Penis and vagina are two words most of us rarely say, and yet talk about commonly, according to guest speaker Robin Sawyer, who spoke at Cal State Long Beach on Tuesday night in the University Student Union ballrooms.
Sawyer, an associate professor of public and community health at the University of Maryland, lectured to an audience of mostly student athletes about sex and its lack of communication.
“We are supposed to be united by a common language; I am not always sure that we are,” Sawyer said.
As an England native, he then asked the audience if they knew what “shag” meant, eliciting laughter.
Sawyer said there are many things that go wrong on a college campus. In addition to sexual assault and date rape, there are unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
He hypothesized that two factors link all of the other problems together, one of which is alcohol.
Sawyer said that he is “not here to beat the prohibition drum,” but drinking excessively does lead to sexually related problems.
The other factor is the inability to communicate meaningfully about sex, he said.
Communicating meaningfully may not sound important, but it could mean the difference between a “nice time” and a rape accusation.
One case Sawyer mentioned was that of a Duke lacrosse team in which three players faced charges of rape when a stripper presented a false accusation. As a result, the team had its season canceled and the coach was fired.
He said he is surprised at how young people make up words to avoid saying or talking about genitalia.
“Which is kind of ironic, because you’re a generation that has more communication devices than NASA, but yet still we can’t really communicate,” Sawyer said. “If we cannot bring ourselves to say ‘penis,’ how can we expect to communicate meaningfully about sex?”
In addition, he talked about the issue that “yes” is the consent to continue and saying nothing is consent to continue. However, he said being “not sure” does not work as a “yes.”
“It is, in fact, grounds for rape and if a couple find themselves in this situation, confirmation is needed,” Sawyer said.
Some students said they felt the open dialogue was helpful.
“I feel like this is something not only good for our campus, but for everyone,” senior Louis Ward said. “This is not something that only happens on a college campus. It’s insightful — something that a lot of college students need to listen to.”
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