Last night, I was very excited to attend a meeting of about fifteen students who were gathered to begin what will hopefully become a campus-wide conversation. We were there because we felt that the way students are talking about sex – or rather, not talking about sex – is unproductive and, inevitably, damaging. The conversation that we’re having now, mostly conducted in the opinion pages of The Daily Princetonian, is based mostly on assumptions about what Princeton students want from sex, or what other students think they should want from sex, or what our school’s particular social norms tell us we should want from sex. We’re looking for a consensus about sex that doesn’t exist, and in doing so, we’re not listening to each other. Instead, we all agreed that we need a safe space to talk about sex – without judgment, a theoretical overlay, or group affiliations – and events that question the student body’s conceptions of sex (no pun intended!).
This new group is very much still in the planning stages (we’re still nameless, so if you have name ideas, shoot them over to me!) and if you’re interested in facilitating, inspiring or participating in this conversation, let me know! We want as many people as possible to be involved. My email is ajthomso@princeton.edu, and the only requirement is that you should be willing to talk about subjects that might make you blush.
