Friday, March 27, 2009
12:00 to 5:00pm
Exley Science Center Lobby

Convened each year by WesWELL, the goal of the Sexual Health Expo to promote sexual health and responsibility and increase student knowledge of campus health resources. A variety of issues are addressed, including promoting healthy relationships, disease and pregnancy prevention, sexual violence prevention, current political issues related to sexual and reproductive rights, and more.  

To reach that goal, we are offering: 

• Tabling & fund raisers with the WesWELL PHAs, FemNet, Clinic Escorts, ASHA, SGAC, HealthCAN, Sigma Lambda Upsilon, Health Services and Oh My! Sensuality Shoppe. 
• Workshops presented by the WesWELL PHAs, WesKink and Sign House. 
• And our first ever Sexual Health Art Show…you be the judge of Best in Show!!! 

Bring $$$ for fund raisers, raffles and other purchases! 

Click here for the complete schedule

Unfortunately, sexual violence is an issue to which Wesleyan is not immune. To raise awareness of this critical issue in our community, the annual Take Back the Night march & rally is next week:

Thursday, March 16
7:00pm 
Steps of Olin Library

The TBTN Planning Committee, headed by Liz Weisman ‘09 and Carolyn Ariori ‘09 have been hard at work planning additional events; FemNet and WesWELL’s Peer Health Advocates are also contributing to the planning, with other events being scheduled brefore and after the march itself.

Click here for a complete schedule of events. Check back often for updates.

For more information on sexual violence and it’s prevention, click here.
To learn more about the history of the international Take Back the Night movement, click here.

Dr. Louanne Weston Cole, in her Sex Matters blog at WebMD.com, shares an intriguing study on the differences between men and women in how they interpret words differently in sexual situations:

I was reading an article about a new book, Studies in Applied Interpersonal Communication, by Michael Motley, a University of California at Davis professor. He did an interesting study on how males and females interpret what females say when in the very early stages of sexual kissing.

When a female says, “It’s getting late,” she means that she wants to stop what they’re doing and go their separate ways. If she finished her sentence, it would go, “I should already be home in bed – alone.” Most males in this study, however, interpreted this to mean that she wants to skip the preliminaries and go forward a bit more quickly.

Or, if a woman says, “I’m seeing someone else,” (meaning that she wants to stop because her affections are really with another man), males tend to think this means, “Keep going, but let’s be discreet,” or “Keep going, but I want you to know that I’m not making a commitment.”

Motley concludes that in their efforts to not offend or upset their male partners with direct and forceful words, women are merely confusing them. He found out that men would prefer to hear it loud and clear, even if it smarts a little bit, rather than trying to read the woman’s mind and risk offending her and/or losing the sexual opportunity. read full article…

While the research is a bit locked up in the gender binary and heterosexual relationships, it still illustrates an important point: what we say may not be what is heard. It’s extraordinarily difficult to get what you want (and avoid what you don’t) if your attempts to communicate your intentions aren’t interpreted correctly.

Discussion Questions:
What does this mean for how we should be communicating with our partners?
Would being more forceful and direct in what we say solve the problem?
Or could our words continue to be misinterpreted even when said with conviction?
How do our cultural attitudes about sex and gender stereotypes play into this?

Wesleyan Resources:
Sexual Violence information
Emotional Abuse information
Sexual Misconduct Policy
Office of Behavioral Health for Students

One in four college women will be sexually assaulted during their college years, experts say, but what many college students consider to be sexual assault is actually only a small part of what the law defines as sex offenses.“Sexual assault occurs along a continuum of intrusion and violation ranging from unwanted sexual comments to forced sexual intercourse,” according to an Ohio University Police Department statement on sexual assault, which states that anything along that continuum violates the student code of conduct.

Click here for further resources on sexual assault from WesWELL.