I agree; but that’s not what I interpreted this thread as being about. We’re not talking about college students being informed about sexual issues, or being able to talk about sexual issues; we’re talking about students talking about their own personal sexual experiences (or lack thereof), to… well, it’s not clear who’s seeing the results of the survey.
But if you’re telling them this, I imagine the ones who aren’t having much or any sex, whether by choice or not, are going to feel like there’s something wrong with them; and many will be tempted to exaggerate or lie about how sexually active they are, in which case, how would you know that nearly all really are sexually active?
That claim seems to have been pulled from a nether orifice.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, based on a survey released in 2014, 61% of 18-year-olds (college entry age) reported being sexually active, which is considerably less than “nearly all”.
Note: the claim that USC “insists students answer questions about the (sic) sexual encounters before they can take some course” has also been revealed to be extracted from a nether orifice.
Calling this a “course” made it sound like this was a college class, but the further links people have posted make it look like this “mandatory Title IX training course” wasn’t a course in the academic, for-credit sense. As such, it’s quite possible that no professors were involved.
The “training” and the sexual history questions were part of a training package purchased by the university, so it’s unlikely that any USC professors had anything whatsoever to do with the questions.
Personally – and this might come up as I’m starting grad studies next semester – I would not answer the questions. It’s not that I’m ashamed about my sex life, it’s that my sexual history is private and the university has no need to know. Which is exactly the conversation we’d be having if such a thing came up.
Are you female? (Yes/No)
Have you had anal sex before? (Yes/No)
Did you enjoy it? (Yes/No)
Do you have a free period after class? (Yes/No)
If you answered “Yes” to all of the above questions, please enter your phone number __________.
Can you think of any other non-medical profession other than college professor, where one can get away with asking people, especially teenagers, about their sex lives and get away with it?
It’s already been established that it wasn’t professors doing the asking, so I’m not sure why you’re saying this. Most college professors, in most contexts, certainly can’t get away with asking people about their sex lives.
I Quote: “My students were VERY embarrassed to talk about sex. When I pulled a condom out of my purse and told them that every sexually active person should keep one on hand, they just about died.”
Sex educator. I mean, not to be completely flippin’ obvious, but any profession where you’re in the business of educating people about sexual safety and health, it can be appropriate to talk to adults (let’s not be cute with the “teenager” tag–it is the legal adulthood status, not their teenager status, that is relevant here) about their sexual behavior.
Therapists, clergy, police officers all might have occasion to talk with young adults about issues of sexual safety and health. And “get away” with it. And get paid for it. And if the only way you can imagine such conversations going is pruriently, that illuminates only your own personality, and nothing about the people conducting such work.
Now, is there any evidence at all that these questions were mandatory, or are we all conceding that campusreform is a bunch of conservative liars whom we’ll never take at face value again, having learned our lesson?
I mean, I guess there’s the third option, which is that some of us will kick Lucy’s football the next time it’s held out for us, but I hope we’re all smarter than that.
I can see a therapist, counselor, or an investigator but still unsure why an educator needs to. I remember taking a sex ed course in college and it was just all the facts. We covered anatomy, reproduction, biology, disease, sexual history, sex in the media, and alternative lifestyles. No need to pry into the students private sex lives. And we definitely did NOT do the kind of crap I mentioned in post in the link above.
I think our issue goes along where you think all college professors are prying into the students sex lives for purely educational reasons and I guess that MIGHT be so. Sometimes. But you cannot tell me there are not those who cross the line from being purely educators to being voyeurs and even deviants. They are human.
Isn’t it amazing that “self reported” data is so blatantly and obviously useless, yet …
time and again, people (like professors) who should know better (Shit! My pet dog should know better), continue to ask for it and use it to try to make their points.
It is a real head scratcher.
(Hmmm … why are “scratcher” and “scratchable” both flagged by the spell checker?)
Both “scratcher” and “scratchable” are contained in the Dictionary link above.
You would think an institution of higher learning would know better but that assumes an agenda-free environment. That ship sailed, sank, and is now a coral reef.
