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Hello hello hello Golden Rams!

It is my absolute pleasure to welcome you to the very first Center for Women & Gender Equity monthly newsletter of the 2023 Spring Semester! 

The Center for Women and Gender Equity provides education, resources, and advocacy in partnership with the students, faculty, and staff of the West Chester University community, and we have been doing it for 49 years this Spring! Watch this space over the next year for information on how we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2024. 

The Center offers opportunities to engage with a wide variety of gender justice topics through facilitated workshops, sustained dialogue, and curated social media content.  This spring you can look forward to a number of ways to engage with our space, including The Green Flag Project on March 8th, our Third Annual Gender Justice Conference on March 29th (which you can read more about below), the It’s On Us Week of Action April 23-27th, as well as our Take Back the Night and Community Care events on April 26th. You can read more about these events below! 

The Center for Women & Gender Equity is a consent forward space, and the new semester also offers us an opportunity to articulate our boundaries within the WCU community. 

• As part of our efforts to create a campus culture of consent and sex positivity, we provide a number of safer sex materials free of charge at our office in Lawrence. These materials include internal condoms, latex and non-latex external condoms, flavored external condoms, flavored dams, and lube. 
• We seek to honor the body sovereignty of each individual by not surveilling these supplies. We invite folks to take what they need for their personal use. We ask that folks who use these supply take only what they need so that this resource can remain freely available to our entire campus.
• Groups and organizations who seek to engage their members in sex education are invited to collaborate with the Center for Women & Gender Equity by booking our Sexy Bingo program or by partnering with our space to design a program tailored to your specific needs. 
• Going forward, CW&GE will only provide safer sex materials to organizations or groups if they are being utilized as part of an educational program designed in collaboration with or provided by our staff to ensure the programs are sex positive, consent forward, and evidence based.

This semester is also an opportunity for you, our readers, to evaluate and articulate your own boundaries. If at any time you find that this monthly communication is not meeting your needs, or is simply not something you wish to see in your inbox, please feel free to click the unsubscribe option at the bottom of this email. In our work, establishing and honoring boundaries is paramount, and we hope you will feel encouraged to assert your own boundaries about the emails you receive.

We encourage active engagement from all of our readers and partners across campus. Is there content you would like to see in future newsletters? Please feel free to contact Tess Benser (tbenser@wcupa.edu) with your suggestions!

We are located in Lawrence 214 and hope you will stop by! You can also feel free to call the Center at 610.436.2135, email the department account at cwge@wcupa, follow us on Instagram @wcu_cwge, or like us on Facebook @wcuCWGE.  

Take good care and be well this semester! We look forward to connecting with you!


Best, 

Tess Benser
(they/them/theirs)
Assistant Director of Outreach & Engagement
Center for Women & Gender Equity
 

Table Of Contents

1. Upcoming Events
2. Gender Justice Conference Submissions Are Now Open!
3. Join the CW&GE Book Club!
4. Sex Toys: Why Access and Pleasure Are Important
5. Identity and Ability in Cuernavaca, Mexico
6. Newcombe Scholarship Applications Open Soon!
7. Peer Educator Hiring

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Events

Join the True Biz Book Club!

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Calling all WCU bookworms! The CWGE Book Club is back for the semester, and this time we are reading True Biz by Sara Novi─ç! Join us in Main 200 every Tuesday at 3:30 PM starting February 21st to discuss the novel by Sara Novi─ç, all leading up to a virtual appearance by Sara at our Third Annual Gender Justice Conference on March 29th! Refreshments will be provided, and the first 25 attendees will receive a free hardback copy of the book!

[Teal background. On the top line in dark blue it states. "West Chester University Center for Women and Gender Equity. From left to right it reads, 2023, 3rd Annual Gender Justice Conference in lime green and a deep purple color. Underneath the text are 9 people of varying identities and mobility aids.]

Submit a Proposal or Art for the Third Annual Gender Justice Conference 

The Gender Justice Conference Planning Committee would like to invite you to submit a proposal for our Third Annual Gender Justice Conference to be held on March 29th, 2023. This conference experience is dedicated to exploring the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to engage in social change work with a specific focus on disrupting gender oppression, particularly as it intersects with other forms of oppression.

Our vision for the 2023 conference is organized around themes of finding joy in our bodies in this time of increasing challenges to body sovereignty and bodily autonomy, including rising anti-fat bias, legislation against gender affirming care, and the repeal of abortion access throughout the United States.

We have booked sex therapist, educator, and media consultant Dr. Lexx Brown-James and bestselling author Sara Novi─ç to continue to examine the ways that all oppressions are intrinsically linked. 

We aim to co-create an environment where transformative justice is not merely possible but standard, where everyone’s safety is secured, and where everyone finds a space of connection and belonging.We position this conference to center the voices and lived experiences of those who have been harmed by systemic oppression, uplift those whose oppressions are often made invisible, and offer space to find joy in our bodies as they are at present. We specifically invite celebration of bodies that are frequently marginalized: queer bodies, trans bodies, disabled and chronically ill bodies, fat bodies, the bodies of Black and Non-Black People of Color, and the bodies of people who have experienced harm, understanding that for many people several of these categories by apply.


The conference committee encourages proposals for presentations on topics including embodying joy in resistance, self-authorship and narrative building, dismantling leadership barriers commonly linked to gender identities, coalition building across difference, developing strategies for engaging in social change work, and cultivating a community of collaborators, mentors, and allies. Participants will critically examine social justice issues through an intersectional lens and be encouraged to apply what they learn into their day-to-day lives and in their communities.

The conference committee encourages artistic submissions from the WCU community across these themes as well. Participants are encouraged to submit works across a variety of disciplines, including, but not limited, to visual art, poetry, prose, music (recording, composition, or pre-recorded performance), dance or theatrical performance, and fashion, makeup, and nail art video or display, as well as interactive practices that incorporate artistic expression (such as yoga, ballet basics, mindfulness meditation).

 
All submissions are due by February 26, 2023 by 11:59pm at this link.

Questions or concerns can be directed to Tess Benser at TBENSER@wcupa.edu.  

Thanks!

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Sex Toys: Why Access and Pleasure are Important 

Dana Pratt (she/they) & Hannah Zartman (they/them)
 

Purchasing sex toys should be accessible, shame-free, and most importantly, gratifying. Sex toys enable people to explore their own bodies and their romantic partner(s) bodies in new and creative ways. They allow users to learn how to pleasure themselves, giving them an understanding of their body in ways they can share with partners if wanted. Sex toys can increase people's confidence and comfort with masturbation and sex. While there are already barriers to obtaining sex toys due to socioeconomic status, barriers are also exacerbated by societal norms. For example, sex shaming has been prevalent in the United States of America since the founding of our country due to strict concepts of purity. This continues to evolve and shapes perceptions around sex and masturbation. 

In the United States of America, there is ongoing policing of sexual education in schools, often turning towards abstinence-based education, omitting critical conversations regarding consent, pleasure, and LGBTQ+ sex education. According to an article by The Arkansas Traveler, “Only 44.1% of secondary schools in the state provide students with curricula that includes HIV, STI or pregnancy prevention information relevant to LGBTQ youth” (2023). The percentage of schools that provide comprehensive sex education continues to dwindle, and this limited, often misinformed education opens the door for harmful myths regarding sex to students who are in dire need of information. Sex education that is not comprehensive can lead to feelings of shame surrounding sex. This shame can be attributed, in part, to purity culture belief systems that ridicule people that engage in queer and/or premarital sex. Further, shame could also develop because students are embarrassed about the lack of information they have been given access to concerning sex education. This shame does not just start and stop in secondary school. Many parents utilize narratives of sex to create shame regarding the topic of sex, and this can continue in higher education, particularly at colleges and universities that hold purity beliefs attached to religion, or secular schools that create barriers to sex education and pleasure. 

These barriers can lead to lifelong shame surrounding conversations and experiences of sex and intimacy. If people grow up with sole access to purity culture, the narratives of sex they have been given can often shape the ways they view sex for much of their lives. Further, sexual education that does not center queer identities and non-monogamous relationships can leave out a population of people who feel erased and misunderstood, potentially causing shame. When access to sex toys is limited based on socioeconomic status, disability, race, genitalia, etc., this shame is exacerbated, especially for folks with non-normative relationship structures, or for people in queer relationships. An article by TNW writes about this specifically, explaining that sex toys originally became popular in the 1970s, and have continued to be seen as “taboo” (Pollastrini, 2020). Further, the sex toy industry was largely dominated by cisgender white men, leading most sex toys to be phallus-shaped, focusing on penetration, which isn’t always conducive to pleasure for people with vulvas or penises. 

In addition to the development of non-phallus sex toys, there also became an issue of physical accessibility. According to an article by Refinery29, “1 in 4 adults in the United States live with a disability”, and this number is likely higher depending on their understanding of what a disability is or is not (Knapp, 2020). For disabled folks, their needs may differ based on “limited use of their hands, mobility needs, and any other physical needs” (Pollastrini, 2020). Founder of AbleThrive, Britney Déjean said ”their rights to orgasm with kinky ease is at the top of our sex-positive crusade”, (Knapp, 2020). I would like to offer that, beyond orgasm, the ability to access inclusive sex toys that offer the opportunity to explore our bodies and navigate what brings us and consensual sexual partner(s) pleasure is critical to sexual liberation.  

Below are a few links to disability-accessible sex toys. 

Disability, Sex and Adult Toys by and for People with Disabilities

Accessible Sex Toys for People With Disabilities

What's Your Pleasure? Disability Activists Talk Best Accessible Sex Toys and Tips

Dame Eva, Hands Free Vibrator & Sex Toy For Couples

Sexual Pleasure & Harm Reduction

One of the many reasons folks utilize sex toys is for solo, partnered, or group sexual pleasure, as mentioned earlier. Sexual pleasure, while being enjoyable for what it is, can also be used as a framework to promote harm reduction regarding safer sex practices, consent, and comprehensive sex ed. Harm reduction is a social justice framework that originated during the AIDS epidemic. The goal was to reduce the number of deaths caused by the virus and injectable drugs. Today, harm reduction efforts have become useful tools to combat various harms. The goal of harm reduction is to mitigate or lessen negative risks or consequences. By providing people with useful strategies, ideas, and actions, autonomy and dignity are centered in harm reduction efforts. 

This brings us to discuss how sexual pleasure can help to reduce harm, promote safer sex practices, and emphasize the need for comprehensive and inclusive sex ed. Shifting our focus to a pleasure-centered mindset around these areas “enables the recognition of practices of safety and care that would otherwise go unregistered” (Race, 6). Our society has historically placed shame and guilt on folks seeking pleasure in their lives, which has only hindered and worsened relationships to body and sexuality that could lead to liberation and healing. Promoting pleasure as a useful way for people to move through relationships, sexual experiences, and society would dramatically change the way sex ed. is taught, safer sex practices are thought of, and what care and safety may look like for those at greater risk of harm. 

Sex ed. that is based on individual, partnered, and/or group pleasure would automatically include and uplift queer and BIPOC folks and what brings them pleasure. Rather than sex ed. being focused on abstinence and pregnancy prevention, as is common in the US, we would see sex ed. that is more concerned with the overall well-being and pleasure of those learning and how to increase care for themselves and/or those who they’re having sexual interactions with. Additionally, pleasure-centered sex ed. would not stigmatize or shame folks for sexually transmitted infections, but instead offer practical, informed, and realistic information/practices for participating in safer and more enjoyable sex. In conjunction with less shame around STIs, pleasure and autonomy-centered sex ed recognizes that young people are sexual beings and need to be properly educated in order to truly have pleasure and autonomous sex, if and when they choose to. 

Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan, the authors of Sexual Citizens recount that in US schools, current sex ed is dangerously inaccurate, fear-based, and mostly focuses on pregnancy and STI prevention. They say, “Whether from school-based sex education, from their families, or from their religious upbringing, many students we spoke with had absorbed the lesson that sex was potentially terrible and most certainly dangerous” (Hirsch and Khan, xvii). This clearly illustrates the current climate of sex education in the US and highlights the limited framework in which it’s being taught and explained to young people. By changing the way we frame sex ed in schools and institutions across the country, young people and others would be less ashamed of their bodies, more inclined to participate in pleasurable activities, and have a more realistic understanding of risks and how to mitigate them while having an understanding that they are autonomous sexual beings.

Strict narratives around sex that only discuss violence, pregnancy, disease, and shame have no place in conversations that should be focusing on affirming, educating, and including folks and their wants, experiences, and desires. When pleasure is centered in our society, around sex and other things, we being to shift our focus to people and what they truly want and need rather than promoting harmful, untrue, and stigmatizing portrayals that further oppress and isolate. 

To learn more about harm reduction and its history, check out these sites. 

https://www.queersexedcc.com/post/harm-reduction-what-s-that-and-what-s-it-got-to-do-with-sex-education 

https://harmreduction.org/blog/tgnc-harm-reduction-baddies-campaign-harm-reduction-proximity-to-pleasure-personal-autonomy/ 

https://www.academia.edu/222505/The_use_of_pleasure_in_harm_reduction_perspectives_from_The_History_of_Sexuality

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Identity and Ability in Cuernavaca, Mexico
By Jocelyn Brown (she/her)

Click here to see the photos from our trip to Mexico!

This winter break, I had the chance to travel to Cuernavaca, Morelos in Mexico for a week with Dr. Linda Stevenson from Political Science and another student, Ananiya Jones. We received a grant to pursue research that we will use for several projects in the future, including my Political Science senior capstone. We interviewed people in Spanish about their history of migration and how the other identities they hold may have affected those journeys. Although we were particularly interested in measuring the empowerment of femme migrants, we interviewed anyone to get the big picture of migration. People trusted us with a range of interesting and important stories, from a U.S. army veteran who moved back to Mexico to better manage his addiction, to a Chilean grandmother who ultimately settled in Mexico, because she could not stomach the U.S.’s involvement in Chilean politics. 

We also tagged along on site visits with another group of people from Pennsylvania associated with the Wellspring Karitas Foundation, a nonprofit organization that focuses on projects with its community partners in Cuernavaca. My capstone project will look at how Karitas and their Mexican partners empower people in migrant communities to become leaders and changemakers. However, I wanted to highlight some of their projects that were not about migration here, because they were just as impactful. Plus, we hope to establish regular WCU trips to Cuernavaca in the future, so they may catch someone’s attention. 

Karitas’s biggest project, which we visited three times, is Autonomía, Libertad en Movimiento (ALEM). ALEM hires people with disabilities to repair and personalize wheelchairs in the community. They also go on the road and host workshops where they repair wheelchairs in the five states neighboring Morelos. These public workshops are called Enchúlame la Silla (Jazz my Chair). During the site visit with everyone, we split into groups to watch them work on the different aspects of the wheelchairs. I helped translate for a woman sewing the lining onto the wheelchair seat cushions. The director shared that these public workshops are purposeful, because people with disabilities struggle to be seen and valued in Mexican society. The tendency is still to hide family members with disabilities away in the house, as they are seen as a burden or shameful, and they often cannot find education or employment. She also shared a story about a previous employee who lost mobility due to an illness later in life. Because he could not be the breadwinner of the household anymore, he questioned his worth as a man in Mexican society and turned to alcoholism. After finding employment with ALEM, he was able to turn his life back around and find a supportive community.

Similarly, Resiliente is the name of two cafeterias that Karitas works with. One serves eighty families in Southern Morelos, who are internal migrant farm workers that live in cramped, converted warehouses nearby. The other is in downtown Cuernavaca for anyone to visit, funkily decorated on the second floor of a repurposed movie theater. One day, we visited the warehouse compound before getting lunch at the cafe. Resiliente aims to be completely self-sufficient, sustainable, and inclusive. Therefore, both cafes are entirely staffed by people with intellectual or auditory processing disabilities. The cafes are also a chance for people to educate themselves. They have menus in braille and menus that instruct customers how to order in Mexican Sign Language. Their website quotes Deby Macedo, a founder of Resiliente, who says, “Why does the person with auditory disability make all the effort to communicate? Why don’t we make the same effort?” We all practiced putting our orders in. I had a chicken sandwich, chips, a cappuccino, and cucumber water, and everything was quite good. Although the project leaders were disappointed that they could not find a space on the first floor to be more inclusive, as real estate in downtown Cuernavaca is expensive, they were still extremely proud of the space. 

Karitas’s main partner in Cuernavaca is Fundación Comunidad, which is similar to a nonprofit. (Their website is in Spanish.) They have worked on several projects about advancing gender equity in Mexican society, such as a gender equity fund dedicated to equipping women in the community with new skills. The foundation works with Indigenous women too to preserve and advertise their art, and some of their weaving was featured in exhibits as far away as Spain. We listened to a panel from their oldest and newest employees about their reflections on their work. From my field notes, one employee stated, translated from Spanish, “What we know as empowerment is very valuable because many of them [women] do not have university degrees. They barely have basic education. So to see that they can figure out costs, figure out profit, to be able to have conversations with other people, it’s so impressive. What we find and what hurts us a lot is the violence that they experience, and on many occasions they don’t vocalize it.” On that note, a woman who accompanied us on our first day of site visits, including the Casa de la Cultura in Cuautla admitted that she was emotional because she used to run a sex education program in the same space, but had to stop due to threats of violence. 

Overall, I loved our time in Cuernavaca. There was a real sense of community that I didn’t get from any of my travels in Europe; we were fed before several of our interviews. More important than my project is the partnership between here and Cuernavaca, and I can’t wait to see where that goes next. 

Applications for the Charlotte Newcombe Scholarship & Related Scholarships Open Monday February 20th!

• 25 of older by August 2023
• Completed 60+ credits
• Enrolled in 9 or more credits a semester next year
• Significant personal responsibilities
• Completed FAFSA

We Are Hiring! 

CW&GE is Hiring Peer Educators for 2023-2024

Applications for the peer educator position open Monday, February 2023. Apply on Handshake!