For those who are sex-positive, sex-curious, or just plain sexy

Sex Week 2013

Posted on March 11, 2013 by brownsheec

Sex Week is here! Check out our schedule here and on Facebook!

Saturday, March 9th Pre-Sex Week Kick-off!

Sex Trivia, SHAG & SFC

6pm @ Petterutii Lounge

What’s the most common fetish?
What does “g-string” stand for?
What was the first condom made of?
What other animals engage in oral sex?

To find out, join the Sexual Health Awareness Group (SHAG) and Students for Choice (SFC) in Sex Trivia Night to kick off Sex Week!

Sign up your teams of up to 5 people now by emailing shag@brown.edu with your team roster. *PLEASE SIGN UP ASAP* so that we have an idea of how much food to get! There will be pizza, desserts, prizes and, of course, plenty of fun sex trivia, with categories ranging from ‘History of Sex’ to ‘Philias, Phobias, and “Phetishes”‘.

Monday, March 11th

Tabling

Join SHEEC and SHAG on the main green for a surprise gift bag of sexy treats!

“Fornication 101″, Megan Andelloux

7pm @ Metcalf AUD

Megan Andelloux is a certified sexologist and sexuality educator, and the director of the Center for Sexual Health and Pleasure in Pawtucket, RI. Her presentation, Fornication 101, will introduce students to carnal knowledge, comfort in awkward situations and hot safer sex behaviors. Topics include, but are certainly not limited to: ejaculation, petting kitties, putting condoms on with your mouth, anal adventures, G-spot stimulation, and sexual positions. You will not want to miss this!

Topics and exposure include: Ejaculation, petting kitties, putting condoms on with your mouth, anal adventures, g-spot stimulation, and sexual positions.

Tuesday, March 12th

“Communication and Consent”, FemSex

5pm @ Wilson 101

FemSex facilitators, Lindsay Sovern ’14 and Anna Quinn ’13, will be leading a workshop on personal definitions of consent, active and passive desires, and brainstorming communication tools. If you have ever been curious about FemSex and want to see what a discussion would be like, you definitely want to check this out!

“Dirty Talk”, Ben Privot

8pm @ MacMillan 115

Come immerse yourself in a sex-positive environment and learn why consensual hooking up is hotter hooking up. Learn ways to build consent with your partners and hookups, and how to best express yourself to discover common ground with those your into. Oh, and did we mention free sex toys?

Wednesday, March 13th

“Queering the Toybox”, Aida Manduley

7pm @ Metcalf Aud

Aida Manduley ’11 is the Sexual Health Advocate at Sojourner House and the Programming and Development Coordinator at the Center for Sexual Health and Pleasure. She will be returning to her alma mater with an interactive workshop on sex toys.

Going beyond a Sex Toys 101 while still remaining accessible to those who’ve never stepped foot inside a sex-shop, this interactive workshop will introduce you to new technologies in the world of sex toys. Curious about eco-friendly items, or products that remember your preferences through integrated microchips? Perhaps you’ve heard about teledildonics, toys designed specifically for queer people, or insertables made out of moonstone… With a focus “queering” as a technological, political, and personal move, we’ll talk about how to engage our sexualities and identities in the pursuit of pleasure objects that are held to higher standards and turn normative spaces on their head.

“selfservice.brown.edu”, SHAG

9pm @ Smith Buannano 101

Thursday, March 14th

“The Ultimate Guide to Prostate Pleasure”, Charlie Glickman

4pm @ Wilson 105

Are you curious about prostate play? Or maybe you’ve tried you’ve tried it and want some tips to make it even more fun? Charlie Glickman PhD, author of The Ultimate Guide to Prostate Pleasure: Erotic Exploration for Men and their Partners, will give you all the info you need to see for yourself why more men and their partners are discovering how much fun prostate stimulation can be. He’ll talk about the common concerns that sometimes keep people from exploring it (and how to overcome them), tips for easy and pleasureable anal penetration, prostate massage, which toys work best for prostate fun, pegging, combining prostate pleasure with other kinds of sex, and much more. Whether you’re just starting out or you already enjoy prostate play, come learn some new ways to make sex lots of fun! For more info about Charlie, please visit his website, on Facebook , or on Twitter.

“Sex, Shame and Love”, Charlie Glickman

7pm @ List 120

Shame influences and shapes sexuality for almost everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, and individual desires. If we want to overcome and move past sexual shame, we need to understand how it works and how it affects us. Charlie Glickman PhD has been studying and exploring sexual shame for over a decade and he’ll unpack how it works. Developing shame resilience makes it easier to deal with this difficult but inevitable emotion, along with jealousy, loss, and fear. It also helps us create more space to give and receive love, explore our authentic selves, and build the relationships that suit us. Through both presentation and facilitated discussion, you’ll find new ways to keep shame from getting in the way and create the relationships that work for you! For more info about Charlie, please visit his website, on Facebook , or on Twitter.

“Sex and Chocolate in the Dark”, SFC

9pm @ Hillel Meeting Room

Celebrate Sex Week with an open discussion about all things sex in a safe, comfortable environment. Bring blankets, pillows, friends, and questions for a night of cozy conversation in a dark, anonymyzing space. The evening with be moderated by a panel of knowledgeable sexperts from the Brown Community. Come prepared to just listen, ask questions, or share your own advice and stories. Oh yeah, and be prepared to eat tons of nature’s greatest aphrodisiac: chocolate. Organized by Students for Choice and SHEEC for Sex Week 2013!

Friday, March 14th

The Guilty Feminist, Kaytee Stewart

1pm @ Faunce Memorial Room

Come have lunch and chat with Kaytee Stewart, who will be facilitating a conversation with students around the idea of “feminist guilt”.

Kaytee Stewart is heavily involved in queer and feminist activism. Her research focus has been on expanding the meaning and application of feminism in policy (particularly around transgender and genderqueer, gender-variant inclusivity and fluidity through disrupting binaried understanding of gender as the predicate for rights and protections) but beyond her academic focus, she has become increasingly interested in how we define, police and judge what can count as feminism and who can embody, live out and identify with feminist ideology. She aims to explore and understand the concept of feminist guilt, as we navigate a world with complex expectations for us as gendered people and feminists.

Saturday, March 16th

“Orgasm Inc.” Film Screening, SHEEC

6pm @ Zete Lounge

Sunday, March 17th

“Sex Week Finale: Lace and Leather Burlesque Show”, SHEEC

6pm @ List Art 110 and 120

Show Yr Body Love!

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Aida Manduley

Though Love Your Body Day is officially Wednesday the 17th of October this year, Brown celebrated their LYBD today, organized by Students for Choice! SHEEC had a table, along with other Brown and community organizations (Brown Health Education, SHAG, the Queer Alliance, the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, Feminists at Brown, Psychological Services, Planned Parenthood, RI NOW, Comprehensive Allyship Network, the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health, and Sojourner House).

In order to participate in Love Your Body Day/Domestic Violence Awareness Month and raise funds for Sojourner House, a local advocacy and resource center for domestic violence, we’re going to have Love Your Body Photo Shoots. We’ll offer sessions of about 10-15 minutes, where we essentially take pics of favorite body parts. We’ll have people pick their favorite body part(s), draw a heart (we’ll have different color body paints, markers, and glitter), we take pics, then have them printed. The pics will be matte BW and the heart will stay in color. We’re going to print the pics, which will be relatively inexpensive. If possible, we’ll also have some sort of exhibit in a physical space. If not, then we’ll definitely display them online.

Here are the prices:

5×7 1/$4 or 3/$10

8×10 1/$6

For more information, email brownsheec@gmail.com!

Starting Your Sex Week! (Free Teleclass)

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Aida Manduley

** Register for Call and Download Here: http://ReidAboutSex.com/sex-week-teleclass-signup **

The event goes by many names, but whether you call it Sex Week, Condom Week, Safer Sex Week, Sex & Gender Week, or what have you, for those of you passionate about healthy sex and relationships (for yourself AND your fellow students), organizing a Sex Week-type event at your school is one of the most powerful ways to impact your campus culture!

If bringing accurate sexual health information and pleasure-based sex education to your fellow students is important to you?
Wishing there was a campus-wide way to lessen sexual shame while promoting healthy, sexual self-expression in all it’s forms?
Are you interested in upping the discourse around topics like feminism, sex, dating, relationships, LGBTA, pornography at your school?
How about making dating and sex more fun and safe during your college years (and those of your classmates)?!?
Perhaps you already have a Sex Week-type event on your campus and you want to make it better?

If any of the above inspire you, please join some of the brightest Sex Week organizers and sex and relationship educators of our time for a free, 90-minute, conference call (also downloadable for free if you miss it!) containing their best advice, as well as worst nightmares!

Our “Sex Week Think Tank” includes: Call moderator Reid Mihalko of ReidAboutSex.com, Megan Adelloux of OhMegan.com, Aida Manduley, formerly of Brown Sex Week, Courtney Peters of Sex Week At Yale, and others To Be Announced shortly!

Recording Date: August 21st, 2012
Teleclass Time: 3pm Eastern – 4:30 Eastern
Location: Call-In from Anywhere Teleclass or Register and Download for Later!
Register for Call and Download: http://ReidAboutSex.com/sex-week-teleclass-signup

How To Start a Sex Week On Your Campus: The Ins and Outs of Planning, Promoting and Pulling Off a Successful Sex Week At Your School! will attempt to cover:

• Why you might want to create a Sex Week or make your existing one better
• What to do
• What NOT to do
• How to design the Sex Week that’s right for your campus
• How to pool resources so it’s not just one person doing everything
• How to collaborate with other campuses and organizations
• How to research, invite, book, negotiate, and handle your speakers in a professional manner
• Sponsorships, etc.
• How to deal with administration
• Promotion on campus
• How to handle the media
• Challenges with inclusivity
• How to deal with push-back and negative response

We already confess that this is too much information to cover in a 90-minute call, but we promise you to give you our best thinking, tips and advice, and point you toward valuable resources that will help you create a more powerful event while making it more fun for you as well as your classmates!

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel! Your campus deserves better sexual health resources and outreach! And we could all use some more fun in our sex education!

Join us and spread the word!

The Blue Rose: A Spoken Word Showcase to Break the Silence on Abuse!

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Aida Manduley

It’s time to SPEAK OUT!

April is National Sexual Abuse and Child Abuse Awareness Month. Join SHEEC as we present a powerful Spoken Word Showcase that brings these issues out into the open. Only the abusers value our silence and isolation, so now it is time to BREAK the SILENCE around child and sexual abuse.

On Thursday, April 12th at 8pm in List 120 (64 College Street), a group of powerful poets will be sharing their stories with you, with open arms to Male Survivors as patrons and poets. The goal is to keep the dialogue open, keep telling our stories, and enCOURAGE others to tell theirs.

Society has made victims and survivors feel “dirty”, “ashamed”, “embarrassed” and “afraid” of the abuse they have endured. Let’s promote support for survivors! Talking about the abuse will help remove the stigma attached to it for the victims. It’s time to take away the power of the abusers and put it in the hands, minds and hearts of the survivors!

April is just the beginning!

Showcase Appearances by: Toni Rose, Pat Martin-Rossi, Amy Doran, Christopher Johnson, Porsha O, Claudia Wilson, Michaelle Santil, Neiel Israel, Quentin Lucas and other guest poets.

The event will take place on THURSDAY, APRIL 12th at 8 pm in LIST 120 (64 College Street). You will leave the show entertained, enlightened, encouraged, empowered, and informed. This is NOT an event you want to miss!

The event is FREE, but donations are *encouraged*. These will go toward Sojourner House, a local domestic violence agency that was founded by Brown students 35 years ago!

Sex Week 2012: Erotica Contest

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Aida Manduley

Have you ever fantasized about doing sexy things while studying abroad? Ever fantasized about watching sexy people do sexy things while studying abroad? Whatever you dream about, we want you to write down your sexiest/kinkiest/funniest piece of erotica and submit it to enter our contest. Winners will receive a prize from one of our Sex Week sponsors and get their story posted (& credited if desired) on the SHEEC website.

The theme is INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS: erotic study abroad experiences. Thinking boy-on-boy, phe-on-phe, shaking up the beds while a Parisian breeze blows in through the window? Get as creative as you can, just as long as you do not include the real first and last names of the people you write about if your story comes from personal experience.

Length (of the story, of course) can vary; we embrace all styles. If you are inclined to make art instead of writing, drawings, paintings, and other media are also welcome.

Submit your stories to eroticasheec@gmail.com or campus box #3354 by March 16th. Sign them with your real name and/or your campus box # so we can contact you. Winners will be announced March 17th via our Facebook page, website, and Twitter account (@brownsheec). Let the games begin!

Sex Week 2012: Sex Around the Globe

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Aida Manduley

Check out our calendar of events on our static page or Facebook.

And, of course, a big thank you to our fabulous sponsors this year.

“Your Ignorance Is Showing”

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Aida Manduley

Alternatively titled: “A Response to Cate Stewart and Lisa Lansio”

and originally posted here by Aida.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m one of the two co-leaders of SHEEC this year–a group with which I’ve been heavily involved since its inception in 2008/2009. I was at a conference in Colorado this week and sadly had to miss 3 of our events, including a showcase/open-mic in honor of Wear Purple Day/Spirit Day and Love Your Body Day that would benefit Sojourner House, a local domestic violence agency founded by Brown students in 1976. The Showcase featured 2 local poets, the Gendo Taiko (Japanese drumming) crew, Attitude (a dance troupe), as well as a few other performers (of the singing/acoustic-guitar variety).

After a set of great performances, the last two individuals who signed up for the open-mic portion took the stage and began to attack the event and the people who were in it, saying that having a campus pole-dancing troupe perform was “not respectful” and that “it just perpetuated gender roles and objectified women.” One said that “she came here expecting to be empowered, but that’s not what happened for her at all” and that we “need to stop singing about gendered things” (and I believe the example was getting kissed in parking lots? Which…what?).

The other added that “women need to stop playing the victimized role, stop blaming men for our problems, women bring it upon themselves” and that “women have the power just as much as men and are as much to blame for abuse as men, that women are not chained to the floor and can just walk away from abusive situations.” That same one mentioned some of the performers who talked about abuse or abused women and their mindsets have no right to speak issues that they were not physically a part of (which is actually inaccurate, but I’ll get to that later).

This is my response, not only as SHEEC’s Co-Chair, but as an individual:

First of all, the controversial pole-dancing performance. I’m tired of defending and explaining this one, so I’ll keep it short and sweet. Empowering women doesn’t mean desexualizing them. Objectification is only a problem if it’s not paired with due subjectification (read this post as well as the comments). Finally, we support a group of educated women who want to “stretch the boundaries of pole dancing as something far more than simply sexy,” who “want to create a place where people feel comfortable, athletic, and yes, sexy!” and who “consistently challenge the stereotypes that surround vertical dancing, and seek to bring together a wide range of art forms through experimentation and openness in [their] performances.”

We wanted to showcase individuals who would address the core of our event, who would speak to their relationships with their bodies via song/dance/poetry and would show us a bit of themselves through their art. This event wasn’t meant to empower every person, but provide a space so people could share what empowered them and talk about what didn’t. Sorry, Cate and Lisa, if this didn’t empower you personally, but that’s not what the event was for. We wanted to start the conversation and show the varied emotions people had regarding their bodies, trying to focus on the positive, but also trying to highlight the complexity and (thus billing it as something “silly and serious and complex” in our advertising).

Now, what I consider the most egregious part of this evening (again, from what I’ve been told) was the commentary around abuse and the power women do or don’t have.

As a CLASS of people, no, women do not have the same power men have. This, of course, is affected by the intersections of people’s identities and how they affect their place on the social ladder/s, but if we’re only considering it on the axis of sex, no. We are not seen as equal and we do not have the same power men do. Some individual women may have more power in specific contexts, but ask yourself–is that because they’re women or is it because of something else? And furthermore, think of the difference between winning a battle and winning the war. Few and exceptional individual cases of powerful women don’t erase the massive inequalities across society.

We are not blaming individual men for “our problems.” First of all, they’re EVERYONE’S problems. Second of all, what we *are* blaming is a system that in most instances, privileges men and masculinity and devalues or even punishes women and femininity (not that the two–m/m and w/f–are inextricably joined, but are often thought to be). It’s not the fault of individual men (or women) acting in a vacuum; it’s the fault of everyone taking actions that contribute to this system, and that’s why EVERYONE has to work against it.

“Women bring it upon themselves” is such a problematic statement, I don’t even know where to begin. My first reaction is to say “Your privilege and ignorance are showing.” I’ll call upon the words of S. Biko: “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” READ ABOUT OPPRESSION AND POWER. Expand your myopic view. Your personal experience as a a woman and even as a victim/survivor of abuse does not qualify you to invalidate the experience of others, particularly women who have experienced trauma.

Abusive situations are DEFINED by a power and control imbalance, so NO, if the abusive partner in a male/female couple is the male, the female partner does NOT have the same power. She is also NOT TO BLAME for the abuse; no victim of abuse ever is. Read up on slut-shaming and victim-blaming to educate yourself on this. Intimate partner abuse is also often reinforced by other forms of institutional abuse/power; again, these things don’t occur in a vacuum. Context is important!

Many circumstances make it difficult for women (or any abused partner) to walk away from their situation, and the comment about them “not being chained to the floor” is offensive in its disrespect and flagrant ignorance. This an excellent resource that answers the “why doesn’t she just leave?” question so often posed to and/or about victims. Also check this out for more information. I personally hate this question because it blames, shames, and disenfranchises victims, though I understand where it comes from (because I once asked it too).

I commend Jenn, Chay, Linh, and the other SHEEC planners that were there and handled this as gracefully as they could given the circumstances. Thank you for positively representing SHEEC and doing damage-control, for letting those two girls know that you respected their right to have an opinion and their desire to share it, but that they did not have to attack other performers to express them. I also want to thank the performers for weathering that storm and for reaching out to us after the event with very touching emails.

Having a conversation or constructive dialogue is not the same as being argumentative and rude. Debating a point is not the same as attacking a group of people and not listening to their defense. Constructive criticism is no the same as ignorant remarks made to shame others and devalue their experiences. Learn the difference, Lisa and Cate, and then try again. We’re willing to listen if you are.

SHEEC is a group that was made to address issues of gender, sex, sexuality, and all the things that go along with it. This means we aren’t going to shy away from difficult conversations, controversy, and tackling the taboos. In fact, it means we’re more likely to address them because we come from a place that sees addressing those topics as a PRESSING NEED instead of as something to be avoided. We want to make people feel challenged and productively uncomfortable while also nourishing those who need it and providing support for folks marginalized due to their sexuality or desires. If you are looking for a “safe” group that doesn’t push envelopes, this is not it.

Love Your Body Day/Wear Purple Day Showcase and Open Mic

Posted on October 21, 2011 by brownsheec

Overall the night was a great success. Thank you to the wonderful performers that shared their stories and many talents. They should be respected and admired for their courage and strength. It’s important to UNDERSTAND and REMEMBER that Love Your Body Day and Wear Purple Day in support of domestic violence awareness are about ACCEPTANCE and LOVE. Thanks to everyone who came out tonight for your support!

Spoon Me, Fork Me: An Evening of Sensual Pleasures

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Aida Manduley

(photo by Ben Fink, in The New InterCourses book)

Come to a delicious evening of sensual pleasures!

(PLEASE RSVP to brownsheec@gmail.com, though drop-ins are welcome. We just want to know how many people approx. plan on attending!)

Learn how to please lovers in bed with a workshop by Megan Andelloux focusing on the art of oral sex (a combination of Fabulous Fellatio and Female Sexual Pleasure), then partake in a delicious selection of hors d’oeuvres (based on traditional aphrodisiacs) and chocolate fondue to stimulate your palate. We’ll have a raffle and finish off the evening with a foreign film that beautifully synthesizes the magical qualities of sex, food, and sensuality (Like Water for Chocolate). Certainly an evening not to miss!

**OVERALL SCHEDULE**

8-10: workshop with Megan Andelloux **during which we’ll hand out the raffle tickets!**
10-11: raffle, food-tasting, and other magical wonders
11-1: Like Water for Chocolate movie screening

**WE’RE RAFFLING OFF**

a pair of Fun Factory Smart-Balls (chocolate-vanilla)
The New InterCourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook by Martha Hopkins and Randall Lockridge
combo of Intimate Organics energizing massage oil and bath gel in Orange and Wild Ginger
combo of Intimate Organics sensual massage oil and cleansing shower gel in Cocoa Bean and Goji Berry
Oysters & Chocolate: Erotic Stories of Every Flavor edited by Jordan LaRousse and Samantha Sade
more things TBA!

**WE’RE SERVING**

Libations:

raspberry iced-tea
lemon iced water

Seductive Starters:

mini beef wellington with demi glace sauce
asparagus wrapped prosciutto and boursin
5 spice duck on sweet potato cakes
onion tart
3 mushroom pizza
fig, honey and goat cheese

Delectable Desserts:

chocolate fondue station
strawberries, bananas, pineapple, pretzels, marshmallows
sugar cookies and biscotti

**IMPORTANT INFORMATION**

This event is a collaboration between SHEEC, the Brown Epicurean Society, and the Gender and Sexuality Studies DUG. We also want to thank Fascinations (www.funlove.com) for donating The New Intercourses, Kama Sutra Closet for donating the Oysters & Chocolate book, and Intimate Organics for donating their body products.

We’ll have condoms available at the event, as usual. This time, the variety will include Sir Richard’s condoms–a new, innovative condom company and brand with a commitment to social justice.