Spring Break
Speaker explains absence at Sex Positive Fair
Doug T. Graham/The Daily Eastern News
Issue date: 4/17/09 Section: News
|
Within 24 hours of the event, she called event organizer William Kendall, sophomore art history major, to cancel her engagement.
Kendall announced Meadows' cancellation to the crowd at the event. He said it was sad to see the event be "sabotaged" by school administrators.
Meadows, assistant professor in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences, said this was not the case.
She said she was not pressured to drop her speaking engagement nor did school administrators sabotage her speech.
"I was supportive of the entire operation up until the day the flyers went out that had the list of activities, and pretty much what put me over the edge was 'learn to perform oral sex,'" Meadows said.
Meadows said "you can have fun" while presenting information about sex, "when you veer into displaying sex toys" the event has gone beyond being educational.
She compared displaying sex paraphernalia at a sex-education event to teaching students how to play drinking games at an alcohol-education event.
Meadows said the university is not afraid to talk about sex and sexuality.
"I teach sex ed, and I will say (just) about anything," she said. "I don't shy away from controversy, at all. I believe that people need information. On the other hand, having a sex toy party and learning how to do oral sex to me, crossed the line past an academic activity."
Meadows' prepared speech was to be on society's perception of masturbation throughout history.
"I would, tomorrow, put on my masturbation presentation and call it a masturbation presentation, and have no shame about that at all," she said. "So if they want to put on an educational program, (the family and consumer sciences department) are right on board with that. It was the other part, I just feel like they were working more on controversy to get the word out than education to get the word out."
Taking Meadows place at the event was Jeannie Ludlow, a professor in the women's studies department, who gave a speech on the history of America's sexual revolution.
Doug T. Graham can be reached at 581-7942 or at DENnewsdesk@gmail.com.
The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.
Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.
Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.
If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 9
Bill
posted 4/17/09 @ 3:08 AM CST
I must commend Dr. Meadows on her judgment in this regards. The more I heard about the sex fair and masturbate-athon, the more I thought it was about fanning flames of division than anything else (the name itself is a bit indicative of this). (Continued…)
Matthew
posted 4/17/09 @ 9:29 AM CST
Dr. Meadows' complaints about the content of the fliers could certainly explain her decision to back out, but it doesn't explain why she waited until the morning of the event to do so. (Continued…)
Al R. Moldroski
posted 4/17/09 @ 1:23 PM CST
-I am a retired member of the EIU Art Department and have been told that the current exhibition of student work at the Tarble is one of the best ever. (Continued…)
perturbed
posted 4/17/09 @ 2:18 PM CST
I understand both sides of this issue. The literature advertising the event was inflammatory - in fact, I heard that janitors and secretaries were taking them down after they were posted -- without explicit permission from anyone to do so. (Continued…)
Steve
posted 4/18/09 @ 12:29 PM CST
Dr. Meadows compares teaching folks how to enhance their sexual experience by using sex toys to teaching kids how to do drinking games? THAT is her reason for backing out? And she teaches sex-ed?
Heightening the sexual/sensual experience is a positive thing, getting drunker quicker is exactly the opposite. (Continued…)
Mike
posted 4/19/09 @ 6:40 PM CST
Wow, EIU really jumped the shark with this event. I thought this was a university, not VH1. There's nothing wrong with sex or learning about sex, but this whole event seems like it was in really poor taste. (Continued…)
Post a Comment