’t talk about it beyond your mom did something funny last night kind of comments,” Cross said.

Delta Force, which used to run as a student senate coalition, gave up its senate aspirations this semester and focused on two campus issues: Environmental Sustainability and Sexual Health and Safety.

But Sexy is not only defined by Delta Force. They have teamed up with a different organizations each day of the week to help them send a new message about sexuality.

Brendan Shaw, Milwaukee, Wis., junior, said that sex was multi-dimensional.

“It is something that people think they know a lot about,” Shaw said, “but they miss out on many of the nuances and the fact that sex is complicated.”

Shaw said that a lot of students just simplified it down to whether or not they had a sex life. He said that many students didn’t know what they looked like down there.

“You have to know yourself before you can make decisions about other people,” Shaw said. “Plus, sex isn’t always with another person.”

On Monday, Queers and Allies showed a video called, “But I’m a Cheerleader,” in which a cheerleader comes out as a homosexual.

“We didn’t want to exclude sexuality outside of what is considered the normative,” Shaw said.

Higgins said that much of the week’s events stemmed from Dennis Dailey’s Human Sexuality class that promoted communication about sex as an important step in understanding sex.

“That is why we invited him to speak for “Sexy is Communication” day on Tuesday.”

Higgins said that Delta Force realized that not all sexual experiences were positive. Sexy Week collaborates with groups such as The GaDuGi SafeCenter, Women’s Transitional Care and the campus group One in Four because they felt that sexual responsibility should be a main focus of their campaign.

“All of these organizations deal with issues where consent hasn’t happened,” Higgins said, “and it is so important to highlight that aspect of it.”

Higgins said if students could just open a dialogue about sex, they would learn valuable lessons.

“Whether they are having sex or not, sexuality is a huge deal to all students at the university level,” Higgins said.

Andrea Peterson, Manhattan sophomore, colored a rainbow vagina Monday.

“Actually, it is just the inner lift that is rainbow,” Peterson said. “I am not homosexual, I just thought it would be cool.”

Peterson said that she didn’t learn much about sex in high school, so now she was learning about sex here.

“Plus we have coloring books and condoms!” Peterson said.

Students can pick up free condoms all week courtesy of The Watkins Health Center and Douglas County Aids Project, and the week will be topped off with “Sexy is Fun” on Friday, when they will have “Sex, Lies and Chocolate”, a social event.

“No one knows sexy better than Delta Force,” Cross said, “and that is why we feel the need to educate the University.”

­—Edited by Mandy Earles

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