RUS Hosts Sex Toy Workshop

The Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) hosted an informal sex toys workshop yesterday in an effort to help women realize that they can provide their own sexual pleasure.

About 30 female undergraduates attended the event, held in the Adams House upper common room, which featured an hour-long presentation by Grand Opening employee Megara.

Grand Opening is a sex boutique in Brookline that caters specifically to women.

“You’re single, you’re at college and sex is a dangerous thing. This is a good option,” said Malaika V. Butoyi ’04.

Megara walked the audience through her colorful, multi-flavored tub of wares, which included everything from run-of-the-mill items like condoms and lubricants to more unusual objects like vibrators disguised as lipstick.

She also demonstrated a hands-free, strap-on vibrator that she suggested, half-jokingly, be worn on the T.

“Everybody would be like, ‘Where’s that buzzing coming from?’” Megara said.

During her presentation, partly a crash course on the use and diversity of sex toys and partly a sex education course, Megara answered what she said were frequently asked questions.

Megara said using vibrators, for example, does not usually decrease the amount of pleasure women feel during sex with a partner.

On the contrary, she said regular use of vibrators might increase pleasure.

“An orgasm is a muscular response to some degree,” she said. “The more exercise the area gets the more easily you’ll orgasm.”

Megara passed the many vibrators around the audience as she spoke, later encouraging audience members to test the lubricants and other products on display.

RUS President Lisa Vogt ’01-’02, who thought of the idea while she was shopping at Grand Opening earlier this year, said she had initially been surprised at the amount of support she received regarding the workshop.

“I expected people to think it was unusual, but most of the people I’ve talked to have been very excited,” Vogt said.

Vogt said the only criticisms of the event she received came from males.

To ensure that the workshop’s environment was comfortable for attendees, Vogt publicized the event only to select individuals and kept the location under wraps until yesterday morning.

Workshop participant Julia C. Reischel ’04 said she thought the workshop was beneficial.

“Contrary to popular belief, I think this is an empowering thing to go to for women,” Reischel said. “It really demystifies sex and makes it something you can talk about, makes it less scary.”

Yesterday’s workshop was RUS’s first such event. But Vogt said the event seems popular enough to hold again next year.

Vogt added that the workshop was “in keeping” with RUS’s mission—creating a community for women on campus and helping women to be heard at Harvard. RUS was the student governing body of Radcliffe College before the Harvard-Radcliffe merger in 1999.

—Staff writer Juliet J. Chung can be reached at jchung@fas.harvard.edu.