[X]PRESS, SFSU STUDENT NEWSPAPER2007 Summit CoverageAnthropology Students Talk Sex On a day celebrating international workers, several students from the SF State anthropology department gathered together to celebrate a different kind of human right that encouraged sexual pleasure and sexual health. The fourth annual Human Rights Summit held its second, all-day event of student presentations, expert discussions and performances. The event, called "Power and Pleasure: Expressions and Repressions of Sexuality and Reproductive Rights, spread awareness over the repression of sexuality and the control over women’s reproductive rights. Sponsored by such organizations as the Students for Critical Anthropology, the Global Peace, Human Rights and Justice Program, Human Sexuality Studies Program and the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality, the event, run by students of the Anthropology and Human Rights Class whose presentations consisted of topics in Human Sexuality that they felt were powerful issues to discuss. “The students and I needed to get the word out about human rights,” said Assistant Professor Mariana L. Ferreira who created the Anthropology and Human Rights class in 2003. The students didn’t stop at just their presentations. With such organizations as the SF AIDS Foundation, A SAFE Place (Sexual Abuse Free Environment) and Good Vibrations, the students also helped organize outreach tables in Malcolm X Plaza to get students to become active in their communities and to practice safe sex. "Being a gay man, all these issues have always been important to me," said Gregory Hunt, 37, an anthropology major whose presentation was on international human rights for sexual minorities. "We are having theories, [examining] intricate details of sexuality and learning why and how it became like that." From topics scoping from gender violence to media portrayal of female sexuality, the students presented in depth glimpses of a variety of subjects, such as the social taboos of the word “vagina” and the media portrayal of African-American and Arab women. While snacking on hors d'oeuvres and downing apple juice, students in Hohenthal Gallery, located in the Science building, supported their fellow anthropology students, occasionally giggling when student Jennifer Kennedy showed a bakery advertisement that said “Our Bagel’s are like Vaginas: What’s not to Love” for her presentation on the word vagina. “We need controversy, it inspires us to talk about the issues at hand,” said Kennedy. After the presentation, the students were joined by Anthropology lecturer Sheila Tully and guest speaker maeJoy B. withU from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an organization of activist nuns supporting the LGBT queer community and educate on human sexual rights and against hate crimes. While encouraging the students to “exercise their critical thinking” and to evoke others to “step out of the box,” withU got audience members nodding their heads in agreement. With one gloved hand in pink and the other in a leopard print, withU kept the event positive, getting the students to laugh together when talking about sexual practices. withU encouraging people to say “thank you, do it again,” expressing positive feelings over sexuality that the students agreed upon. As the event moved to Rosa Parks Hall in the Cesar Chavez Student Center, the Human Sexuality Department organization, the National Sexuality Resource Center (NSRC) and Carol Queen from the Center for Sex and Culture took over the event with an open discussion on sexual literacy. With a full room full of students, Joy O’Donnell and others from the NSRC spoke candidly of the importance of sex academics and their practices of educating the masses about sexual health. “We believe in a life-long education, based on research,” said O’Donnell. Other members, like Isaac Goldstein, the NSRC's webmaster, chimed in on the importance of sexual education fulled by the students knowledge of their own practices and understanding. “Help us define sexual literacy,” Goldstein asked the students. “It is you who knows best, your sexuality,” he added. As the day concluded with a student debate over the legalization of prostitution, the students of the Anthropology and Human Rights class seemed to encourage others. “They were entertaining and informative,” said Krishna Shastry, 26, an Anthropology major new to the program. » E-mail Holly Bun @ hollyb@sfsu.edu Story taken from http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/breaking/008509.html |