[media id=”104388″ align=”left”/]From its humble beginning as a Facebook post on the University of Chicago Class of 2015 wall comes the first annual Sex Week at UChicago. It was third-year Angela Wang’s zealous response to one student’s inquiry as to why UChicago did not host anything like Yale’s Sex Week that vitalized the commencement of what has finally, nearly a year later, come to fruition.
Within three days, Wang began recruiting a team. Though the team, led by Wang and third-year Stephanie Grach, began planning for the event over summer break, the team kicked into high gear during fall quarter of this year.
The seven-day program features 40 events on a wide range of sex-related issues.
Second-year and team member Annie Wu said the team planned Sex Week’s scope to include theoretical components, as opposed to only being grounded in logistics. For example, Thursday’s “(A)sexy Symposium!” will feature a panel discussion on asexuality.
“We’re trying to examine sex not just from the basic physiological standpoint and how to have better sex, but also trying to bring in people who are not just concerned with the practicalities,” she said.
Although Sex Week is officially run by Vita Excolatur, an RSO that produces a quarterly adult-content magazine, the team acts as a separate entity. Team-members are associated with a variety of organizations across campus, spanning from Risk Awareness Consensual Kink (RACK), to the Dean’s Men, to Le Vorris & Vox Circus.
Multiple RSOs have partnered together for Sex Week events, which Wu attributes to how well-connected the team members are.
“People who join Sex Week are usually the head of an RSO of some sort, and they ask people within the RSO, ‘Would you be willing to do an event for Sex Week?’ And many of them are interested,” she said.
Adult-film director Axel Braun, who has directed over 400 adult films, is arguably the biggest star who has signed on to participate. Wang said she reached out to Braun through direct messages on YouTube and Facebook inquiring about the cost of film rights to his movie Star Wars XXX. Braun replied right away, not only giving a price but also offering to speak at Sex Week.
“I got pretty lucky with that one,” Wang said.
Wu said she hopes the program leaves students with a more holistic understanding of sex.
“The goal is to have people realize the importance of communicating about sex and making sex into a more deliberate thing. People understand that it’s an integral part of their lives but I don’t think a lot of people take the time to or they don’t have the tools to examine it,” she said.
Sex Week began yesterday and will run through Sunday night. The events include a panel called “Great Oral Sex” hosted by Tea Time and Sex Chats, taking place today, and “I HEART ART DAY” featuring a giant Twister board and a warning not to bring dates, which will take place Sunday evening.
