Health center brings sex education to campus

This week at IU is all about sex.
Sexploration at IU features events during Sept. 19-23 as the opening week of the IU Health Center’s Wellness Weeks events, which will continue in October.

“For our fourth annual Sexploration Week, similar to our past weeks, we’ve tried to include a combination of serious, fun, educational and entertaining events,” said Kathryn Brown, a certified sex educator and health educator at the IU Health Center.

“This year is no exception, and we still feel that providing these events and activities to IU students, as well as the larger IU and Bloomington communities, is sex education at its very best.

“It’s an opportunity to explore the many dimensions of orientation-inclusive sexuality,” Brown said. “It’s an opportunity for any individual to challenge their own perceptions about sexuality in general and their self-perceptions.”

Sex talk
“Americans and Sex: What they do, who they do it with and what they think about it” will be presented from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m. Wednesday in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation Auditorium.

The presentation is from a National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior.

“This national sex study was the largest nationally representative study of sexual behavior ever conducted in the United States,” said Debby Herbenick, associate director of IU’s Center for Sexual Health Promotion and author of “Because it Feels Good.”

The survey asked men and women ages 14-94 about their sexual behavior.

“People tend to be curious about what others like them, or different from them, are doing sexually,” Herbenick said.

“This presentation will give students a good opportunity to learn more about sex research going on right here on the IU-Bloomington campus and learn more about why it matters and a little about the history of sex research, which this campus has been an integral part in shaping.”

Another aspect of Herbenick’s work is IUSecrets, a localized version of the PostSecret project.

Herbenick began the project by asking — but not requiring — her Human Sexuality students to anonymously share a secret on a decorated notecard in 2010, and Herbenick said their participation has given her an insight into the lives around her.

IUSecrets will be a part of Sexploration Week as students can share a secret and send the notecard via campus mail to HPER 116, Department of Applied Health Science.
For more information on IUSecrets, visit iusecrets.tumblr.com.

Sex Trafficking
When: Noon to 1 p.m. today
Where: Frangipani Room at the Indiana Memorial Union
More info: Stepanka Korytova, visiting scholar in residence at the IU Center for the Study of Global Change, will discuss the history and Indiana laws of global human trafficking at “The Many Faces of Human Trafficking.”

Mobile Health Unit
When: Noon to 5 p.m.  Tuesday
Where: East Seventh Street near the IU Art Museum
More info: The bus will offer free sexually transmitted infection testing for men, as well as information on sexuality, nutrition and how to quit smoking.

Speed dating session
When: 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday
Where: State Room East of the Union.

Dating game show
When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: La Casa Latino Cultural Center, 715 E. Seventh St.

Drag show Performance: “the West End Girls”
When: 10 p.m. to midnight Friday
Where: Uncle Elizabeth’s Nightclub, 1614 W. Third St.
More info: Students must be 21 or older to attend.

For a full schedule of events, visit healthcenter.indiana.edu/wellness.