'Sex Week' Lures College Students to Educate Themselves

Prostate pleasure, talking dirty and other topics are on tap for Sex Week 2013 at Brown University. CREDIT: Anton Zabielskyi / Shutterstock.com View full size image

At Brown University's Sex Week 2013, no topic is taboo.

Following an introductory seminar on "Fornication 101," which covered basic topics such as putting condoms on with your mouth and G-spot stimulation, and yesterday's (March 13) presentation on "Queering the Toybox," featuring eco-friendly gay sex toys and products that remember user preferences through integrated microchips, there's really nowhere left to go, right?

Wrong. Tonight's workshop will address "The Ultimate Guide to Prostate Pleasure," where men will explore "how much fun prostate stimulation can be," according to the official event schedule.

The workshop will be presented by Charlie Glickman, co-author of "The Ultimate Guide to Prostate Pleasure: Erotic Exploration for Men and their Partners" (Cleis Press, 2013). Topics to be covered will include prostate massage, toys for prostate stimulation and more.

Sex Week has become an annual tradition on college campuses like USC, Yale, Harvard and other institutions, according to Neon Tommy, a publication of the USC Annenberg School of Communication.

Though Sex Week seminars often use titillating titles like "Sex and Chocolate in the Dark," they often use those erotic phrases to fill a room, then present practical discussions designed to help students talk about sexual health in a more positive way, Neon Tommy reports.

When Harvard University presented a workshop called "Dirty Talk," "a lot of people just thought it was going to be tips on how to talk dirty, but it really wasn’t," student Brenda Serpis told Neon Tommy. "It was just like, being consensual and comfortable in expressing yourself with your partner."

Despite their reputation as hotbeds of sexual liaisons, college campuses still have some old-fashioned attitudes about sex. A 2012 study found that casual hookups haven't replaced romantic relationships for many students, particularly female freshmen.

"While hooking up gets more attention in the media, college students continue to develop romantic relationships, which are actually the most common context for sexual behavior," said Robyn L. Fielder, a research intern at the Miriam Hospital, affiliated with Brown University.

And even men can get shunned for being campus Casanovas, a survey reveals. The survey, which involved more than 19,000 college students, found that about half of students lose respect for people of either sex who hook up with multiple partners.

Email Marc Lallanilla or follow him @MarcLallanilla. Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.