OU organizations host Sex Week events, educate students on sex

Student organizations at Ohio University are using the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday as a reason to educate students on sex and bring them together for love-themed activities.University Program Council and Student Senate’s Women’s Affairs Commission are putting on a number of events all week leading up to and following Thursday’s Saint Valentine’s Day celebration. The events, which started Monday, include activities for both couples and single students.Monday, UPC hosted a Live Group Sex Therapy Show, presented by self-proclaimed “Love Acupuncturist” Daniel Packard, who combines humor with sex and love advice to teach what he calls his “acupuncture points.” These points include, “How to Make a Bulletproof Heart,” “Nice Guy or Horny Guy? Same Guy,” and “You Have No Idea What You’re Doing.” The show opened to a crowd in the Baker Center Ballroom at 7 p.m.During the week, more sex- and love-themed activities will go on, starting with Wednesday’s “Let’s Talk Sex” panel in Bentley Hall at 5 p.m. Dr. Sue Simon Westendorf and Dr. Patricia Stokes will answer anonymous questions about sex. Student Senate Women’s Affairs Commissioner Emma Wright said, “Nothing is off limits!”Thursday, Valentine’s Day, three major events will address both couples’ and single students’ needs. UPC will host a “Couple Day,” from 2 to 4 p.m. in Baker Center, where there will be free Build-A-Bear and flower arrangement stations. UPC will also cater to the single crowd with a “Single’s Party” at the J-Bar on Court Street, starting at 9 p.m.Senate’s Women’s Affairs Commission will host an “Anti-Valentine’s Day Party” in the Baker Ballroom at 7 p.m. Wright said the party is “not in protest of V-Day, but as an option for people who may not have a date for the evening.”“We will be handing out free valentine presents as well as screening the movie ‘Valentine's Day,’” she said.Wright said the Sex Week events would be educational, as well as fun, in nature. “We are encouraging sexual empowerment, as well as safe sex education,” Wright said.This is the Women’s Affairs Commission’s third annual Sex Week celebrations. “I'm hoping students who are looking for something to do on Valentine's Day will enjoy it!” Wright said.A survey conducted by Lifestyle Condoms, which polled students ages 18 to 24, said college age students were very likely to have multiple partners. According to the survey, 86 percent of respondents said they have between one and 10 sexual partners and 10 percent said they had over 15 partners. But the majority of respondents, 38 percent, said they had between two and four partners. About 68 percent said they were satisfied with their sex lives, while only 8 percent said they were not very satisfied or not satisfied at all.Research conducted by the Kinsey Institute said 1 in 4 acts of intercourse were protected by condom use. The largest group surveyed that reported condom use in the past 10 sex experiences was males between the ages of 14 and 17, at 79.1 percent; but among the 18 to 24 age group, 45 percent of males reported condom use in their past 10 sex experiences and 38.7 percent for females. The birth control pill remains the most popular contraceptive method for women, at 62 percent of women ages 15 to 55.