By Samaah Jaffer
Condoms in the AQ, seductive lips on the walls, and dialogue on the importance of sex-positivity were all part of “Taboo Talk,” SFU’s first annual Sex Week.
Inspired by a week previously organized by SFU Residence, this year’s event, beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 3, was meant to be bigger, bolder, and sexier than ever before.
Sex Week 2015 included three main events. The opening night included an information session and networking event to prepare the students and staff for the days ahead.
On Wednesday, the North AQ was populated by nearly a dozen organizations promoting sexual health education and awareness. These included external groups such as Fraser Health, Options for Sexual Health, and internal groups including the SFU Women’s Centre, Out on Campus, and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Student Union.
The third and final day gave students the opportunity to engage in “taboo talk” on sex, sexuality, sexual health, sex work, and much more. The conference held at the SFU Theatre included presentations from six panelists, followed by a question and answer period.
Conference manager Andrew Kochergin explained that their vision was to create a safe and open environment. “With the conference, we wanted to encourage SFU students to ask questions that they might be afraid to ask,” he said.
Discussion questions ranged from inquiries on the criminalization of sex workers under Canadian law to the effects of pornography on relationships. The panelists even shared their opinions on Fifty Shades of Grey — they all agreed that it was very poorly written.
However, sex therapist and couples counsellor Dr. Teesha Morgan noted that the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey, especially among women, allowed them to realize their potential to enhance their sex lives, and empowered them to speak out regarding sexual dissatisfaction.
“I think what’s important about sex week this year is that we’re looking at the positivities of sex and negativities [. . .] seeing both sides, which is really important,” conference assistant Erika Tajiri told The Peak.
Tajiri believes proper education and looking at the positives of sex is key to combatting issues such as STIs and teen pregnancy and disease: “[In] countries where the actual act of sex is more talked about, [. . .] there’s not as much teen pregnancy, not as much disease, and I think that it’s a huge reason why we have [these problems] here.”
According to Kayode Fatoba, the event organizer and the SFSS VP student life, the most valuable part of Sex Week 2015 was that it integrated different stakeholders within the SFU community, and encouraged them to collaborate and work towards integrating their services to best suit the community.
However, coordinating Sex Week was not a simple task. Aside from a shortage of condoms, the organizers faced backlash from the university for their provocative posters, which featured parted lips and lolling tongues.
The organizers found students shying away from Sex Week due to the awkwardness of the subject, reinforcing the stigma they aimed to decrease. Even requesting their friends to share the event on Facebook was met with much resistance, Fatoba explained.
“Sex Week itself is a provocative name, so with that you open yourself to a lot of misinterpretation,” said Fatoba. “People [thought] that it was a week whereby students would go crazy and there were random ideas of [. . .] kids having sex in the halls.”
In the upcoming years, Fatoba said they hope to foster a more open atmosphere by involving groups across all campuses, and inviting them to host workshops and lectures in their own spaces to encourage dialogues on an array of sex-related subjects.
Fatoba emphasized, “We want the next years to be exciting — in all aspects of the word.”
