<gasm: muscular contractions that feel really pleasurable. Students filled the Great Hall on Wednesday night to hear about this and more at the I <3 Female Orgasm workshop, run by professional sex educators Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller and sponsored by the GSC as part of National Coming Out Week celebrations.
The room was full of energy and the mood was kept light as the presentation began with a request for everyone to set their phones to vibrate. The following lecture, discussion, and Q and A session encouraged body positivity, the normalcy of masturbation for all genders and breaking down common myths about sex. Jaclyn Bovee ’12 thought it was important for this kind of presentation to be available to students: “In general we are really focused on the male orgasm in our community at large, so it is great to focus on women’s for a night. I am excited to learn more about pleasure: how to make it.”
The presentation was designed to be helpful and open to people of all experience lev- els and interests: men, women, heterosexuals, homosexuals, queers, virgins, and sexually-active people. Courtney Halbach ’13 explained that she attended because she felt it was a Carleton tradition. “I’ve heard so much about how amazing and hilarious I Heart Female Orgasm is, and I have no idea about the subject. No one had ever talked to me about it before.”
Solot explained that not only does it take the average woman 20 min- utes to come to an orgasm as opposed to the average man’s two to five minutes, but only 30% of women report being able to have an orgasm through inter- course alone. In light of these statistics, Solot and Miller focused on masturbation and oral sex as generally successful methods of achieving female orgasm. However, “each orgasm is unique, like a snowflake,” said Solot. “The ways our bodies respond are so specific to us that your partner is going to have to learn from you what works for you.”
Halfway through the presentation, the room divided up into men, women, and open gender in order to discuss more gender specific issues. Solot used to just have these workshops open to women in order to encourage frank discussion, but started opening them up as it became evident that men were interested in the subject as well. “This is something important for men to know about,” said Solot. “But we keep this time in the middle gender-specific to provide a space for questions that might not come out in a mixed gender group.”
Throughout the night, Miller and Solot emphasized the individuality of everybody’s sexual experience and worked to deconstruct the idea of normal genitals, a normal orgasm, or normal sex. For those who want more information, there will be a follow up discussion in the GSC on Monday night at 9PM.
