Sex Week speaker sheds light on abstinence misconceptions

Sex Week is hosting various talks this week about topics that educate college students on the different aspects of sexual education. On Wednesday March 4, Sex Week hosted an abstinence talk. Tory Mills a worker at  Planned Parenthood  gave the talk and presented an interactive program with discussion on what abstinence is.

“What I am hoping we can do today is that we can give some clarity to a definition of abstinence,” said Mills.

The talk strove to do that as students wrote down a personal opinion of what abstinence means. The participants were then to crumple them and put them in a container so, Mills could read a few of them out. She had a group discussion of similarities, then talked on the different wording in each definition.

“I thought it was really neutral in terms of validation choices, and not being shaming or accusatory,” said Heather Godsey, a campus minister with Wesley foundation.

Mills had attendees look over a list to determine what they considered to be sex. This list goes from hand holding to vaginal sex and they then had to decide what fell where in the continuum.

“It has made me consider more deeply the varied views of what abstinence is,” said Colleen Ryan, a freshman and  member of the Sex Week Executive Board.

Overall, Mills educated students on the many misconceptions of abstinence and provided clarity on their many resources for sexual education.

“I am in support of sex and abstinence education from a positive point of view like this isn’t the only option you have but here is how to approach it from a healthy prospective, so I really liked this event,” said Riki Higgins, a UT senior in Special Education.

For more UT Sex Week events, click here.

Edited by Jessica Carr

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