the sex week schedule

Ohio State’s Sex Week, which is run by Student Advocates for Sexual Health Awareness, will begin Sunday virtually and end Feb. 20. Credit: Courtesy of Emma King

It’s Ohio State’s third annual Sex Week, but it feels like the first time. 

Ohio State’s Sex Week, which is run by Student Advocates for Sexual Health Awareness, will begin Sunday virtually and end Feb. 20. It will provide students with nontraditional sex education and opportunities to discuss issues related to relationships, gender and sexuality — with new events focused on the digital world of sex and dating. 

Sex Week was originally created to address the “abysmal” sex education requirements in the state of Ohio, Emma King, president of SASHA and a 2020 graduate in psychology and political science, said.

“Sexual education is for anybody — it doesn’t matter how much experience you have,” Katie Chung, secretary of SASHA and a 2020 graduate in communication, said. “There’s something for everybody on the schedule.”

For foundational sex education — featuring discussions of anatomy and contraception — Chung said “Not Your High School Sex Ed,” “Misconceptions about Contraception and Other Forms of Protection” and “Go Crazy for Gonads: A Reproductive Anatomy Presentation” are the way to go. 

But in a year of virtual classes, meetings and get-togethers, Chung said a new event — “Kiss Me Thru The Phone: Cybersex during COVID-19” — will highlight dating during the pandemic and virtual love and sex. 

“It really relates to the pandemic,” Chung said. “Even this year we see adding events dealing with COVID, and that’s obviously not something that’s going to go on every single other year.”

Sex work and the adult film industry will be featured in multiple panels throughout the week. 

According to the Sex Week website, “OnlyFans: Behind the Scenes” will host content creators of the subscription-based adult website to examine their experiences and destigmatize sex work. 

Marissa Mariner, vice president of SASHA and a fourth-year in criminology and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, said she is looking forward to “Decolonizing Porn,” a workshop that will be hosted by filmmaker Sally Fenaux Barleycorn about ethical and feminist pornography with ErikaLust Films, an erotic film production company.

“I think that’s a really interesting topic to talk about, the ethics behind porn and consumption of porn,” Mariner said. 

King said Sex Week will tackle another new topic: religion. “Holy Sexuality: Envisioning Inclusive Sex Ed in Faith Settings” will focus on LGBTQIA-inclusive sex education in a workshop hosted by Melanie Davis, manager of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education Program.

Chung also said other creative events are offered in tandem with essential sex education events such as “Kink 101,” a program dating back to Sex Week 2019.

Partnering with Undergraduate Student Government, author and LGBTQ activist Alok Vaid-Menon will host a panel called “Beyond the Gender Binary,” discussing the limitations of a binary view of gender and advocating for the concept’s elimination from daily life, Mariner said. USG and SASHA also partnered with author and therapist Sally Baker to discuss modern relationships and dating apps during “Dating 101: Finding the Perfect Partner.”

A complete list of events is available on the Sex Week website, with topics ranging from politics, toxic masculinity, drag, religion and beyond. 

Students will be able to attend the events throughout the week after registering and accessing Zoom links posted on SASHA’s website, King said. Some events may be recorded for viewing after the live presentation, depending on approval from specific events’ speakers. 

QR codes and posters can be found in university residence halls, around campus and on SASHA social media accounts for easy access to events, Mariner said.

Mariner said SASHA embraces the idea of “knowledge of its power” and hopes to continue to gather as much knowledge as possible with Sex Week 2021. 

“There’s no such thing as ‘too comprehensive’ sex education,” Mariner said. “We’re trying to help the people.”