The Scripps Voice

By Nikki Broderick ‘14
Staff Writer

On March 15 and 16 at the Honnold-Mudd Library, 40 undergraduates, graduates, and faculty members gathered for The Humanities and Technology (THAT) Camp, an “unconference” that emphasizes participation from everyone who attends—from setting an agenda for the weekend to helping lead discussions. The first THATCamp began at George Mason University in 2008, and has since spread throughout the country, with different emphases such as pedagogy and games, in addition to regional distinctions.

The THATCamp held in Claremont, organized by Professor Wernimont of the Scripps English Department, focused on feminist digital theory and practice. Professor Wernimont also stressed the importance of undergraduate participants, and explained how she actively recruited students to attend. Five of the forty attendees were undergraduate student fellows, which created a new balance in what are typically graduate student- and faculty-heavy events. The Scripps event inspired two other simultaneous THATCamp Feminisms at Emory University and Barnard College.

Professor Wernimont describes the digital humanities using Julia Flander’s definition: the critical study of how the technologies and techniques associated with the digital medium intersect with and alter humanities scholarship and scholarly communication. Digital humanities scholarship can take many different forms, from using computers to do large-scale analysis of texts to thinking about identity in digital spaces, such as social media.

THATCamp Feminist West’s focus on feminism within the digital humanities developed after conversations with scholars regarding the gendered and classist elements of computer programming and the absence of feminist perspectives in the digital humanities. One of the weekend’s main events, an editing session of Wikipedia articles, focused on creating feminist perspectives by expanding topics and creating new ones. Professor Wernimont discussed the need to have a Wikipedia editing session by explaining that most editors on Wikipedia are white men between the ages of twenty and thirty—so even though the site focuses on having an unbiased ideological perspective, a content bias still arises.

The editing session included participants at THATCamp and those who participated online, with some even editing from India and Africa. Those who edited and created new pages could also tweet about their participation using the hashtag #tooFEW – a common identifier for work addressing the lack of information about women, the LGBTQ community, and feminist work on Wikipedia.

In addition to the Wikipedia editing session, THATCamp also hosted several workshops and discussions, including on feminist and queer identities in social media, video game studies in the digital humanities, and a panel about how students learn with digital media in the classroom that allowed students and professors to learn from each other. Aly Monroe (’14) attended the student-teacher session, and commented that the panel created, “A good intersection of student-teacher relations. I think it also helped us think about the ways teachers can expand their use of technology in the classroom to be more productive to maximize student learning.”

The Office of the President funded THATCamp Feminisms West, providing for the costs of the event and making it possible for all to attend free of charge. To learn more about the digital humanities and Professor Wernimont’s work, visit her blog at jwernimont.wordpress.com.

Hello Scripps! I’m your sex columnist for this issue! In addition to loving sex, I am a Planned Parenthood- trained peer sex educator.

I hope you’re all as excited as I am to be in Claremont! Seeing all the new faces makes me nostalgic for my first year. Enjoy your time here while it lasts! It’s crazy to think how much I’ve grown and learned over the past three years.

Some of you might still be in monogamous high school relationships. I was too—for three whole weeks! Others might be in open or poly relationships, looking for a new relationship, or just looking to have some fun. For those of you entering the much-criticized “hookup culture” I want to impart some words of wisdom so that you can all be safe, healthy, and happy in your sexual experiences.

First of all, CONDOMS. Condoms are not an option!!! They are a requirement. I cannot tell you how many times guys have tried to sleep with me without one and it baffles me every time! I understand it’s easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment, but even if you take birth control, please, please, please use a condom. STDs such as HPV are ubiquitous on college campuses.

Condoms are free at HEO. It’s not awkward to walk in there and grab some. I promise. Also, don’t always rely on the guy to have one! Because they often won’t. Having your own stash of condoms keeps you in charge of your sexuality. HEO also has free dental dams and it would be irresponsible to discourage their use. But in all honesty, I don’t know anyone who uses them, despite the fact that gonorrhea, syphilis, and Chlamydia can be transmitted via oral sex.

The best thing about a new school year has to be that clean-slate feeling. You haven’t had stress-induced fights with your friends yet or blemished your academic record with late assignments. Why not start with a clean sexual slate, too? No, I don’t mean becoming a born-again virgin (though by all means go ahead if you’d like). I’m talking about STD testing. There is no excuse for being sexually active and not getting tested. A good guideline is every three partners or every six months, whichever comes first. The 5C Student Health Center does STD screens for a nominal fee and HEO does free HIV testing every Tuesday. No information will be sent to your parents without your written consent!

Remember that a standard screening does not test for everything! Typically, a standard screening covers gonorrhea, Chlamydia, syphilis, and often (but not always) HIV. Notably absent from standard screenings are herpes 1 & 2, hepatitis, HPV, scabies, and molluscum, all of which must be specifically requested. So if your partner says, “I’m clean!” ask what he/she got tested for before giving unprotected sex the green light.

Many Claremont hookups start at parties and are fueled by alcohol. Alcohol may give you the courage to approach a potential hookup, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to good sex. When the clothes come off, you may not have sexual chemistry with the same person you have drunk grinding chemistry with. Less talked about than whiskey dick, yet more likely to have lasting consequences, is the fact that once-clear sexual boundaries may seem less important—to you or your partner or both—when intoxicated.

College is the perfect place to experiment sexually. Experiment with girls, experiment with boys, experiment with toys. This is how you’ll figure out what you like and don’t like. But healthy experimentation requires boundaries. A rule of thumb: if you something makes you uncomfortable, it shouldn’t be happening. Inviting someone back to your room does not indicate consent for any sexual act, and even verbal consent can be retracted at any time. Stay true to yourself.

Along those lines, focus on your own pleasure! I did not orgasm once during a hookup my first year, one-night-stands and consistent partners included. I was too nervous to direct partners who didn’t know how to please me. Many college students learn most of what they know about sexual technique from porn. This phenomenon has led to an overemphasis on P-in-V sex, which not only leaves queers completely out of the picture, but leaves many heterosexual women unsatisfied. Now I know that a little direction can go a long way. Take their hand and show them how to touch you—they’ll appreciate it. In the end, you have to trust your gut. Looking back, the hookups I regret have one thing in common: I had reservations about what was happening but didn’t speak up. Listen to those feelings of weirdness! They mean something.

Our columnists would love to answer any questions you have! No question is too weird or embarrassing! We want to know what you want to know. Email us at scrippsvoice+sex@gmail.com or drop a note in mailbox #892.

By Alissa Fang ‘12
Staff Writer

PHOTO COURTESY OF TINAFIVEASH.COM

You’ve probably seen them around the 5Cs: those technicolor posters headed by the words “Hey, hetero!” These brightly colored signs aim aggressive messages directly at heterosexuals. Confrontational statements emblazon seemingly innocent photos. They’re ironically subversive: one poster features an apparently Caucasian hetero-normative family on a picnic. The image seems harmless enough, but Mom and Dad are smirking at the viewer as the caption declares: “Hey, hetero! When they say family they mean you!”

This series of six posters is the product of a public art project by Australian artist Deborah Kelly and photographer Tina Fiveash. The posters have been steadily gaining publicity since their production in 2001, appearing in 30 different public advertising spaces in Sydney including billboards, magazines, newspapers, bus ads, art galleries and on the web. After they won the major arts award of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival in 2001, the two artists began to spread their campaign internationally, presenting the posters in Berlin in 2002. Hey, hetero! aims to draw awareness to the privileges that heterosexuals may take for granted. Some of the heterosexual privileges addressed in the posters are marriage, child-rearing, and public displays of affection. The artists purposefully mock the style of mainstream advertisements and encourage public discussion about heterosexuality and the hetero-normative’s impact on the queer community.

For this year’s “Gaypril,” Harvey Mudd College’s student-run People Respecting Individuals’ Sexualities (PRISM) decided to distribute these Hey, hetero! posters, plastering them in dorms, in front of dining halls and classrooms throughout all the colleges. In bringing these posters to Claremont, PRISM has urged students to participate in debates and responses, creating a blog whose address was included on the posters in their Hey, hetero! campaign at Claremont—and a debate is what they got. The posters garnered controversial discourse on this blog not only from Claremont students but also from people at nearby colleges and graduate schools as well as 5C alumni. There was a wide range of feedback; people wrote e-mails to PRISM and posted on the blog with comments of anger, hurt, confusion and satisfaction.

Some people—straight and queer alike—expressed extreme disappointment with the posters, while others articulated a more positive reaction. A self-identified transgender and bisexual student expressed anger that the posters would actually drive allies away from the queer community, saying that the hostility of the messages makes heterosexual people feel guilty about being straight. A Mudd junior also commented with distress, accusing PRISM of having “a gay-bashing double agent as your distributor.”

On the flip-side, many individuals showed appreciation for the campaign. A straight alumnus expressed her enjoyment at being challenged by the posters. She wrote, “I think these are great call-outs of heterosexual privilege. I wish that people would use these as basis for a rational and enlightening conversation instead of a basis for just getting offended.” A separate discussion was sparked within the Hey hetero! thread which questioned the depiction and use of whiteness in the art. One Pomona student voiced her displeasure at the lack of people of color in the photographs.

In order to address those who were offended by the Hey, hetero! campaign, PRISM said that there could be supplemental posters that would further explain the content of the images, but this has not been confirmed.

To read more comments/reactions to the Hey, hetero! posters, go to www.heyhetero.blogspot.com.

By Simone Maule ’14
Guest Writer

PHOTO BY BERENICE VILLELA

There are truly no words that can accurately describe the amazing combination of events that was Sexy Weekend. It started out with a fabulous lecture, Porno Chat-o: Queer and Feminist Theorizings on Pornography by Professor Chris Guzaitis on Thursday, March 31 in the SCORE Living Room. The lecture was humorous yet informative and included the best description of Second-Wave Feminism that I have ever heard. It covered everything from obscenity laws to the normative ideologies presented in mainstream porn.  Porn isn’t usually presented through an academic lens, and this lecture was the perfect introduction to that subject.

The next part of the weekend was even more fabulous: Family brought Jiz Lee, a genderqueer porn star, to conduct a workshop called “Queer Sex: Tips and Techniques.” The workshop presented a unique and informative perspective. Although the colleges have hosted workshops on queer sex before, it’s always been from an educational standpoint, rather than an experiential one. Instead of simple hearing just about how queer sex is performed and how to perform it safely, attendees were able to get feedback on specific questions and more detailed information from a professional porn star in a safe environment. The open discussion about all of the intricacies of queer sex was enlightening, because it’s not a topic that is generally discussed, nor does anyone usually want to talk about it.

On Saturday night, all of those who had gathered for the lecture on pornography (and their plus-ones!) congregated at the Motley for the screening of several episodes of “The Crash Pad,” a queer porn series. All of the various academic aspects that could be applied to porn had been discussed, but ultimately there is a huge difference between talking about porn and watching it. Bere Villela, the co-president of Family, shared some of the challenges to putting together this event: “We encountered a lot of resistance to this event,” Villela said. “Considering that 45 people showed up to the lecture, 30 to the workshop and 50 to the screening, it is obvious to us that the community wanted this. Professor Guzaitis said it best in her lecture: how can we pretend that porn is not a cultural phenomenon when the industry produces and distributes more material than Hollywood?’” Family thought long and hard about how to make this event safe, sexy, fun, productive and meaningful. They blocked off all of the windows with butcher paper, put signs on each door, instituted the ticketing system described above, and alerted the audience to the content of the scenes themselves. Leaders of Family handed out small cards with resources on campus in case anyone was negatively affected by the screening and needed support. Furthermore, the welcoming remarks reminded the audience that they had consented to being shown porn but that that consent could be terminated at any time by stepping out of the room. All in all, the screening was organized intentionally.

“I think this event could easily be seen as Family ‘just’ showing porn, but that’s not the case at all,” said Villela. The leadership team talked specifically about our motivations; we wanted to show positive and healthy representations of queer and genderqueer sex. All of the explicit scenes showed safer sex practices as well as active consent.”

Participants were also able to watch a behind-the-scenes piece where the models gave feedback on what the scene had been like for them. Said Villela, “Jiz suggested we watch that because, as they describes it, it really gave the audience insight into the negotiations and conversations that go into scripting a scene for Crash Pad. It also gave the audience an opportunity to see real people casually discuss queer sex.”

By Amy Borsuk ’14
Staff Writer

Despite the hot weather that Sunday afternoon, Queer Resource Center and fellow Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Allies enthusiastically broke out the paint and paintbrushes to paint Pomona’s famous Walker Wall to mark the beginning of National Coming Out Week.  With the first strokes of white paint against the hot-pink background, these students marked the beginning of a week about celebrating sexual and gender identities that are not hetero-normative, and being proud of this identity.  The Queer Resource Center’s website defines the process of coming out as “the process by which one accepts their sexual or gender identity. It also refers to the process by which one shares their sexual orientation or gender identity with others. Coming out is circular, not linear and it is a continual, life-long process.”

October 11^th marked the official National Coming Out Day, a day which encourages LGBTQ students to start talking to family and friends about their sexual and gender identities in order to spread awareness, acceptance and understanding through talks, celebration, discussion and questions about the LGBTQ community. Walker Wall reads: “National Coming Out Day, October 11, 2010, I’m coming out as…” leaving its artists and passersby to fill in their own ending to the sentence. Those who painted the wall set examples of possible endings to that sentence by putting their handprint on the wall and writing their sexual or gender identity next to it.

“I loved painting Walker Wall!” said Emma Friedenberg (’13). “I think it’s a great way to get people together.” This togetherness is very apparent with the array of handprints on the wall.  Identities such as “queer,” “genderqueer,” “pansexual” and even “the most queer” were scattered across the wall, showing the diversity of personal identities even within the LGBTQ community. One student even stopped by to add an equally important, out-and-proud identity: no longer homophobic.

A “Coming Out Panel” was hosted at Harvey Mudd’s Platt Room, creating a space for students to talk with panelists about this process of “coming out” and answer questions.  The Queer Resource Center offers discussion sessions every week in order to talk about various issues and causes within the LGBTQ community. The QRC, which hosts weekly Tuesday Talks on issues and current events in the LGBTQ community, focused on the issues surrounding the coming out process.

Although these events are part of a celebration, they are models for discussions and questions that can be held and raised at any time. The week was another way to get people to start talking about sexual orientation and gender identity in a constructive, positive space with people who want to hear everyone’s voice and everyone’s story.