“Sex Week” is a series of events that’s held on many college campuses around the nation that allegedly serve as sexual education, but in reality promote sexual exploitation.
While some colleges and universities are attempting to re-tool “Sex Week” events to discuss consent and sexual assault prevention, Sex Weeks across the nation still chronically encourage unhealthy and exploitive sexual practices such as pornography use, and often the normalization of prostitution.
When colleges and universities around the country actively promote, subsidize, or host these Sex Week events on campuses they are often carelessly fostering the crisis of sexual assault on college campuses.
Does your campus host Sex Week?
There are several things you can do as a student to make your voice heard and to take a stand against sexual exploitation!
- Access the calendar of events for the Sex Week programs. Review it for sexually exploitive events.
- Discuss your concerns with friends.
- Reach out to the administration at your school, and request that they refuse to sponsor/host exploitive events. If possible, include the names of several of your classmates. Consider circulating a petition.
- If the administration does not respond, consider sending the Sex Week event schedule, paired with explanations for why certain events are harmful, to your parents and other students’ parents or alumni. Ask them to contact the school administration to cancel the events. (This will usually work!)
- If by this stage the school administration continues to refuse to cancel the events, consider hosting your own parallel event to discuss the harms of pornography, prostitution, or sexual violence.You can request NCOSE representatives to attend and give a presentation or we can help you connect with other great leaders and experts too.
- Write a blog about your experiences, and about the events being hosted on your campus, and send it to NCOSE at public@ncose.com. We will consider your blog for publication to help raise awareness, and inspire other college students around the country.
If at any point during this process you want advice or more research and talking points, contact NCOSE at public@ncose.com.
