I noticed something very disturbing at the start of this semester. In plain view to the public, located near kiosks intended to help students find their classrooms, were large jars filled with condoms. As part of a promotion to raise awareness for safe sex education, students were encouraged to guess how many condoms filled up the whole jar. The counting contest raises the issue of the methods through which public officials and concerned advocates go about promoting safe sex initiatives on campus. The University of Massachusetts has been the location for various safe sex programs within the past few semesters. During the summer before my freshman year, the Not Ready for Bedtime Players, a popular student group on campus sponsored by the Health Education Department of University Health Services, organized a performance on serious issues confronting students, like underage drinking and date rape. A substantial portion of this presentation focused on the proper ways to use a condom and on other information intended to raise awareness of safe sex. Another student group, VOX: Students for Choice, organized an event called "Sex on the Lawn" last spring. Inspired by a similar event held at the University of Florida, VOX set up tables on the Student Union campus lawn where condoms, safe sex literature and other pamphlets and flyers were distributed. "Captain Condom," a student dressed up in a condom costume, welcomed visitors to the event. According a Daily Collegian article that quoted the president of VOX, the purpose of "Sex on the Lawn" was, among other reasons, to "promote safe practices [and] comprehensive sex education." The condom jar exhibit was merely the most recent occurrence of wide-ranging efforts by safe sex advocates on this campus to promote responsible sexual behavior. Few would disagree with the notion that safe sexual practices, whether this includes abstinence or other forms of birth control, should be acknowledged as an important topic of discussion. Yet, the questions that safe sex proponents at UMass Amherst should seriously consider are whether these efforts have actually proven to be effective in combating self-destructive sexual behavior and in heightening awareness of safe sex education, and also whether such methods are the best way to accomplish these tasks. The questions need to be raised because I believe these public events, while organized with good intentions, are ineffective. Holding safe sex initiatives in a public setting, such as in an auditorium, communicates to the viewers that sex is a public topic. Regardless of the messages transmitted by cultural trends, through which the public is confronted with sexually explicit images and rhetoric consistently on television and other societal entertainment venues, frank talk about sex absent the rhetoric is best nurtured in private settings which facilitate more honest, open discussion. Sex should be treated as a private, personal and serious subject by safe sex advocates because while the potential satisfaction of sexual activity is high, its possible unintended consequences transcend the ramifications of other activities of pleasure. This is why putting on safe sex events in an entertaining manner, as the Not Ready for Bedtime Players, VOX and others have done, is a severe misjudgment. How can students receive the message that sex is a pleasurable act but also a serious one when safe sex advocates give performances which downgrade the latter and emphasize the former, when it should be the opposite? Yes, students may feel less compelled to attend events if they are not entertaining. So, if the intention of safe sex proponents is to amuse students about sex, then safe sex advocacy on campus should continue to put on public demonstrations and provide condoms on campus lawns in public. However, if the UMass Amherst administration, Health Services and current safe sex proponents are serious about promoting responsible sexual behavior, then they should reform their efforts by instituting a decentralization process by encouraging serious thought and dialogue on the matter in more private settings. For instance, a part of this initiative would place more responsibility in the hands of resident assistants to educate the residents of the floor about STDs, using a condom, etc., through periodic floor meetings. Have RAs make clear that there will be condoms available within the dorm (this is what my RA did last year by putting them on a support made of paper attached to his door). Also, have the Not Ready for Bedtime Players and VOX visit dorms to give presentations on safe sex (in a much more private setting than auditoriums) in a serious, rather than entertaining, manner. Organize peer-to-peer relationships to better increase dialogue between concerned students and safe sex advocates who have extensive experience dealing with these issues. Initiatives such as these will still raise awareness of safe sex education, but will it lead to more responsible sexual decisions made by the student body? That remains to be seen, but at least the responsibility of safe sex education will be more in the hands of peers in a closer, more private setting than in wide-ranging public forums. And, just like sex, this is ultimately where it should be.
Frank talk about safe sex
Published: Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Updated: Tuesday, February 10, 2009
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