Students discussed topics ranging from tighty whities, oral sex and vibrators Wednesday, Nov. 4, at the Voices for Planned Parenthood’s sex talk live discussion forum in the University Student Commons.
The talk emphasized topics such as personal safety and communication between partners.
“If I’m going to get naked with you and do things with you, I hope I can at least talk to you about the fact that we’re getting naked and doing things together,” said Shawn McNulty, Fan Free Clinic’s director of health outreach.
Nurse practitioner Nancy Harris, VCU’s coordinator of women’s health, said she thinks discussions like the sex talk live help raise awareness for the Wellness Resource Center.
“I think they get out the information that there are sexually transmitted infections out there and a lot of them don’t have signs or symptoms,” Harris said. “So you can have an infection and not know it.”
Elizabeth Leatherland, an exercise science major and Voices of Planned Parenthood’s president, said this is her fifth time attending the event. Leatherland said she hears a lot of positive student feedback about the event.
“This event is important because it gets a lot of questions aired out that a lot of students may not be able to ask to their peers and have a professional answer,” Leatherland said.
Harris said students are taught “don’t drink and drive,” and the next lesson should be “don’t drink and have sex.”
“We make bad decisions when (we are) under the influence and that’s usually when most of the people have had unprotected intercourse,” Harris said. “Or had intercourse with a partner they hadn’t planned to.”
McNulty said ways to stay safe at parties is to pre-plan, keep a party buddy and anticipate bad situations.
“Make sure there’s somebody in your group who’s not going to be drinking, so you have somebody you can trust,” McNulty said. “Who can help guide you and direct you through the evening.”
The Wellness Resource Center sells condoms at a discount price, but Harris said the best way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases is to get to know your partner. Harris said she recommends condom use, especially if the relationship is newer than eight months, long distance or on-again-off-again.
“You’re going to pick good people. You’re not going to pick the scum of the Earth to be your partner,” Harris said. “So that means good people have infections.”