Multiple orgasms. The clitoris. Female ejaculation. Unless you need to get your eyes checked at the health center or are a rare example of a college student with no curiosity about sex, you've probably noticed these topics on posters advertising "The Female Orgasm." And they're not for a special screening of an unreleased episode of "Sex and the City."
"The Female Orgasm" is a lecture given by sex educators Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller, which they will present in Kresge Auditorium on Monday at 8 p.m. This hour-and-a-half talk will cover, in addition to the aforementioned topics, the subject of female orgasms in general.
The lecturers will seek to illuminate the topic for women who aren't having them, students who are debating the existence of the G-spot, people who want to please their significant other, and anyone interested in sexuality and women's empowerment.
Solot and Miller combine extensive knowledge with a playful, honest approach. The educators are a couple who claim not only to talk about sex but also to "once in a while...get lucky and actually have sex. With each other." They advertise their program as "sex education unlike like any you've had before."
"The Female Orgasm" is a continuation of the couple's previous experience with Bowdoin. Last year, Heather Day '06, then co-chair of the Bowdoin Women's Association, learned about the duo as part of an honors project she was doing on sex education.
The team presented a general educational program, "Sex Discussed Here," which focused on, according to Bowdoin Women's Association co-chair Alison Driver '08, "The nuts and bolts of how sex works and how it can work better." The presentation attracted over 150 students and was an enormous success.
"The energy in the room was so positive, and everyone on their way out was smiling and talking about how much they enjoyed the program," said Day. "Everyone left more informed, certainly, but also more empowered."
Encouraged by the success of the couple's previous presentation, Karin Clough, former director of the Women's Resource Center, campaigned to bring the couple back to Bowdoin in 2006. The Women's Resource Center, which is sponsoring the event in conjunction with the Bowdoin Women's Association, hopes that this year's presentation of "The Female Orgasm" will contribute to its mission of improving reproductive health and general sexual knowledge.
"If you're going to take the risks [of having sex], you should also get some of the pleasures," Driver said.
By sponsoring a program focused primarily on sexual pleasure, a topic often neglected in sexual education, the organizations hope not only to remedy this problem, but also to promote healthy sexual relationships.
"If you're not being respected, you're not in a good situation," Driver said, "and you're probably not having an orgasm."