This year, Claremont McKenna College (CMC) Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Assault—is partnering with O.school to reinvite adult film actress Mia Li (a.k.a Mia Little) to its annual Sex Week, hosted from October 29 to November 1. Li gave two lectures, both on the evening of October 30, according to the event’s Facebook description. Li’s latter lecture will be an “Intro to BDSM.” Sex Week focuses on promoting support for sexual assault survivors and healthy and safe sexual relationships. The event will be open to all CMC students and those of the other institutions of the Claremont Colleges Consortium, which also includes Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Scripps, and Pitzer Colleges.
Sex Week—primarily funded by Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College (ASCMC) and the mandatory student fees it collects—intends to educate on healthy sexual relationships and consent. Last year, a large portion of the funds were used to provide free and confidential STI (sexually-transmitted infections) testing for CMC students, but this year, event organizers did not receive the funds to provide this testing.
According to the final schedule (pictured below), Li, a “sex educator and adult film star” (who also featured in last year’s Sex Week, also giving a similar lecture, “answers all your questions about sex, nonmonogamy, gender, and consent” in an early evening lecture. She delivered the “Intro to BDSM” lecture later that night:
“Curious about kink? This workshop is intended to introduce the basic principles of BDSM and provide an open Q&A to answer all your questions to support safer play when going beyond vanilla.”
A representative from CMC Advocates told the Independent that all events during Sex Week, including Li’s workshop, are about “consent and safety for everyone.” With more millenials practicing BDSM than previous generations, consent and safety are rising concerns—partially caused by a relative lack of information pertaining to the safety of the practice—especially with the widely-reported death of a 17-year old Texas girl during prom night after engaging in “rough sex” with her boyfriend.
While many commentators believe pornography exploits women, one CMC student told the Independent condition of anonymity that “[h]aving a porn star on campus does many things in my opinion. First, it humanizes women in porn, who are often just portrayed as sex objects.”
“Second, it helps reduce the prevalence of the subversive woman stereotype where they are not supposed to have opinions,” he added. “By having a porn performer on campus, it shows that women can be outspoken and don’t need to necessarily think of themselves as second class citizens.”
Sex Week also includes a talk by sex and relationship coach Ashley Monta about “the stigma around STIs [sexually-transmitted infections], safer sex considerations for strap-on sex and sharing toys, internal and external condoms, dental dams, gloves, the importance of lube for fisting, and much more!”
“We have a wide range of topics by a diverse group of sex educators, including queering safer sex and sex after trauma,” the event description for Sex Week adds.
The week also featured “Sex After Trauma,” a lecture on supporting survivors of sexual assault:
“Come learn about how to be supportive of loved ones who are survivors as they navigate through their healing journey, as well as how to take care of yourself if you are a survivor.”
On October 31, there will be a Q&A session with stand-up comedian and physician Priyanka Wali, who will “[combine] her dazzling dual skillset to answer all of your medically-related sex questions with humor, compassion and honesty.”
On the final day of Sex Week, there will be a “Sex Carnival,” featuring a photobooth, mechanical bull, consent bake sale, club tabling, and a sex toy demonstration. Later that evening, Sex Week finishes off with “Discovering Your Voice,” a lecture by Jimanekia Eborn “for our finale discussion of finding power with your authentic voice.”
O.school is an online resource for sexuality and dating that seeks to “help people build sexual confidence through medically-accurate videos, articles and live streams.”