Reminiscing

Hey everyone!

I went to two talks for the Brown Symposium this week, plus the panel at the end. Unfortunately, my physics lab required me to miss the second two talks, including the one I wanted to see most, the one based on research!

That’s not to say that I didn’t find the two talks I did get to attend interesting. The first talk, by Rev. Debra Haffner, focused on looking at Christianity as a sex-positive religion through her Unitarian Universalist denomination. Personally, I know very little about the many forms of Christianity, and I had never encountered a denomination like this.

I grew up United Methodist, but I never particularly cared about religion. According to the Internet, I’m “apatheist,” a term which combines apathy and theism. Religion has just never affected me or given me that “good” feeling that people talk about.

This didn’t either.

But it did inform me of the existence of a “religious left,” which could be the solution for a disagreement my girlfriend and I came across one day. She’s been raised in a much more religious manner than I have, and wants our children to have it as an influence, too. My only objection has been on the grounds of raising my children with “bad” role models. But a denomination that doesn’t preach the wonders of bigotry might meet our needs.

It’s hard to talk about agreeing or disagreeing with the things Rev. Haffner said, because they seemed to me like she was just telling us about her interpretation of the Bible and her own morals. I don’t have much theological knowledge with which to challenge any of the claims she made about the book of Genesis. But since they coincide with my predetermined morals, I think I’ll go ahead and agree!

As for Dan Savage, I greatly enjoyed his two talks. He is an excellent question-and-answer-er, capable of turning even the dumbest questions (e.g., “who Mike Jones?”) into good talking points. He recognizes that not everyone will agree with him and that he will offend people, and has the remarkable ability to calm them down afterward even while maintaining his ground. It was interesting to watch from that social perspective as well as one of open-mindedness.

One anonymous question sticks out in my mind most clearly. It was something to this effect: “My long-distance boyfriend has difficulty with sexual activity due to childhood sexual abuse, and is terrified of our next in-person encounter. How can I help him?” And Mr. Savage gave a response that caught me completely off guard, that the best thing for him would be to break up now. I can’t agree with him, and I wish I knew who asked that question so I could talk to him about their other options.

Aside from that, I thought he gave excellent answers to all the questions. I had very little experience with the It Gets Better project, about which he talked at length on Monday, so I’m glad I got to understand its purpose of giving bullied LGBT kids hope. I’d have splurged on a signed book if I hadn’t had to run off to take care of physics immediately afterward and could have stood in line.

The panel was interesting for me because I got to hear from Debby Herbenick, the sexual researcher from the Kinsey Institute. The other panelists asked her a couple questions regarding her research; apparently, people can experience orgasm from working out in the gym. I’m in a weight training class with several friends, and we joked about watching for a significant increase in the particular machines she mentioned. Unfortunately, our extremely-valid observational study did not yield significant results, as no one seemed to use more core machines than before.

We might be bad scientists.

Anyway, I also enjoyed learning about how best to get comfortable with talking about sex with people, such as making it impersonal by discussing current events or politics. And the advice to always listen to the other person when having those conversations was excellent, as well.

Overall, I was very pleased with the Brown Symposium this year. I think it was a great one with which to end my Southwestern career. And I'm looking forward to all the hilarious and enlightening conversations that will result from the Sex Talk cards!