Sexual health event aimed to inform and remove stigmas surrounding sex
Students gather to play games and learn at the "It's Not That Weird" event on Monday, Nov. 10.
The sexual education event titled "#ItsNotThatWeird," kicked off the first day of Women’s Empowerment Week hosted by the Organization of Women Leaders on Monday night in Pearce Hall.
Holland senior Jak Grubbs, a member of OWLs, said the main purpose of the event was to inform students about sexual health in a positive and easygoing manner. Grubbs said they are trying to start a movement that erases the stigmas around BDSM, kinks and fetishes — emphasizing safe sex.
“This is a way to bring up the conversation of sex instead of someone like a teacher talking at you about sexual health,” Grubbs said.
The event contained different methods of informing students about sex. There was a game of jeopardy where students learned about gender sexuality, a matching game where each player paired the correct BDSM word with its definition, general informational booths about sexual health and a handful of other activities.
Flint senior Jordan Hayden said she hoped the event would get people talking about sex-related issues because not a lot of students know much about it.
“Kids on college campuses tend to like having sex but not many high schools teach sexual education,” Hayden said. She said she did not know a lot of this information because she did not have sex education in middle or high school.
West Bloomfield sophomore Denna Mafie said the event was important because it aimed to teach people how not to view sex as a shameful act.
“I hope students start looking at sex as a natural part of life,” Mafie said. “Everyone should be more open about that sort of thing rather than repressing it, and a lot of people don’t get the proper education.”
Grubbs said one thing the event tried to highlight was the sexuality of transgender people.
“Last year, the only negative feedback we got was that it wasn’t super inclusive,” Grubbs said. “We touched on the surface of it but we hadn’t really dug into it. No one ever really talks about that so I took it and ran with it, and I’m really excited to teach others about (sexual health among the transgender community).”
