Critics concerned about UNM’s first ‘Sex Week’

A week full of sex seminars with racy titles is raising some eyebrows.

Monday was the start of UNM’s first Sex Week.

Flyers on campus invite students to celebrate it, but critics are outraged by it.

“I’m here to give you tools and tips and tricks so you can be a more powerful you and have a better more fulfilling life,” said Reid Mihalko in his lecture titled, “How to be a gentleman AND get laid.”

“The whole thing here is really about empowering yourselves to be able to make better choices and to not be so afraid and scared and feel so ashamed about sexuality,” Mihalko told the crowd.

Organizers, including a student group and the UNM Women’s Resource Center, say the talks aim to teach students about healthy relationships to reduce sexual violence on campus.

However, with racy titles for classes on oral sex and group sex, critics say these talks are just offensive.

“We think that students shouldn’t have to pay for this if we’re paying for higher education. We don’t like that we’re paying for sexual objectification instead of higher education,” said Sade Patterson.

An anti-abortion student group set up a booth outside the lecture Monday night, offering pregnancy and parenting resources.

Others are voicing their concerns online.

One woman posted on the organizers’ Facebook page, “As if our culture isn’t over-sexed as it is, you would blatantly put it out there that it is okay for our young women to have multiple partners.”

Another said, “Don’t advertise it as rape prevention if there is nothing actually preventive about it!”

“We are using some controversial material in order to boost attendance and get them involved in the conversation,” said Summer Little, the director at the Women’s Resource Center.

She said UNM is not encouraging students to have sex.

“What we want to provide is the information and then they can decide what to do with that information,” Little said.

Organizers said the money for the event is coming from student fees.

Some of the more controversial seminars later in the week will be held off campus, and guests will have to pay for those.

KRQE