What kind of protection should you use for oral sex?
How normal are 19-year-olds with sexual apathy?
What are the effects of masturbating too often?
How do you tell your partner you want to abstain from sex?
Those may not be questions you asked your high school physical education teacher, but you can ask those questions during “Sex Talk Live,” which begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, at the Commons Theater
“The big difference (between this event and similar events in the past) is that it’s multifaceted,” said Sara Duke, VOX president. “It’s not just a lecture, and it’s not just a game.”
Four organizations, VOX @ VCU, Project REACH, SAVES and Queer Action, co-sponsor the event modeled after the radio-talk show “Loveline,” which became a popular late-night MTV show in the early ’90s.
“Sex Talk Live” will feature a “sexpert” to answer questions, a sex-jeopardy game, live music and door prizes. Guests may obtain free condoms, dental dams and food at the event.
Virginia Totaro, who teaches human sexuality at VCU, will field questions from the audience as the professional expert. Duke said VOX first asked Daphne Rankin, acting director of the HIV-AIDS Center, so Rankin’s name is listed as the “sexpert” on some fliers although she cannot attend the event.
“Kiffy the Condom” will make a guest appearance.
Who is “Kiffy the Condom?”
Kiffy Johnson, the woman behind the condom costume.
Johnson said Diane Cutchin, coordinator for the Sexual-Assault Education Program, told her about the costume because Cutchin wore it to hand out condoms when she was a peer educator. The log sheet shows that the condom costume, red and adorned with a feather boa, last was checked out from the Office of Health Promotion in 1994, Johnson said.
“It’s kind of a female characterization of the male condom,” Johnson said, then laughed. The goal is for “Kiffy the Condom” and other icebreakers to put shy students at ease about sex with humor. Students can also submit anonymous questions to avoid any embarrassment. Scripted questions also encourage the audience to relax and interact.
“Some students are coming from high schools where (sex education) was either not covered at all or not covered completely,” said Katie Vatalaro Hill, health educator at the health promotion office. Hill also serves as the adviser for Project REACH, a peer health-education program.
Jeremy Kidd, Queer Action president, recalled a similar high-school experience, particularly the nonexistence of sex education for members of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender community.
“High schools also segregate boys and girls (into different sex-education classes) so much that we only hear half of it,” he said.
Event-sponsors predicted that people will ask the “sexpert” and possible auxiliary experts some questions about sexually transmitted diseases, birth control, as well as rape, specifically date rape.
“There are people on campus dedicated to helping students that are victims,” Johnson said. “(Students should) walk away from this event with a better sense of what sex is all about.”
Even students confident in their knowledge about sex may want to ask the “sexpert” questions.
“Sex is one of those things people think they know about,” Kidd said. “There’s always something you could learn, and it doesn’t hurt to hear it again.”