For this assignment, you are asked to try something new related to understanding an aspect of sexuality.

For example, you might:

– Attend a film screening at the IU Cinema relevant to sexuality (see the Outrage on November 11; this film was an early movie related to sexual assault at a time when even the word “rape” was not allowed to be used in the film’s script): https://cinema.indiana.edu/upcoming-films/index.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

– Attend a lecture about sexuality (The Bloomington Sex Salon is one such local event – see Facebook.com/BloomingtonSalon for more info; these events are free, age 18+, and are held most months)

– Check out an art exhibit at The Kinsey Institute or anywhere else you happen to see a sexuality related art exhibit; Indianapolis area museums often have interesting exhibits too. 

– Visit an adult bookstore or attend an in-home sex toy party

– Watch a film such as Hot Girls Wanted, Turn Me On Dammit!, The Normal Heart, She’s Gotta Have It, How to Survive a Plague, Paris is Burning, Orgasm Inc., Fire, Moonlight, or And the Band Played On. (Fine to watch alone but you may find it more interesting to watch with a friend or roommate so you can talk about the movie, learn about someone else’s reactions, etc).

– Interview your parents, grandparents, a religious leader, or someone else about their views on sexuality topics such as dating, hooking up, sex outside of marriage, sex education in schools, birth control, sexual orientation, gender identity, and so on

– Go to a drag show

– Perform a vulvar self-examination or testicular self-examination

– Get tested for sexually transmissible infections (STI) and/or HIV (check out the local health department, Positive Link, Planned Parenthood, or the IU Health Center)

The point is that you should do something that is new to you and that you think you can *legitimately learn from*. You will get the most out of this assignment if it pushes you slightly outside of your comfort zone and exposes you to information or experiences that are new to you. Please don’t choose something that you have done before. The list above is just a list of examples – you can do something that is NOT on the list provided it is new to you and interesting to you.

Having chosen your “field trip” experience, write and submit a paper via Canvas that is 800-1200 words (approximately) that addresses the following questions:

1) What did you choose to do for your field trip experience and why?

2) Going into the experience, what did you think you might learn from it or gain from the experience?

3) Prior to the experience, what did you think of people who did that sort of thing (e.g., who went to sex talks, went to adult bookstores, went to or worked in strip clubs, etc)?

4) What was your reaction to your experience? What was comfortable or uncomfortable? Interesting or boring? Pleasant or unpleasant? What did you see/hear/feel/think about as part of the field trip experience?

5) Would you recommend that other people try this experience? Why or why not?

6) What did you learn from the experience?

7) Did your feelings or judgments change at all in thinking about the people who go to, pay for, work at, etc such places, or who are involved in such experiences?

1 point will be deducted for every day that the paper is submitted late. No papers accepted more than 3 days late.