Orgasm Talk Draws Crowd

Certain topics seem to strike a chord with Harvard students—human rights, politics, and female orgasms.

Last night, over 200 students of all genders and sexual orientations lined up outside a jam-packed Adams Lower Common Room to attend a seminar on female orgasms.

Matie E. Fricker—a representative from the “sexuality boutique” Grand Opening—arrived with two plastic tub-fulls of sex toys, books, and safer sex supplies.

“You’re going to hear a lot about fucking tonight,” she announced to the crowd.

During her two-hour presentation, Fricker criticized negative social perspectives on female orgasms and said there is a scarcity of terms for female masturbation in contrast to the hundreds for male self-pleasure.

“If you’ve never felt one, do it,” Ficker said. “Some people say it feels better than the Red Sox winning.”

Alexander J. Tennant ’08 said after the meeting that the taboo surrounding the female orgasm is problematic.

“It’s a shame that our society looks down upon female orgasms,” he said.

Holding a puppet vulva in one hand and a dildo in another, Ficker described the different parts of the female genitalia and demonstrated different ways to give the female body pleasure.

She also emphasized the importance of protection, introducing the students to a variety of equipment such as male and female condoms, and dental dams.

“Safer sex is hot sex,” said Ficker, who has been a safer-sex educator since 1996. “Once you get over the hump of incorporating safer sex in your life, it’s worth it,” Ficker told the crowd. “Empowerment is sexy.”

With her uninhibited talk about female orgasms, students soon became comfortable with the topic and started freely tossing out questions.

One student asked what female ejaculation tasted like, to which Ficker answered that it is a sweet, thin liquid.

Another student asked her advice on condom brands, and Ficker suggested using Japanese condoms because they are thinner and safer.

“We could all use a little schooling on this stuff,” Virginia L. H. Schnure ’05 said.

Tennant said that he “learned a lot of techniques that will be very helpful in the future.”

One of the organizers of the seminar, Jenna M. Mellor ’08, said that females also need to learn about the topic.

“There are a lot of girls who aren’t orgasming,” said Mellor, who is also the special events coordinator for the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS).

“Female orgasm is something that affects everybody. It’s a great way to procrastinate, to relax, to get to know people, and yourself,” Mellor added.

“All women should orgasm as much as they can,” Max J. Warren ’08 said. “A sexually satisfied world is a peaceful world.”

The event was co-sponsored by the Association of Black Harvard Women, the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance, Latinas Unidas, and RUS.

—Staff writer Victoria Kim can be reached at vkim@fas.harvard.edu.