Sex Toy Workshop on Campus a Success

If you happened to walk past the Multipurpose Room on the evening of November 21, you may have been treated to the sounds of little motors grinding, relaxed laughter and strange, almost sexual shouting.

As part of Love Your Body Week, the Womyn’s Centre put on a Fantasia party in an effort to raise awareness about sexual health. Positive attitudes about sexuality are a big part of loving your body and so the organizers felt that a sex toy workshop seemed fitting.

In addition, 10 per cent of the profits from this event went to support a local women’s shelter. Not only did this event promote sexual health for students but it also helped to bring a measure of mental and physical health to women in our community.

Fantasia is a sex toy distributor whose agents organize home parties to sell sex toys — similar to the Tupperware parties that your mom or grandmother used to have. But instead of discovering new ways to store your leftovers, attendees learn about new ways to orgasm using a variety of sex products.

Sales consultant Charlotte Loke quickly put the room of 50 or more students at ease with her casual style and imitations of what a properly stimulated clitoris might sound like. I was very impressed with the large group of women ( and the eight men), often at events like this people are uncomfortable, but I did not hear any nervous giggles. Everyone seemed to be listening intently to Loke’s enthusiastic sales pitch and laughing at all of her jokes about neglected clitorises and products that would provide "a party in your panties."

Loke placed an emphasis on women and their bodies, rather than on couples or "man-pleasing," which was refreshing. She talked about the importance of foreplay for female arousal — how it prepares the vagina for pleasurable, non-painful sex — and offered many products that would help encourage blood flow to important areas, like the clitoris.

Not only did Loke carefully go over all kinds of ways that some toys could be used to achieve orgasm — like the Dolfinger, a jelly finger-mounted vibrator, which can be mounted on fingers, a penis or even another toy — but she also presented us with some unusual uses for some sex toys. For example, even I never thought of using a rabbit vibrator as a hand massager to relieve writer’s cramp!

Loke emphasized that women can’t just wait around for someone to give them an orgasm, like some sort of party favour; they have to go out and get one on their own. And knowing how to give yourself an orgasm makes it easier for you to teach someone else how to give you one too.

This ties in very well with the theme of Love Your Body Week — loving yourself, literally, is very important for your physical, mental, and sexual health.

[But wait! That not all, don't forget to read my other post about this event!]