Last night, a group of students in a Human Sexuality class in the Department of Psychology put on an event titled “Sex Jeopardy”. The event was a program designed to promote sex education and Marquette’s perspectives and attitudes about sex in an “interactive and fun way.”
Sex Jeopardy was a group project for College of Arts & Science students senior Morgan Kolb, junior Josh Krueger, senior Dyon Bryant, junior Gretchen Homan and junior Kristen Gaffey, College of Communication senior Catherine Schnoebelen, College of Business Administration senior Sergio Tovar and College of Education junior Maegan Kelly designed the event as a way to talk about topics such as college differences regarding sex-related issues at Marquette, and other topics regard the taboo topic.
Dr. Susannah Bartlow, director of the Gender and Sexuality Resources Center, discussed how this event is a great way for students to talk about sex without having to feel uncomfortable about the event.
“This event is just awesome,” Bartlow said. “Normally, when we talk about gender issues, it feels real heavy or always only problem-based, not in a fun, interesting, just sharing information way.”
Schnoebelen agreed, saying one of the reasons why they did the project was because people need to talk about sex, but not many like to in a public setting.
“We’re trying to open up to people on campus,” Schnoebelen said. “Sex is kind of ‘taboo’ around here-you can’t even get free condoms on campus. We just want people to feel more comfortable talking about sex and have some fun with it too.”
Kevin Ellis, a senior in the College of Communication and resident assistant in McCormick Hall, recognized how an event like Sex Jeopardy can really help students with a discussion about sex.
“I wanted my residents to experience a community-building event,” Ellis said. “I think it’s a great activity to make light of a topic that is hard for college kids to sometimes talk about.”
Students learned that the College of Communication students masturbate the most out of any college, the College of Health Sciences students watch the most pornography, and the College of Education students have the most intercourse. Of students polled to compile the statistics for Sex Jeopardy, 37 percent said they have had intercourse with only one partner, and students who were single had the least amount of sex.
Bartlow was extremely excited to get involved with the project, because it utilized the resources offered by the Gender and Sexuality Resources Center, which was designed to be a center for students to learn about not only sex but information about other taboo topics regarding sexuality and gender.
“My goal is to have so many people to visit the center that I have to close the door to get any work done,” Bartlow said. “When the students in the class came to me and pitched the idea…it was exciting for me to be involved in a fun project that’s related to an academic course as soon as I got here.”
While the event was designed to teach the general public about sex and sexuality, in class, the students have found a difference between much of what Marquette teaches and what the class teaches.
“I was surprised we were able to do this,” Schnoebelen said. “I thought we’d get shut down or in trouble for it, but I’m glad that (Marquette) is open to it and that we are supported by the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center.”
Bartlow added that events such as Sex Jeopardy, along with the Gender and Sexuality Resources Center, are a step in the right direction for Marquette.
“One of the things (Sex Jeopardy) does is put Marquette with a lot of other academic institutions in terms of being able to have flexible programs on gender and sexuality,” Bartlow said.
