RUS Plans Women’s Sex Toy Event

The Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) will host a sex toy party next Tuesday for Harvard women, in an effort to emphasize women’s sexual independence.

RUS president Elizabeth C. Vogt ’02 said the party, which she recently called a tupperware party with sex toys in an e-mail message to RUS members, could give women a new way to “challenge patriarchal society.”

“If you know that you can satisfy your own sexual desire without relying on someone else, you can gain of lot of power in romantic relationships,” Vogt wrote in the e-mail.

The event will feature a representative of the Brookline sex boutique Grand Opening!, who will introduce various sex products to party attendees.

Vogt says there will be product displays rather than demonstrations, and that only women are asked to attend.

“It will be a chance to look at toys out of their boxes in a non-sleazy, supportive atmosphere,” Vogt wrote in an e-mail message to The Crimson.

The student group Girlspot, not RUS, has sponsored sex-toy events in the past at Harvard.

Girlspot co-chair Janet K. Hanseth ’00-’01 said that she has not had time to organize such an event this year, but that she feels it is a good event for a women’s group like RUS to sponsor.

“I think its right in line with mainstream feminism,” she said.

Hanseth said she attended a similar party two years ago at the College, and felt it was a positive experience for the women who attended.

“People were really shy at first, but people really opened up,” she said. Hanseth said she thought it was important that the women become more comfortable with the toys, and hence with sex and their own bodies.

“Some people who call themselves feminists think that all sex equals rape,”

she said. “I think if you enjoy sex, that’s wonderful, because it means you’re comfortable with your body.”

But the sex educator who will present the sex toys for Grand Opening! at the RUS, Megara, who goes only by her first name, said feminism is often only part of the driving force behind events like this.

“I don’t specifically have a feminist agenda,” she said. “I do have an agenda that includes open communication.”

Though she often presents to college groups on pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, Megara said the toy parties are typically more informal, often in the context of bachelorette parties and other private parties.

“I think they’re fun,” she said of the events. “They’re also an opportunity for people to talk about sexuality, which people don’t get a lot of chance to do in a safe and supportive atmosphere.”