The University of Rhode Island’s Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC) is hosting Sex Fest from Wednesday to Friday.
Annie Russell, the director of the GSC, said that when she used to work at Ohio University, they held a week called Sex Fest, which she didn’t plan but participated in. She said in her 11 years at URI, she’s thrown out the idea of having a Sex Fest on campus to students.
“For years, I’ve wanted to bring that to another university,” Russell said. “It was just an amazing week of investigating all things sex and sex-related.”
Emma Rousseau, a third-year student majoring in gender and women’s studies and sociology with a minor in social justice and civic responsibilities and a mental health & wellness specialist at the GSC, said she was interested in getting involved with Sex Fest to make people feel comfortable when talking about sex.
“I really wanted to make a space here on campus where people could be happy about their bodies,” Rousseau said.
The week will kick off on Wednesday from 12-2 p.m. in the Memorial Union with body cookies.
“We’re going to have penises and vulvas and boobs and folks can come decorate the cookies and just learn about what we’re going to do for the next four days,” Russell said.
Later in the day from 6-7 p.m. at the GSC will be an event with COYOTE RI, a group whose goal is to “initiate harm reduction models, advocate for the health and safety of sex workers and to support sex workers who are in crisis,” according to their website.
“They [COYOTE RI] essentially work to be very sex-positive and to encourage all sex-positive things in the state of Rhode Island and really combat the old morality approach to sex and sexuality,” Russell said. “And so they’re fantastic so they’re gonna come and talk about what they do.”
COYOTE is also an acronym for “Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics” and, according to Rousseau, the group will discuss what’s going on in Rhode Island in terms of sex work and legislation involving sex work.
On Thursday from 5-7 p.m. at the GSC is the “Sexual Pleasure Safe Zone,” where the role of pleasure in sex will be highlighted, especially within marginalized groups.
“There’s the idea that, if the man is pleasured, then that’s perfectly fine, then everything’s good because we’re in such a patriarchal and male-dominated society,” Rousseau said. “So, we wanted to be able to start talking about sexual pleasure in an academic way but also make it so people realize that we’re not just here to please cisgender men.”
Russell said that this school year’s fests are different from previous iterations because of the inclusion of keynote speakers.
“If we’re going to make this [Sex Fest] a thing, because it was really popular, we need to kind of amp up what we were going to do with it,” Russell said. “We need to bring someone that can talk about sex-positivity or something in a very dynamic way that would bring people out.”
In the fall, Sinn Sage, an award-winning adult film star and producer, spoke. This spring, the GSC will host a keynote and dinner on Wednesday from 7-9 p.m. with Chelsea Poe, a transgender porn actress. Poe will show clips of her work and talk about her experience in the videos and in the industry.
On Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the quad is “Sex on the Quad,” where there’s going to be music and booths from different organizations, and the GSC’s booth will have live body painting.
Rousseau said the organizations in attendance will be: PFLAG, Women’s Center, Health Services, URECA, Planned Parenthood, Coyote RI, SAGA, Counseling Services, APRI, Katrina and URI Police.
To finish off spring Sex Fest is a campus-wide favorite, according to Rousseau: sex toy bingo, from 8-10 p.m. in the Quinn Hall Auditorium.
Russell and Rousseau said over 200 people came for last semester’s sex toy bingo and they actually had to turn people away because the Union Ballroom couldn’t hold any more people.
“The people that are coming to these kinds of events are saying, ‘I never thought I would find the space to be able to actually talk about this, I have felt embarrassed to be able to bring this up,’” Russell said. “Just like any other dimension of growth and development, sexually is a critical part of our growth and development.”
Rousseau said it’s been a goal of hers to create more accepting, inclusive spaces on campus through her role at the GSC and Sex Fest has had a large part in achieving that goal.
“I think people have genuinely a good reaction to it [Sex Fest] because so many people are having sex, but it’s so stigmatized to talk about it,” Rousseau said. “And when you see other people at Sex Fest or at Sex Toy Bingo and they’re talking about sex and they’re in this community where it’s okay to be open and honest about sexual experiences, it just makes people so much more comfortable to be themselves.”