By Sophia Rosenthal '17
Staff Writer

Bananas, condoms  and sexual health pamphlets are spread across the table, but this is no high school sex ed class. Instead of a classroom of embarrassed students and an awkwardly enthusiastic gym teacher, this discussion was created by students for students. The Sexuality at Scripps event at the Sallie Tiernan Field House on Feb. 9 was one of several events hosted by the Scripps Peer Health Educators as part of National Sexual Health Week.

The event, which was planned and lead by Raquel Selcer ‘17, focused largely on hookup culture and the discourse surrounding sex and relationships on campus. “Sexuality is not really talked about very openly on the campuses...while certain aspects of it might be...like gender or sexual orientation, sexuality as an overall topic...which involves consent, which involves heteronormativity, which involves hookup culture, is not really discussed,” Selcer said. “I just wanted to open a platform for people to talk about how they felt and their experiences.”
The discussion touched on everything from how casual hookups affect safe sex to the way emotions and expectations interact with sexual encounters.

The evening culminated with practical tools for navigating sexuality as a college student, including putting condoms and dental dams on fruit, and a “yes/no/maybe” chart that can be used to explore boundaries with partners. As a safe space to talk about sexuality in a more holistic sense, the event was an appropriate kick-off to a week of open discussion and information.