Women’s Resource Center makes a splash in sex education

By Allie Smith, Transcript Correspondent and Sara Hollabaugh, Online Editor

The Nimbus 2000: a toy for all ages.

Mattel designed this item as a children’s toy, but the now discontinued Harry Potter battery-operated broomstick is also available in adult sex shops.

The conclusion of a lecture held last Friday mentioned the Nimbus 2000.  

“I Love the Female Orgasm,” sponsored by the Ohio Wesleyan University Women’s Resource Center (WRC), Panhellenic Council and the Sexuality and Gender Equality House (SAGE), discussed topics that ranged from simple masturbation techniques to achieving multiple orgasms.

Senior Emma Nuiry, an intern for WRC who planned most of the event, said she reached out to the Inter-Fraternal Council (IFC) about collaborating, but ultimately the Panhellenic Council decided to partner with them.

Funded by WCSA, Nuiry said the event exceeded her expectations.

Chairs filed in rows stood from the front to the back of the Benes room in the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center (HWCC). Almost every seat was full by the start of the lecture. The event has been very successful in past years, sometimes so crowded that students have piled onto the floor in order to be a part of the talk.

“So many different communities from campus were brought together on this topic and from all the feedback I’ve received, they loved it,” Nuiry said.

Lindsay Fram and Marshall Miller, sex educators, hosted the lecture. They conveyed their ideas and information in a humorous and effective way. They also supplied an overall message of sexual health and women’s empowerment.

Fram and Miller included genders across the spectrum in the lecture. They were LGBTQ-inclusive and spoke of both cis and trans people, binary and nonbinary. They focused the lecture around women who are born with a vagina and trans women who are not.

Fram spoke of the significance of body and genitalia types, expressing that every shape and size is normal.

“My favorite topic would be talking about the diversity of bodies and the diversity of genitals that are absolutely normal and beautiful just the way they are,” Fram said. “Everyone has the right to believe in the [inherent] value of their body, simply because it exists.”

Both Fram and Miller were interactive with the audience, asking questions such as “What have you heard about orgasms?” and “What have you heard about masturbation growing up?” The speakers got various participants to answer these questions as truthfully as they wanted.

At the end of the lecture, Fram and Miller revealed the Nimbus 2000 that they had concealed on a table underneath a black tarp. They held it up to show the audience and read comments that had been left on Amazon.  The students laughed at the thought that a toy designed for children could  be so scandalous.  

The lecture was a component of the Trilogy Series, a series of events required for members of fraternities and sororities to attend. The lecture was open to non-affiliated students as well.

Taylor Shinaberry, a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, explained that the Panhellenic Council and Greek Life host the Trilogy Series to inform the Greek community with various events. Taylor said she enjoyed the lecture since it was informative on various topics.

“Not a lot of people feel comfortable talking about [these] subjects . . . I think the speakers did a great job to keep the audience engaged throughout the entire event,” Shinaberry said. “I think I would go again if they come back.”

Fram expressed the same idea that these subjects are often taboo in our society, and that the messages culture offers about our bodies tend to be negative.  

“Fighting against the mainstream and learning not to judge the bodies we have is a great first step toward learning to talk about and experience pleasure in meaningful ways,” Fram said.

However successful the event, Nuiry believes this event isn’t enough to normalize the female orgasm.

“Although the speakers did an impeccable job of working in gender neutral and inclusive terms, there is still a need for centering the topic of women’s sexuality and pleasure-hence the name, the female orgasm,” Nuiry said. “It is relatively normalized in our culture for young men to explore their sexuality at an early age, yet this luxury is not afforded to women.”

“I Love the Female Orgasm” has toured around over 800 programs in 42 states, according to the official program website. All of the presenters have backgrounds in the field of human sexuality and bring their experience in their field of work as educators. In the past they’ve also presented lectures on sexual health and sexual assault prevention, safer sex and LGBTQ topics.

To get involved with the program, visit their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. Spread the word with the hashtag “I love female orgasm.” Marshall Miller has also collaborated with author Dorian Solot to write the orgasmic guide “I ❤ Female Orgasm.”

For more information, visit their website: http://www.sexualityeducation.com/coolstuff/orgasm-book.php