Lube, Latex, and Love: My Experience at the WHUS Heart-y Party
Since 1922, the UConn radio station WHUS has broadcast throughout the Storrs area. In addition to broadcasting 24/7 to the Mansfield region, they also have started to hold concerts in the last decade or so, focused on seasonal events, like their annual spring fling to ring in the start of the season. Last week, the radio station hosted on a Valentine's day themed event, called the “Heart-y Party.” In celebration of Valentine’s Day, WHUS put on an event focused on safe sex, relationships, and sexual health and wellbeing. The lineup included the UCONN Sexperts, a peer group dedicated to promoting sexual wellness on campus, and Gena Barreca, a UCONN english professor and comedian. Every single performance was beautiful. It was a night at the Hillel Center filled with humor and love.
To start off, we had the Sexperts, an on-campus sexual health group, speak on the various forms of safe, pleasurable sex one could engage in. While I initially expected to be uncomfortable, as they would presumably present the same facts I would hear at a multitude of sex ed courses the average college student has sat through in their lifetime, it was actually incredibly refreshing. They actually began the presentation by coming around and squirting various types of flavored personal lube onto willing participants’ fingertips. Right off the bat, I was engaged by the interaction, on top of the nonchalant nature of their sexual information (very liberally, they described sexual acts and interactions in humorous detail), which was very humanizing and enjoyable.
After this, they also showed us how to do what I can best describe as MacGyvering condoms – they showed us how to, in a pinch, create protective devices using items we might have around our house, apartment, or first aid kit, in the case of a latex glove they ripped to form a condom (suitable for both vaginal, penile, or anal application). It was exciting, and while I won’t personally employ these methods, it is useful for sexual experimentation with a willing partner in any case. The Sexperts’ passion to promote safe, fun sex was greatly appreciated, and came through in their presentation. This was great for the event as a whole, as it set a light tone, yet was still extremely informative.
After they presented, Professor Gina Barreca of the English Department came in to speak on relationship stereotypes and identities. I heavily enjoyed this primarily because Gina is a professional comedian, and so her steady dose of humor was very much up my alley. She spoke on previous marriage experiences, interactions with students, and how it all fueled her perception of why we create images of the “ideal” relationship, the “perfect man” or “model wife”, and how it ultimately creates unhealthy standards for people, regardless of their personal identity. I found it extremely fascinating from the perspective of a humanities major, as Barreca talked heavily about how English texts, linguistics, and even feminist history shapes or perception of the stereotypes that rule our day-to-day lives. I implore any and all interested in the Humanities to come to any of Gina’s talks, attend her classes (she is a UConn professor after all) or visit her during her office hours.
After a short intermission, during which I visited a table lined with lollipops, potato chips, and pink lemonade (all natural aphrodisiacs, as we all know), the musical portion of the night commenced, with indie rock group “Lil Sluggers” playing a 5 song set, followed by the “Pawel Kostyk Quartet” who also did around 5 songs. All the songs were lyrically or sonically focused on love or romantic vibes, and all sounded extremely tight.
Overall, I’m very happy I went to the event, it was a celebration not just of sex and romance, but of various aspects crucial to the human experience: music, literature, history, identity politics – all these aspects of human culture were on display at the Heart-y Party, and for that reason, I encourage anyone to go to WHUS events, as any of their events are chock full of humanities aspects. Truly, there was no better time to focus on romance and love than 5 days after Valentine’s Day.
For more information regarding the Sexperts, including a list of services they offer as well as times for their weekly meetings, visit http://healthed.uconn.edu/the-uconn-sexperts/ .
