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I am used to having fellow students roll their eyes at me and be annoyed by the sex-positive attitude that I take, which can sometimes make them uncomfortable. This pervasive attitude made me less likely to speak up in class, because I believed that I would be retaliated against by fellow students for the comments I would make and the questions that I would ask. The quote that best sums up the majority sentiment of the class, or at least the students who had enrolled in the class as a “joke course” for their senior year, was what one of them said to me near the end of the semester: “I signed up for a porn class-not a gay porn class.” However, fellow classmates began admonishing our professor for the content that she chose to teach. However, by the end of the semester, I had engaged in so much self-censorship because of other students’ attitudes that my experience in the course was severely damaged.Īt the beginning of the course, we had to sign a waiver saying that we had read the syllabus and were aware that there would be sexual content in the course that would likely make us uncomfortable at some point. Within my small discussion group with the professor and through the course reading, I got to explore the subject openly and academically-and I loved it. One of my favorite professors was teaching the course, and a lot of my fellow Women and Gender Studies majors and friends were enrolled. I worked my entire schedule around this course because it was the only time it would be offered during my college career. Last semester, I took a class entitled The History of Pornography and Prostitution. However, if my university were to adopt the new definition of sexual harassment used by OCR, “any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature” (including “verbal conduct,” also known as speech), then I would need to engage in a lot of self-censorship to avoid the inevitable accusations that I could foresee being made against me. In addition to my extracurriculars surrounding sexuality (I also work at the Women’s Center on campus), I am majoring in Women and Gender Studies.Īfter hearing about my very feminist list of extracurriculars, a reasonable person might assume that I would not have a problem with the May 9 “blueprint” (PDF) agreement that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) made with the University of Montana. I recently joined the Vanderbilt Peer Sex Educators, an organization of students formed to increase the campus dialogue surrounding sexual health. Madeline Gootman is a FIRE summer intern.Īs most of my friends will tell you, I am an outspoken young woman when it comes to matters of sexuality and sexual health.