The Critical Thinking in Sexuality course is slated to pilot in the coming spring semester, focusing on sexual assault awareness and consent. However, the second five weeks of the semester-long course are optional, and delve more deeply into contraception, STDs/STIs, and rape culture. But here’s the thing with the CTIS’ supposed potential effectiveness — we need to actually talk about sex.
We need to know what it is in order to explore the different aspects of it, the unsafe and violent aspects of it, for example, and perhaps most importantly. I for one recognize the fact that the sex education I received in high school barely touched on the aspects of actual sex, and focused almost completely on STDs/STIs. And while I’m grateful for the education I received, especially since I realize that many other students don’t have that opportunity provided to them by their high schools, I think there was a lot more to be gained from the experience.
How do you know what you’re comfortable with? How do you go into your first sexual experience — or any experience, really — as prepared as possible? Sex is not a glamorous thing (unless you’re a super confident rock star at life); no one needs it to be any more awkward than it generally already is.
Currently, Rice is ranked very, very low on Trojan’s ranking of national university’s bar of sexual health. We’re somewhere around 82 out of 120, which is not impressive at all. Baylor is not that far below us, and considering recent events, I’d say that’s not a great sign.
Here’s the issue with how we deal with sex and sexual violence at Rice currently: We often fall victim to groupthink. Those who think like me probably believe that everyone else thinks that way. We think it’s obvious that this and this entails sexual assault, that consent is necessary, that contraceptives are vital. But we’d be surprised — all of us — how many people are out there, people who seem just like us, who don’t think the same way.
Many of these progressive ideals, be they what they may (gender equality, marriage equality, female health care, etc.), seem obvious and a given, but they’re definitely not. Rice is a bubble, we can’t deny that, and we have to remember that we still live in Texas.
Furthermore, the way Rice has dealt with sexual violence in the recent past hasn’t exactly made students feel any better. Last semester, when an instance of sexual assault was reported at an unregistered private party at Sid Richardson College, administration cracked down on students responsible for throwing the party rather than focusing on educating everyone else on what sexual assault is and how we can provide a better support system for victims and prevent it from happening again. Likely because administration holds power, and has the school’s reputation to consider, they chose to blame the incident primarily on the presence of alcohol, especially among underage drinkers. One news report in light of the incident quoted a woman who lives near Rice (and who is, notably, not a student) saying that she does not feel comfortable knowing she is in such close proximity of students drinking and partying at night. Perhaps administration’s crackdown was a reaction to this individual’s comment. While Rice has resources that certainly can help students — the Women’s Resource Center, the Well-Being Center, etc. — instances such as this do not make students feel like they can go to “higher” power for help. The fact that administration acted so quickly and in such a wrong way made students feel very much like they had completely disregarded how students, in light of a horrifying and shocking event, might feel and want. This seemed to confirm that power makes people less accurate in understanding others’ emotions and in estimating the interests of others — especially when it comes to those in worse situations than them.
Last year, one of my professors and I talked about sexual assault on campus in depth. She told me that, more than once, students had come to her with negative experiences, but refused to seek other help because of fear of administration. The professor herself was afraid of speaking out about how administration chose to deal with the Sid Rich incident because her job would be at stake. That power divide contributes to an environment that already lacks understanding and safety.
At the end of the day, there are people who don’t want to learn — but broadening your horizons and learning to think like others is something that can only benefit you. Regardless, it’s important to recognize that sex and sexual violence are things that affect everyone no matter where you put yourself on that spectrum. If you don’t plan on having sex in college, then you need to learn about these things later, anyway. If you don’t plan on having sex ever, then someone will inevitably come to you for help at some point in your life, and you would ideally like to be prepared to help someone you care about.
What we have currently with this CTIS pilot course could be perceived as the reservation price that came to fruition. So maybe what has actually become of the CTIS is the best possible scenario at the moment, that this is what we have to work with at the moment. Some say to be happy with what we got, and yes, it is a step forward and a step forward towards success.
However, that doesn’t mean we should stop there. As stated when it comes to negotiation, don’t immediately accept a first offer. The point of negotiation is to achieve what you want, not at the cost of the counterpart, but rather in a way that creates further value with the counterpart. What CTIS should and can entail is actual discussions about sex and what it is.
There could be mandatory education on the female reproductive system (which is much less common than one might think), risk of pregnancy, importance of contraception, national statistics when it comes to female reproductive rights (access to birth control, Planned Parenthood, abortion rights, etc.). These things can be shocking — and shock value can be good because it serves as a wakeup call to the obvious importance of such education. We could move on to sexual health (e.g. how you should keep yourself clean in those areas, how to minimize risk of infection and whatnot, etc.), and then CONSENT — perhaps posing various scenarios, etc., and learning which are healthy and which aren’t and which lie in the gray area. In the absence of consent, we could then learn about harassment, assault, and rape.
There already exists the annual Speak Up Project and Vagina Monologues performances, which I think are incredible opportunities to learn more about these issues and others’ experiences. It may seem like a foreign occurrence, but in actuality we likely all know someone who has experienced sexual violence at some point. 1 in 3 women report that they have experienced sexual violence during their lives — and that’s just the women who reported. There must be much more than that.
Right now, everywhere, there is a fear of speaking up — implicit prejudice exists and is very prevalent everywhere. Perhaps this revised CTIS program could act as training against implicit prejudice and biases. After all, college is a gateway into the real world, and providing training as such could very well prove useful in the real world when it comes time to protect yourself and the ones you love.
