By 
students’ questions about sex submitted via text at Wednesday’s “Sex after Dark” event in student housing.
(Preface photo/GEOFF LESAR)
By: GEOFF LESAR
Staff Writer
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No human orifice went unmentioned Wednesday evening, Feb. 5, as a trio of local panelists fielded audience questions of foreplay, foul smells and “fast” partners during Titan Productions’ “Sex After Dark” Q&A event.
Not unlike late-night cable television’s “Talk Sex with Sue Johanson,” the predominantly student crowd gathered in the River Crossing Campus Housing Community Building and submitted inquiries via text, a successful strategy that ensured anonymity and prompted matter-of-fact responses to questions of kink, sexual identity and personal health.
“It’s important to have these open discussions and for people to feel safe having these discussions and to get information from reliable sources,” said panel member Sorah Stein, a behavioral analyst, sexuality educator and adjunct IU South Bend psychology professor. “Those are most important things to me, especially in a college residential situation.”
The presence of pubic hair proved to be a topic of perceived importance among a number of audience members. Heads swiveled around the room as some students declared allegiance to lower landscaping, stimulating a debate over gender expectations in grooming while inadvertently identifying those attendees most likely to have owned Chia Pets.
“It shed light on where people stand in terms of gender ideologies and social expectations in gender,” said DeVonte Glass, sophomore. “I thought that was a pretty significant portion of this event, when it sporadically sparked into discussion about gender differences.”
Panelists Don Neely, a retired U.S. Army chaplain and current IUSB associate professor of human sexuality, Samantha Manewitz, an Elkhart-based clinical social worker and Stein made clear the evening’s learning experience was mutual. Sex-smirks loosened and ears opened as a female audience member related her asexual identity to the room.
To hold no sexual preference or desire is uncommon, as is exposing the roots of one’s sexual composition to a group of strangers.
“I think the people, whether they learned or not, at least they got something where they could be around other people, talk about sexuality in a very fluid way, a very positive way,” said Ross Ford, senior and Titan Productions executive producer. “I think that’s good, because it doesn’t really happen that often, at least not around here yet.”
Fluid sex talk. No lube required.
