Sex at Yale is nothing but sweetness and light

I'm sure that a more than a few have heard about the show stopper during the latest "Sex Week at Yale." If you haven't, you can at least provide yourself a quick peek via this link.

In a nut-shell, a director chose to screen a film for the participants that took the organizers by surprise. Apparently, it included bondage, piercing, and fantasy rape as subject matter. It was so traumatic to the coordinators they ended the program early and felt the need to offer an apology to the public.

Why?!

Directly off the "About" page on their own bloody website, it states

"Sex Week is an interdisciplinary sex education program designed to pique students’ interest through creative, interactive, and exciting programming. In February 2008, renowned professionals from a wide variety of industries, from models and television stars to professors and relationship specialists, will convene at Yale University to challenge students’ conceptions of sex and sexuality and question the way sex is presented in our society.

Sex Week explores love, sex, intimacy and relationships by focusing on how sexuality is manifested in America, helping students to reconcile these issues in their own lives. We strive to get beyond the awkwardness, the discomfort, and the taboo of conventional sex education programs by treating sexual behavior as the reality it is, not as it has been portrayed. Through debates, seminars, fashion shows, concerts, and discussions, students are given the chance to interact formally and informally with professionals who deal with these issues every day, so they can learn about sexuality from those who are responsible for shaping it. Relationship therapists offer advice on all aspects of relationships. Media executives discuss sex in advertising. Court judges explain the still-controversial ruling that protects pornography as a freedom of speech. And porn stars comment on the reality of pornography in America. Sex Week covers sex and sexuality from the most practical aspects to the more personal facets, and everything in between.

There is no ideology behind Sex Week. Its mission is simple: present students with a range of perspectives about sexuality to get them talking, so that they can begin to reconcile serious issues of love, sex, and relationships in their lives. Let the discussion begin." - Joseph Citarrella, Director

Right.

So let me see if I can place the details in order here. At an event centered around discussing sex and sexuality, a setting professing to explore "love, sex, intimacy and relationships by focusing on how sexuality is manifested in America, helping students to reconcile these issues in their own lives," someone dares to take them at their word and presents material with a BDSM aspect. This twists their pubes into macramé. Sex is not and shall never be violent. They make the nasty film go away and proclaim how it was all a horrible mistake, they aren't really like that. This was despite the fact that reportedly, the audience was not upset by the movie if not disappointed it was curtailed.

I can understand being caught unprepared for the subject matter on the part of the organizers. It could have proven rather embarrassing if they lacked the resources to discuss the concepts to the degree the attendees would have liked. On the other hand, that didn't happen. They pulled the plug and behaved as though they were trying to sweep that aspect of sexuality under the carpet.

If any of the people attending that presentation had inclinations toward those kinks, they've now been unequivocally told by the organizers that not only are their interests and questions toward BDSM activities unsuitable for discussion, but they're something to be ashamed of. So much for eschewing ideology. Did they attempt to start a dialogue? No, instead it seems that one of the staff launched into a tirade condemning the movie and putting the director who chose to show it on the defensive. Nevermind what his motivations might have been for airing that bit of cinematography or what he wanted to discuss about it. Just make him go away, such images are too scary. I doubt highly that whips and chains would've suddenly materialized out of thin air. People would not have discovered their clothing had spontaneously changed to black leather and latex.

Far as I'm concerned, the organizers have revealed themselves as liars. There is nothing as perfidious as an agenda cloaked in good intentions. There is no one more contemptible than the hypocrite who proclaims their respect for others. It's easy to say your program encourages examination of love and relationships in students' lives when you choose to sanitize the options. Blowing a non-issue with your own audience into some masturbatory scandal only serves to exacerbate the loss of whatever integrity and responsibility Sex Week might have once claimed.