Letter to the Editor

In the April 10th edition of The Penn, the “Penn Editorial” was about how Sex Week and Library Week are occurring at the same time but Sex Week was getting the attention over Library Week.  

I would like to tell those of you who are looking at Sex Week with such disdain to follow your own suggestion mentioned toward the end of the editorial. The sentence “Do some research” is used when telling students to take advantage of the library. The writers of that editorial should learn to follow their own words and do research about an event before talking down about it.  

Sex Week was not just an event going “hey look at all this random sexual stuff and people doing it in public.” Sex Week is about educating people on sex in a way that keeps students attention. The Sex and Drag Bingo event on 4/9 taught terminology, including talk about abstinence. Sex and Mocktails on 4/10 had students gathering to participate in challenges such as putting a condom on a cucumber correctly. Emphasis in that challenge was on “correctly” because of the risk of pregnancy or transmission of STDs/STIs if the condom were to break. Those involved in Sex Week gathered students to add some extra participants to Take Back the Night on 4/11 which is an effort to stop sexual violence. Thursday (4/12) was the “Sex Carnival” after the Sex and Gender Conference in the HUB where educational workshops as well informational tables were set up. Finally, on Friday the 13th, Sex Week got involved with the Slut Walk which is done to combat the rape culture in the U.S. The ending of Sex Week was Glitz & Glamour. An event about being able to bend the staunch gender roles society places on people. An event that put a donation jar out for the National Center for Transgender Equality.  

Sex Week was a week for education. A week of opening minds to ideas outside of the gender binary.  

Do some research.

Joseph Pullins

sophomore, criminology

J.A.Pullins@iup.edu