Spring Break
Organizers continue support of Masurbate-athon
Doug T. Graham / Staff Reporter
Issue date: 4/21/09 Section: News
Despite concerns regarding the educational merit of the Masturbate-a-thon/Sex Positive Fair, the organizers of Tuesday's event stand by it calling it informational and academic.
Will Kendall, a sophomore art history major, and Laura Wussow, a junior physical education major, also refuted Mikki Meadows' statement comparing "displaying sex paraphernalia at a sex education event to teaching students how to play drinking games at an alcohol-education event" that was reported in a recent Daily Eastern News issue.
"At Safety Week, there was a mock kegger where they played drinking games with root beer," Wussow said. "I'm sure there was at least one person at that event who learned a new drinking game."
Kendall said resident assistants at Taylor Hall have put on root beer pong as an event, and he said he was sure students who have never played beer pong before learned how to play it then.
She said like the mock kegger and root beer pong events, the Masturbate-a-thon/Sex Positive Fair was also a safe event.
"It is much better to learn about these acts and activities when you are not in a pressured environment," Wussow said.
Meadows, an assistant professor in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences, was scheduled to be the speaker at the Masturbate-a-thon/Sex Positive Fair.
She canceled her appearance because she believed the event had become less about education and more about "controversy and titillation."
Jim Painter, chair of the School of Family and Consumer Sciences, said he showed Meadows the advertising for the event, which Meadows said was the deciding factor in her backing out.
Painter said he talked to Kendall before the event and urged him to postpone it until more school organizations could sponsor it.
Painter did this because the only academic sponsor visible on the first flier was the Health Education Resource Center, which Painter said was unusual.
"To put out an advertisement that says 'EIU's first masturbate-athon,' it looks like EIU was sponsoring it," Painter said.
English professor Terri Fredrick and women's studies professor Jeannie Ludlow both had displays at the fair. Fredrick is the adviser to Pride and helped set up the Masturbate-athon and Sex Positive Fair. Ludlow was the replacement speaker for Meadows.
Kendall said the presence of Fredrick and Ludlow "shows that there are faculty at this school who are willing to step up and actually not be afraid of controversy."
"I don't shy away from controversy at all," Meadows said in an article. "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."
Kendall said the event was important because it provided an open environment in which students could talk about their sexuality.
"One girl that came to the sex positive fair was so excited because she finally found a place that she could be sexually open," he said. "She actually expressed a great deal of anger at people who were protesting this event because she was a victim of molestation. She felt like if she could find a place like this, and feel great about it, that she was just so offended that people would protest that."
Doug T. Graham can be reached at 581-7942 or at dtgraham@eiu.edu.
Will Kendall, a sophomore art history major, and Laura Wussow, a junior physical education major, also refuted Mikki Meadows' statement comparing "displaying sex paraphernalia at a sex education event to teaching students how to play drinking games at an alcohol-education event" that was reported in a recent Daily Eastern News issue.
"At Safety Week, there was a mock kegger where they played drinking games with root beer," Wussow said. "I'm sure there was at least one person at that event who learned a new drinking game."
Kendall said resident assistants at Taylor Hall have put on root beer pong as an event, and he said he was sure students who have never played beer pong before learned how to play it then.
She said like the mock kegger and root beer pong events, the Masturbate-a-thon/Sex Positive Fair was also a safe event.
"It is much better to learn about these acts and activities when you are not in a pressured environment," Wussow said.
Meadows, an assistant professor in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences, was scheduled to be the speaker at the Masturbate-a-thon/Sex Positive Fair.
She canceled her appearance because she believed the event had become less about education and more about "controversy and titillation."
Jim Painter, chair of the School of Family and Consumer Sciences, said he showed Meadows the advertising for the event, which Meadows said was the deciding factor in her backing out.
Painter said he talked to Kendall before the event and urged him to postpone it until more school organizations could sponsor it.
Painter did this because the only academic sponsor visible on the first flier was the Health Education Resource Center, which Painter said was unusual.
"To put out an advertisement that says 'EIU's first masturbate-athon,' it looks like EIU was sponsoring it," Painter said.
English professor Terri Fredrick and women's studies professor Jeannie Ludlow both had displays at the fair. Fredrick is the adviser to Pride and helped set up the Masturbate-athon and Sex Positive Fair. Ludlow was the replacement speaker for Meadows.
Kendall said the presence of Fredrick and Ludlow "shows that there are faculty at this school who are willing to step up and actually not be afraid of controversy."
"I don't shy away from controversy at all," Meadows said in an article. "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."
Kendall said the event was important because it provided an open environment in which students could talk about their sexuality.
"One girl that came to the sex positive fair was so excited because she finally found a place that she could be sexually open," he said. "She actually expressed a great deal of anger at people who were protesting this event because she was a victim of molestation. She felt like if she could find a place like this, and feel great about it, that she was just so offended that people would protest that."
Doug T. Graham can be reached at 581-7942 or at dtgraham@eiu.edu.
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