Bearded lady, sex toys topics of lectures today

A bearded lady and sex toys will be the topics of two gender studies' lectures today in an effort to bring awareness to the IU Department of Gender Studies.\nGender studies professor Lynn Comella will be presenting a seminar called "Sex Talk, Sex Toys and Sexual Health," as the first installment of the Sexual Health Research Working Group Sexual Health Seminar, series according to an IU press release. \nComella will be lecturing on research she's done on feminist sex toy stores in the United States, she said. The event will be held from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the Sassafras Room of the Indiana Memorial Union. It is sponsored by The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. \nAfter working as a researcher in a sex toy store called Babeland in New York City, Comella said she learned women-owned sex toy stores were about more than making money. \n"One of the things that interested me was these were more than just businesses that wanted to make money, but they were businesses that really wanted to help power people around their sexuality," Comella said. \nComella has presented her research at the University of Massachusetts, Columbia University and both the National and International Communication Associations, she said, but this is her first lecture on the topic at IU. \n"I think it's interesting to students because a number of students casually visit sex toy stores and use sex toys," she said. "They might find it interesting to think about questions of sexual education and sexual health in a setting that isn't school or that isn't a health center." \nThe gender studies department will also present a lecture by Jennifer Miller at 7 p.m. Wednesday night in the IU Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Centerat 275 N. Jordan Ave. \nThe free event will feature Miller, a lesbian who has decided to live her life with a beard, said Suzanna Walters, chair of the Department of Gender Studies, who worked to bring Miller to campus. \nMiller is the director of Circus Amok, a New York City-based circus theater, said Susan Seizer, associate professor of communication and culture, who helped bring Miller to IU.\nAfter showing her documentary "Juggling Gender," Miller will be answering questions and may perform part of her sideshow act, Seizer said, which includes juggling and stilt walking.\n"She has a lot to say about issues of social justice and re-imagining gender in our culture," Walters said. "She chose to see what would happen if she didn't do that. She sort of lives in the world in a way that's very different from many of us"