My appearance on a "Sex and Spirituality" panel at Sex Week at Yale this coming Sunday has Fox News and Bloomberg News buzzing.
From the Bloomberg article:
Pure Romance, a sex-toy company based in Loveland, Ohio, with more than $80 million in sales last year, gave the student organization that runs the week $30,000 to pay for most of the 21 events, a student-made video documentary and a 60-page magazine circulated at Yale and the seven other Ivy League schools.Students who want to hear more about chastity than what I am able to say on the panel (where I will be alongside a pornographer/sex-club owner, a sex therapist/Planned Parenthood advisory board member, a sexual storyteller who promises a "multi-chakra experience," and Yale's Reform Jewish chaplain) can hear me give a talk at Yale the following night not associated with Sex Week. Here are updated details on both evenings' events:
"Yale's Sex Week is pretty much the foremost for its distinct, provocative format," Logan Levkoff, a sex educator and spokeswoman for Trojan, the condom unit of Princeton, New Jersey-based Church & Dwight Co., said in an interview after lecturing Yalies about the female orgasm.
Detractors include some participants, such as Dawn Eden, a panelist this weekend and author of the book "The Thrill of the Chaste." She said the week promotes premarital sex and endorses unhealthy images of sexuality. She objected to a porn debate between adult-film stars Ron Jeremy and Monique Alexander, to be moderated by ABC television's "Nightline" host, Martin Bashir.
"This is how they get out the word, by having juicy events featuring porn stars and sexologists?" Eden said in a telephone interview. "I think that is very damaging, physically, psychologically and certainly spiritually."
February 17
Panel discussion on "Sex and Spirituality," part of Sex Week at Yale, WLH 119, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., 6 p.m., free. Open to students, with very limited admission available for nonstudents — arrive early for a seat.
February 18
Talk on "The Thrill of the Chaste" at Yale University, WLH 116, 7 p.m., free. Sponsored by Yale Christian Fellowship and Veritas Forum. It's a small room, so arrive early. Nonstudents welcome.
