The Story
Sexologist Spices Up Sexual Responsibility Week
Semen contains 15 calories. If you walked in late to “The G-Spot: Our Questions to a Former Sex Columnist,” you missed that handy piece of information. A student then raised their hand and asked Mr. Eric Garrison to clarify if that was “per average load.” Garrison confirmed that yes, that figure is per average load.
If that introduction intrigues you, you should have been at Garrison’s workshop Thursday night. Using a format in which students anonymously wrote down questions on index cards, Garrison discussed everything from chromosomal abnormalities to flirting to the ins and outs of the vagina in a hilariously witty fashion.
Garrison, who wrote a sex column at NYU titled “The G-Spot” (for The Garrison Spot, a play on the sexual meaning of the term which actually stands for the Grafenberg spot), is an internationally known clinical sexologist. He holds a master’s degree in Education from the College and a master’s in clinical sexology from the University of London. He was made a diplomat by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and has met with members of Parliament and the Royal Family. Garrison has lectured at Emory University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, various undergraduate schools and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. He is currently writing a book based on his academic interactions with students about sex and human sexuality.
Thursday’s workshop was Garrison’s twelfth appearance at the College. The Lambda Alliance, which serves the College’s GLBTQ population, was responsible for bringing Garrison here as part of Sexual Responsibility week. Richael Faithful, a junior and president of the Lambda alliance, said this workshop is important because “we are a pretty polite campus, and sometimes we don’t talk about sexual issues as candidly as we should…especially with regard to safety and health.” Faithful also talked of the advantage of having Lambda Alliance bring a person like Garrison, because their affiliation with the workshop means that “we’re not talking about sex in a narrow paradigm of heterosexual people, but [we’re involving] a wide range of sexualities.”
To start off his presentation, the sharply dressed Garrison began by emphasizing the need for healthy communication in relationships that is open, honest and direct, and he reinforced that theme throughout the workshop. He then moved on to the students’ questions, answering each one extremely thoroughly and entertainingly. He discussed the “Costa Rica effect” " the fact that there is enough sperm in drop of pre-cum to impregnate every woman in Costa Rica. He used a “Star Wars” analogy to describe how the egg is like the Death Star and the sperm are X-wing fighters attacking it. Garrison’s wealth of knowledge seemed endless as he spewed out facts about chromosomal abnormalities, the 1976 Olympics where Princess Anne did not have to take a sex test to prove she was female, genomic imprinting and a patient of Dr. John Money whose penis was burned off during a circumcision.
“This is why I get invited to bar mitzvahs and weddings,” Garrison joked. “[People say,] God, it’s boring, someone invite the clinical sexologist and sit him next to Aunt Betty.”
Garrison spoke with authority on a variety of biological questions and then moved seamlessly to discuss what to do if sex noises freak you out. Another question was whether or not condoms can dull sex. Garrison’s response? “I don’t think condoms dull sex, I think dull people dull sex.” The audience even got to learn about his favorite condom shop in New York City that sells a “fit me” condom that, said Garrison, “fits you like a Gucci shoe.”
Other topics included the G-spot (of course), birth control, orgasms and masturbation. A bit of Garrison’s advice on the latter: “If you think you’re going to have sex standing up, masturbate standing up. If you think you’re going to have sex on a horse…then…wait, sorry, don’t know where I was going with that.”
He even discussed the origin of the myth that masturbation causes blindness, the relationship between the words seminary and semen and the sexual suppression during the Victorian era. One of the highlights of the night came when Garrison told everyone to stretch out their legs and touch their toes and heels together, and then proceeded to use this position to explain the female anatomy. Nearly everyone in the room got in on the action, and when he noticed a person in the back not participating, he playfully scolded, “You’re not making a vagina!”
In interviewing Garrison, he again stressed the need for this event, especially due to recent events on campus. “[Students should know] that it’s okay to talk about things, specifically it’s okay to talk about sex.”
He also discussed the need for comprehensive sex education in the U.S., in which all the facts are presented to the students so they can make up their own minds. “Bad sex educators try to tell you what to do [and what not to do]. A great sex educator says, ‘Here are the advantages of this, here are the disadvantages of this, and here’s the resources to help you make up your mind.’”
“I think there’s a taboo that says we can’t talk about any aspect of sexuality at all,” Garrison said. His workshop is definitely doing a lot to help break down that taboo by openly discussing sex and dispelling myths, false assumptions and phobias people may have regarding the subject. And, if nothing else, it can help you figure out how many Weight Watches points are in an “average load.”
If you have questions about Eric Garrison’s workshop or any information in this article, please visit his website at www.ericgarrison.info or e-mail him at eric@ericgarrison.info.