A Spooky, Sultry, Freshmen Parents-Filled Sex Week

These days, Harvard students have nothing to do but complain about midterm season. Starting today though, Harvard’s eighth annual Sex Week gives students a different reason to moan. Want the low-down on getting down and dirty? Lucky for you, Flyby has the inside scoop on everything you need to know about Sex Week.

A Quick(ie) Overview

Sex Week is exactly what it sounds like: a week of sex and relationship-related events and seminars. Run by SHEATH, Sexual Health Education and Advocacy Throughout Harvard College, Sex Week hosts about two events per day, covering topics from fetishes to period sex and everything in between.

Let’s Talk About Sexy, Baby

Whether you’re among the 60.8% of Harvard students who entered the College this year as virgins or are a bona fide sexpert, taking the time for some (s)extra education is never a bad idea. Sex Week’s seminars aren’t your parents’ sex ed (though your parents may attend). Gone are the days of watching your health teacher roll a condom onto a banana. From the essential to the taboo, Sex Week has every question you may have covered — and by experts, too! Seminars are instructed by PhD-holders, educators from Harvard Square’s favorite sex shop, Good Vibrations, and student panelists from organizations like the Harvard Foundation, QuOffice, and SHARC (Sexual Health Awareness and Relationship Communication). “We’re very close to Good Vibrations,” says Lita Peña ‘19, a fourth-year member and co-president of SHEATH, “and all of their store members are trained as sexual health educators.”

Looking for a hands-on experience or just want to spice up your Gcal with an event containing the word “orgasm” in the title? Drop by Sever 102 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. TODAY(!) for Sex Week’s kickoff event, “Say Yes to Safer Sex: Protection Methods 101.” Here you’ll get information on condoms, birth control, and all those preventative measures you’re less familiar with (there’s a birth control that goes in your arm?!).

Seven Sexy (Not Sinful!) Events

By Sex Week at Harvard Facebook

One can’t-miss event is tomorrow night, from 8-9:30 p.m. with Sex Week’s keynote speaker, Dr. Laurie Mintz, who will be speaking a pertinent subject from her best-selling book, "Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters and How to Get It." People with clitorises, and their partners, are encouraged to attend, but — as with all Sex Week events — all identities are welcome.

But Sex Week offers more than just your standard information sessions, offering interactive events and thought-provoking lectures and discussions. For a topic that goes beyond the bedroom, swing through Emerson 305 to catch “Swipe Right: Racial Preferences and Dating” this coming Tuesday from 8 to 9 p.m.

For the adventurous types, clear a space in your calendar this Halloween for “Hit Me Baby One More Time: BDSM in the Dorm Room,” in Sever 113 from 8 to 9:30 p.m. to explore how a world of whips and chains can coexist with living across the hall from your proctor. If you’re among the faction of college students whose motivation to attend free events is directly proportional to the amount of free swag available, Sex Week is definitely for you, with free safe sex supplies at all events this week. Don’t just raid the freebies and leave, though, because according to Peña, they raffle out free sex toys at the end of every event.

Get really interactive with events like “Feel Those Good Vibrations: Sex Toys 101,” (which conveniently overlaps with the first day of Parent’s Weekend, if you’re looking for a less traditional family bonding activity). This is the second-to-last event of Sex Week, which ends next Sunday, November 4th. Your learned parents might prefer “Sexpardy” that day — which is no, not a sex party, but a Jeopardy-style trivia event where you can test all you’ve learned throughout the week for ~fun~ prizes.

Whether you’re in it for the freebies or if you’re truly looking for a ~transformative learning experience~ (or even if you’re just there to spot your dhall crush in the Dirty Talk seminar), you can’t go wrong with attending these Sex Week events, so be sure to come as much as possible ;-).