@GusSent tweeted the following which caught my eye:

True headline: Orgasm session fills up Stephens Theater. Nice job, @thetowerlight.

Here are excerpts from the story from The Towerlight he referenced:

Every seat in the Stephens Hall Auditorium was filled Monday night when just less than 700 students and faculty reached the fire code limit for the “I Heart Female Orgasm” event, a nationally popular sex education lecture.

The lecture was given by couple Marshall Miller and Dorian Solot, who travel to universities across the country to teach students almost everything they need to know about female sexuality.
“We really wanted to bring it to campus so people could have fun, laugh, and basically… educate people,” Chris Guzman, director of special projects for University Residence Government, said. “We have a very fun and very healthy campus… I hope that it gave an air of freedom on this campus [to] talk about some more taboo things.”

[...]

According to Guzman, URG is planning on making “I Heart Female Orgasm” an annual event they sponsor. URG president Matt Sikorski also commented that, in the future, the lecture might be held on two different days. Sikorski stated that between 100 and 150 people were turned away after Stephens Hall had already exceeded capacity and an additional day would better accommodate the massive turnout.

“Towson is great… It’s just fun to see an auditorium like this really fill up,” Miller said.

Solot agreed that the students and faculty at Towson proved to be a pleasing audience.

“This was an incredible audience – just a really fun crowd and it seems like Towson is all about the O [orgasm],” she said.

Recently, the editor-in-chief of the Towerlight resigned over an unsigned column discussing masturbation. The remaining editorial staff of the paper issued a statement that included a reference to this orgasm event:

However, many other readers did enjoy the column. And we believe it was not out of context on a campus where the administration delivers free cable pornography to some of its residence halls, celebrates “condom tasting” and “I <3 female orgasm” at public events, and profits from the sale of sexually-oriented magazines and posters at the University Union.

Recently, we blogged about sex toy events held on campus at Towson. This was a follow-up to a story on sex toy events on campus at the University of Maryland in College Park. I appeared on WBAL Radio at the time to discuss this issue.

As previously mentioned, I will be on WBAL radio to discuss this story at 12:30 p.m. today.

I made a post earlier this week about a sex toy event on campus at the University of Maryland in College Park. Since then I’ve done a bit more research and found that these events have taken place on other college campuses in the region, including at least one other school that is part of the University System of Maryland.

The previous post excerpted a Diamondback article that mentioned the name of the person conducting the event was Jacq Jones, who owns a sex shop in Baltimore. Further research reveals that the shop is Sugar in Hampden.

On the left sidebar of Sugar’s website is a link called “Sugarware Parties.” Clicking on this link takes you to a page with the header “Sugar’s ‘Private’ Options!”

These options include parties, private classes, one-on-one coaching, and college presentations.

From the section on college presentations:

Jacq has presented at colleges and universites around the country, including George Mason University, Towson University, University of Maryland College Park, George Washington University and St. Olaf College.

She presents on issues relating to safer sex, pleasure centered safer sex messages, GLBTQ issues, the intersections of feminism and sex toys and her personal story.

Presentations include:

Hot Safer Sex

You’ve learned all about safer sex and STIs right? Well not like this! Jacq will walk you through the basics of STIs and HIV and teach you how to practice safer sex in a manner that is fun, pleasure centered, safe and uses sex toys! This presentation has plenty of time for questions, and offers the chance to pass around toys, learn how to use a dental dam and select your favorite condom.

Feminism, Sex Toys and Capitalism

Sex toys are a huge industry. How does a feminist run a capitalist business that sells products made by an industry that doesn’t always follow feminist values. Jacq will talk about how she constructed her business model, what pit falls she’s encountered and why she belives that profit and feminism can be complementary rather than contradictory.

Lesbian Pastor’s Daughter Opens Sex Toy Store

The above was an actual headline in the local paper when Jacq opened Sugar. How did this happen? Follow Jacq on her journey from pastor’s daughter and youth group president to sex store owner and educator. She’ll talk about learning where her values differed from her parents, how she found her passion and why she still thinks that she and her parents are more the same than different. This is one woman who’s using the hell out of her Women’s Studies degree.

Jacq will also be happy to tailor a class to your specifications and needs. Please contact her for more information, to book an event or to enquire about pricing at jacq@sugartheshop.com

Note the part about pricing for the events. This raises a question of how the funds were obtained at both Towson and College Park to pay for these “presentations” that include some of the things mentioned in the previous post.

Granted, the topic of safe sex is mentioned in the Diamondback article, but many other things are mentioned as well.

Bringing Towson into the mix now adds to another recent news item after Carrie Wood resigned as editor of the Towerlight at Towson due to the running of an unsigned column on masturbation.

Tying thing together, I would point to a statement from the editors of the Towerlight after the Wood resignation that I think also applies to the situation with these sex toy events on campuses:

However, many other readers did enjoy the column. And we believe it was not out of context on a campus where the administration delivers free cable pornography to some of its residence halls, celebrates “condom tasting” and “I <3 female orgasm” at public events, and profits from the sale of sexually-oriented magazines and posters at the University Union.

(Continue reading…)