Sudden Outbreak of Erotic Safe Sex

by Andrea Cherchas

So last week my roommates and I headed down to the Canfor
‘Conference Center to see the “Eroticizing Safe Sex” presentation.
‘To be honest with you, I went because I had absolutely nothing
better to do, not because I had an- overwhelming desire to relearn
why we should use condoms, and what they prevent. I was
expecting your basic sex talk. Someone talks, and everyone else
listens.

the welcome table alone was enough to perk up my interest. We
were welcomed with bowls of condoms and red ribbons to
promote AIDS awareness, as well as an assortment of informative
pamphlets. So we dug in. Sheepishly I tucked my rubber rocket
in.my pockets so as not to publicly tote them around. This was
done conspicuously enough, except upon entering the conference
room, I was handed three more. Now my cover was blown, I was
openly holding condoms in my hand, but so was everyone else, so
life was good.

Dr. Bill Coleman, a psychologist was the presenter. Dr. Coleman
has worked extensively with sexual offenders, and in a Vancouver
Health Clinic . Seeming pretty darn hip for someone dangerously
close to my father’s age, he gave us a warm welcome and prepared
us for what was to come. To make us comfortable with the whole
latex situation, Bill asked us to take out one of the three expired
condoms we were given, and play with it. Now this was
interesting. I don’t remember ever being given a condom in sex
ed. to “get to know”. It’s pretty entertaining to see what people
will do when faced with such a challenge. Some adventurous
types blew their condoms up and tossed them around like balloons.
Mean while more conservative types, such as myself, merely
stuffed our hands into them. (It makes a funky suction noise, but
it’s not too hot in the circulation department). Our next exercise
was to turn to somebody we didn’t know, and tell them what we
liked about our rubber friends. This was also a first for me.
Comments ranged from, “I like them because I don’t have to put
them on”, (a creative female guest) to “I like them because they
keep me safe”. Despite being a mildly uncomfortable exercise, it
broke the ice. We were on a roll.

First of all Dr. Coleman recognized that we were all fairly
knowledgeable about condoms, and informed about why we use
them. What he introduced us to was the sensitive subject of why
people sometimes choose not to protect themselves. What he
touched on were issues such as, lack of respect for oneself, fear
embarrassment, and comfort. All these issues may cause a rr
or people, for that matter, to make an unsafe decision.

Our next exercise was to turn to someone else we didn’t know, La
tell them a part of our bodies we liked to be touched. Now I think
this caused a little bit of anxiety amongst the crowd, until our
doctor for the evening told us that we didn’t have to refer to a
sexual part of our bodies. Obviously this exercise was designed to
make us question communication between partners. Of course for

most people, it is uncomfortable to true to someone they don’t
know to express their body part of choice, but how comfortable are
we turning to our partners to express the same thing? I think if we
took a survey, a very small percentage of people questioned would
be comfortable doing this. Another exercise we did that again
made us question intimate communication, was “the
questionnaire”. It consisted of different sexual situations that we
had to rate on erotic, pleasure, interest and experience scales. This
is Rot really an intimidating exercise if done individually, but it
proved to be challenging when we realized that this wasn’t
intended to be and individual event. Again the whole
communication question arose.

Dr. Coleman also suggested a number of personal activities people
could do to overcome a variety of sexual problems. One of these
activities, Kegel exercises, seemed to be a big hit. Designed to
strengthen certain muscles in the groin region to enhance pleasure
during sex, Kegels apparently have a very high success rate in both
males and females.

Overall the “Eroticizing Safe Sex” presentation was a huge

‘success, with a lager than expected turnout, and a satisfied (so to
speak), informed audience. Dr. Coleman’s talk was sponsored and
promoted by the Northern Interior Health Unit, the Prince George
AIDS Society, the Women’s Center and the UNBC Housing and
Student Services. As I sit her Kegeling away (how would you
know?), I applaud everyone (including the good natured audience)
who had a hand in making the presentation accessible, enjoyable
‘and educational. #

from Your
focal §.A.

| Submitted by the UNBC Student Society

The UNBC Student Society would like to thank those
few student that showed up for our extra ordinary
,general meeting (all concerns held over form our
‘annual general meeting). on Thursday February 23,
1995 in the Canfor Conference Center. At this meeting
we discussed and passed forth motion on: budget for
95/96, student fees, building fees, and. constitutional
amendments. The student fees will be raised in the Fall
“95 from $1/credit hour to $3/credit hour and a
maximum of 30$/semester, and a student building fee
of $15/semester will also be added. The student fees
will be going towards implementing and improving
student activities (clubs, sports, social and promotions)
on and off campus. The building fee will be collected
for our future Student Society Building, and the ‘pot’
begins to grow! With the building fees collected fund
raising and donation we hope that we can break ground
for the new building in 1997/8

Once again, the UNBC Student Society would like to
thank all of the student who showed their concerns and
voted for the above changes. *

The IRC:

Computerized

Phone

Sex or More?
By: Doug Smith

~ A

For those of us who
have taken a look at the IRC
(Internet Relay Chat) most of
us may think that it’s pretty
much a hang out for
university and college
students to blow off a little
young age steam. Of course
with channels labeled
“NetSex”, we all know what
kind of steam is being blown
off. Some _ learning
institutions have also realized
this and have removed all
access to the IRC.
Sometimes it seems that way
here at UNBC as_ well.
Sometimes you can log in,
sometimes not.

When you look at the big

Will you be in Kamloops, Williams Lake
or Merritt during the summer?

SESSION #1 - May 1 - June 15, 1995
SESSION #2 - June 19 - August 3, 1995
*Call for dates reguarding Williams Lake Sessions

Williams Lake 1-day registration: April 3, ‘95
Kamloops registration begins: April 5, ‘95
For more information call collect: (604) 828-5120,

Pick up a copy of the Summer Session brochure...

ON DISPLAY IN COUNSELLING, OR STUDENTS
CAN PICK UP A COPY AT STUDENT SOCIETY OFFICES

(Wednesday March 29, 1995 15.

picture, there’s really nothing
-wrong “connecting” in this
‘fashion. Isn’t it safer to talk
to, someone thousands of
‘miles from you than someone
‘right beside you? If you
pa t like what the other
person is saying or doing,
‘you can just leave that
_channel and go to another
/ one.

Personally, I don’t frequent
jthe nasty channels, but
‘instead have had a few
interesting conversations
with people across North
‘America and around the
world. Once I was talking to
| an English speaking person
|from Montreal about the
‘possibility of | Quebec
separating from the rest of
Canada. He showed great
concern about how the
Canadian economy would

. suffer if Quebec did separate.

| Actually, some conversations
jcan be downright intriguing.
One time I was talking to a

university professor in
Athens, Greece. He was
planning to attend a

conference in Canada and
started to ask questions about
Canada. One question was
regarding the physical
jattributes of | Canadian
‘women. I asked why he

‘wanted to know. After all
there must be some nice
‘women in his area. He
admitted that there were, but
his wife was in the area also! &

ATTENTION: UNBC STU DENTS...

——

THE
UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE
OF THE
CARIBOO _.
KAMLOOPS, BC