The Daily Signal - #535: Recent Grad Details How Colleges Promote Hookup Culture

Episode Date: August 28, 2019

In the opening weeks of fall, a number of colleges now feature what they call “Sex Week”, a week in which risky and irresponsible sexual behaviors are encouraged and even facilitated. It’s a trend many parents will be stunned to learn about -- to unpack the phenomenon, today we’ll hear from Kara Bell. We also cover these stories: • Two U.S. senators say they were denied visas to travel to Russia on a congressional delegation. • Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's office rejected $22 million in aid money to help fight wildfires in the Amazon rainforest. • A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a recently passed Missouri law that banned abortion after 8 weeks. The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Nothing else is Rees. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, August 28th. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Daniel Davis. Well, it's the end of August, which means thousands of freshmen across the country are hitting the college campus for the first time. But some will be in for a real shock. In the opening weeks of fall, a number of colleges now feature what they call sex week, a week in which risky and irresponsible sexual behaviors are encouraged and even facilitated.

It's a trend to many parents will be stunned to learn about. To unpack the phenomenon, today we'll hear from Kara Bell. She's a recent college graduate and has much to tell. If you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating at iTunes and encourage others to subscribe. Now on to the top news. Well, two U.S. senators say they were denied visas to travel to Russia on a congressional delegation. On Monday, Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, said he was denied a visa to Russia,

and then Tuesday, Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said the same. Both men sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and were planning to travel to Russia next week. Johnson called the visa rejection a petty affront and slammed Russian officials for playing diplomatic games. But the Russian embassy in Washington said they never received an application from him and were never informed of his plans to travel to Russia. The embassy released a statement saying, quote, Senator Ron Johnson's groundless accusations against Russia leave no debt. out, he is ready not for a dialogue, but a confrontation. In his usual recophobic manner,

he distorts Russian foreign policy and allows himself rude remarks. Based on that, it is unlikely one can seriously take his statements of alleged intentions to restore direct dialogue with Russian parliamentarians. Well, don't hold your breath for an Iran-United States summit anytime soon. Despite seeming open to talks on Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani struck a different court on Tuesday saying, quote, we seek to resolve the issues and solve the problems in a reasonable way, but we don't seek photos, Rouhani said, according to the Wall Street Journal, if you lifted all the sanctions, bowed respectfully to the Iranian nation, well then the conditions are different. Well, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro made waves on Tuesday when his office officially rejected

$22 million in aid money to help fight wildfires in the Amazon rainforest. forest. French President Emmanuel Macron had announced the aid package at the G7 summit meeting and had framed the Amazon wildfires, which are the worst in the decade, as a global problem. He said the Amazon is, quote, the lungs of the planet and the consequences are dire for the planet, end quote. Bolsonaro's office rejected the aid money, but shortly thereafter, Bolsonaro hinted at a potential reversal, saying, quote, before speaking or accepting anything from France, even if it comes from the best possible intentions, he must retract his words. Then we can talk, end quote.

Well, President Trump defended Bolsonaro, tweeting, quote, I have gotten to know President Jair Bolsonaro well in our dealings with Brazil. He is working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects doing a great job for the people of Brazil, not easy. He and his country have the full and complete support of the USA. A group of women who accused Jeffrey Epstein of abuse still had their day in court on Tuesday in New York despite Epstein's death.

One of the alleged victims, who says Epstein raped her at 15, is Jennifer arose. She said, according to the Associated Press, quote, The fact I will never have a chance to face my predator in court eats away at me. And they let this man kill himself and killed a chance for justice for so many others.

Another alleged victim, Sarah Ransom, urged for the continuation of the case, which could include targeting those who assisted Epstein. Ransom said, per the AP, finish what you started. We are survivors in the pursuit of justice should not abate. Well, a federal judge on Tuesday blocked a recently passed Missouri law that banned abortion after eight weeks. State lawmakers passed that law in May, and it was set to go into effect this Wednesday. Judge Howard Sacks issued an 11-page opinion saying the law ran afoul of Supreme Court precedent, which says abortion restrictions can't be made on the basis of specified weeks or development of the unborn child. He said, quote, viability is the sole test for a state's authority to prohibit abortions where there is no maternal health issue, end quote.

Planned Parenthood and the ACLU had jointly filed suit against the law last month. Next up, we'll speak to a recent college grad about sex weeks, a practice at many colleges across the country. Do you have an opinion that you'd like to share? Leave us a voicemail at 202-608-6205 or email us at letters at dailysignal.com. Yours could be featured on the Daily Signal podcast. Just a heads up, the interview that we're about to air

may contain content that isn't appropriate for kids. Joining us today is Kara Bell, who is the public relations officer for the Claire Booth-Loo Center for Conservative Women. Kara, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. Okay, so you recently wrote a piece for the Federalist detailing how colleges have sex weeks

where they promote behavior that's, well, let's say, not what parents are probably anxious for their kids to learn while they're away at college. And you graduated this past December from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where you had your own encounter with a sex week type activity. Tell us about that. Yeah, so stepping on the campus was kind of a shock. within the second week of being in my freshman dorm,

facilitators from the Sex Out Loud student organization, which is university-funded, rounded us all up, boys and girls, and had us sit in the common area and play a little fun game of sex jeopardy with a colorful game board with categories such as sex toys and kink, contraceptives, myths, and sex positions.

And so I just remember, looking around the group and kind of feeling so awkward. And I mean, everyone else did too. It was obvious with the faces of the other of my peers of how uncomfortable they felt. And I even asked one of my friends recently, well, what was the one thing you remember most of this event? And she said that she recalls that one of the facilitators was kind of elbowing at the guys and laughing along saying that the best ex position is standing.

doggy style in the shower. And so it was so uncomfortable for us girls. I'm from a very small town in Wisconsin, very small public school, graduating class with 50 people. And so our sex ed curriculum consisted of where abstinence was taught. And so going on to a campus where abstinence is seen only as a matter of a preventative measure against pregnancy rather than an option for having that sort of lifestyle, it was very eye-opening and it was for a lot of my peers as well. So tell us about this group, Sex Out Loud.

You said it was funded by the college administration. How did they get that sort of status and why was the school, why did the school think this was a good idea to promote this incoming freshmen? Yeah. So Sex Out Loud is one of the highest funded organizations on at the University of Wisconsin Madison, apart from like Badger Catholic or atheist, humanists, and agnostics group. And the majority of their funding goes towards sexual health-related programs. But if you look at the table at student organization fairs and the type of programming that they have, that they travel around to freshman dorms and do, it's all their money, it seems as if all their money is spent on condoms. And it is like any sort of condom you can imagine they

spend their money on. And that's the way they kind of promote themselves. I remember the first month I was at school, we had the fall student org fair. And there was a table that was at least piled two feet high full of flavored, glow in the dark, and colorful condoms. And I was walking past with some of my friends that I made that first week. And we were prodded into grabbing them. And so we were just awkward and trying to walk past. And the facilitators, which was, like older men, it was kind of weird. We're like, no, no, come back, come back. And they're trying to put it in our hands.

Of course, the freshman guys walking past are stuffing their backpacks while making jokes. And so while sex ed on campus is important, colleges should focus more of their attention on preventative measures and teaching students about the resources that are on campus that can help them, rather than taking it 300 steps too far and making students feel super uncomfortable in promoting bizarre sexual behavior. So what are these sex weeks and how prevalent are they? So sex week, as I was doing my research and as a student myself, it's actually a lot more

common than people think. Publicly funded universities, it's almost, it's a normal thing just because there's a lot of student organizations that do promote this type of education that do take it many steps too far on the name of diversity and inclusion. Yeah, as I mentioned in my federal. article. Universities such as Northwestern University hosts a sex week, an annual sex week each year where they have such activities such as genital cookie decorating, edible lube, taste testing, and a porn panel. And this is not uncommon for other universities to have. I remember at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison, there was a lube testing activity as well. And the University of Chicago, the college fix actually has a lot of articles about their type of program. where this one was the most shocking to me. They included a sexual pain workshop where students tried bondage, light electrocution, and flogging. So it's like taking 50 shades of gray and bringing it to college. Wow. And you also said that a student from Georgia College and State University had reached out to your organization to talk to you about her experience in Sex Week?

Unpack what happened there. Yeah. So she was a part of an honors program that partook. in this sort of programming at her school. And being a freshman student, young, just trying to fit in, have friend group, she felt pressured to go along. And so the facilitators had informational videos, of course, from Planned Parenthood that talked about sexual health, such as contraceptives, the importance of getting tested.

Important matters like that, but then they also had an informational video about how to schedule an abortion. And reading that, hearing that from her was so shocking to me. And it only plays into the fact that Planned Parenthood holds such a consistent presence on campus, such an ingrained presence on campus. And they've infiltrated all sorts of women's health programming and anything involving sex on campus, almost as like a business model. And so after the student reached out to me, we were kind of discussing a little more. and she let me know that at the end of this program, they actually had a relay race of who could put a condom on a banana faster. And of course, the winning team's prize was a handful of condoms.

One track minds much. Okay. So obviously, you know, what you're talking about, it's clear that colleges are encouraging casual sex or at the very least not disapproving of it. What does research show about how casual sex about how this hookup culture affects men and women? So one thing that a lot of second wave reminiscing feminists and the left so-called justice warriors on campus like to blur is the are the biological differences between men and women. So it is for certain that young women are affected more severely than young men when it comes to casual sex and hookups. In our sense and sexuality booklet provided by the Center for Conservative Women, we actually list that 91% of women after have after hooking up immediately regret it and they felt vulnerable

and used and this percentage is not the same when it comes to men and so you can see that that feeling of feeling vulnerable and use can contribute to the rising rates of depression among young women particularly young college women and so yeah also it shows that young women when they are engaging in casual sex have the expect some sort of emotional intimacy afterwards, although that's not necessarily the case. And whereas young men usually partaking casual sex as more of a status gain amongst their friends. So there is a big difference and studies have shown that women are affected very negatively.

So in the Me Too era, there's been a lot of discussion about consent and sex. And, you know, how do you think sex? week and the college culture in general do when it comes to like sexual assault and helping students make sure they're not taking advantage of somebody. Yeah, that's another thing that is often, it's definitely discussed on campus, but it's not necessarily linked as well to hookup culture in general. It is shown that hookup culture has attributed to the rising rates of sexual assault on campus. And Lisa Wade's book about hookup culture on campus, She discusses how the general behaviors that are involved in hooking up and kind of college life, such as binge drinking, sex of use of alcohol, drugs, going to a bar, leaving with someone, that is all attributed to similar behavior as hooking up and of sexual assault.

And so the line between what is okay, what is consensual, and what is not when it comes to hookup culture and sexual assault is often blurred. And it's actually kind of confusing to a lot of young students, particularly freshmen who are stepping into this culture without any sort of preconceived notion about it. Yeah, I mean, it just seems obvious to me that if you haven't met and you're both drunk or one of you who is drunk, Like, yeah, how can you say there's consent in the sense of like you barely know each other? I was in a sorority at University of Wisconsin-Madison and if you can't tell. I could not. And being a sorority, it was required that we take at least two or three sexual assault courses of how to recognize if something, if there's a sticky situation going on at bar, how to rescue a friend, green dot programs, all of these preventative measures, but then fraternities only needed to attend

an event with a speaker talking against sexual assault. That was it. And really the same curriculum programming should be the same for both. And I think that also having different set of rules or guidelines for either fraternies or sororities and not really being as specific and clear when it comes to consent and sexual assault on campus has really hurt. And you would think, too, that the, you know, most men certainly don't want to commit sexual assault. You would think they would be grateful to get like, hey, here are the clear lines. Here's what you need to watch out for. You know, here's, you know, signs that a girl is, you know, far too wasted to consent.

Yeah. Okay. So as we mentioned, you were recently in college yourself and you work with college kids, it sounds like. Do you think women are happy with the status quo in college? I asked because I know that as a 14-year-old girl myself, it was never like, oh, I can't wait to go to college and, like, hook up with some drunken guy who won't recognize me in the morning. Like, what do women actually think about the status quo? I hear this a lot from our students that reach out and at our summits and campus lectures. This is always one of the main topics of discussion.

And it's that a lot of young women feel that the traditional style of dating has been totally lost. and they feel like when it comes to dating, it's more of just a, let's grab a drink, and then you're expected to have sex with the guy within, you know, like by the third date. There's always that by the third date. And that's really hurt. And so actually one of the most requested speaking topics or kind of discussion topics we get from our young students is the topic of dating. Can we have a professional speaker come in and talk about the virtues of dating and the

virtues of getting to know your partner and not placing so much of an emphasis on sex by the first date, which is kind of the narrative that's on campus. The college administration and a lot of university funded programs like Sex Out Loud assume that all students are having sex by the first date, and so they act as if it's a normal, routine, transactional thing when really that's not the case. And what about the young men on colleges? I mean, how do they, in your experience, how do they think? feel about the status quo and how things are going?

I would say a lot of young men are open to more education about consent and sexual assault awareness. Not all men are bad. However, like I said before, it's blurring the lines between casual sex and sexual assault that have really attributed to the rise of sexual assault just because there are signs and behaviors that are so similar between the two. And also, like you said before, it's been kind of, it's now kind of a stigma on college campuses that young men, you always hear, you know, fraternity men, all they care about are sex, you know, they count it, count how many girls they've slept with with their friends. And so that's kind of a stereotype.

And we see that a lot in movies and popular culture. And so it's kind of sad because some high school boys step up on a campus, particularly high school girls finally step on a campus, have that in the school. their head that that's normal. Well, you mentioned the erosion of dating standards. And I mean, do you think that is serving men's interests over women? I think it, I think it's more beneficial for both parties, traditional dating rather than hookup culture. Because men are affected negatively as well. It's not just women. Yes, men do experience more depression after a casual hookup. However, women do experience it more. But there's also still the risk of STIs, STDs that both parties can have.

It is to men's best interest to bring back traditional dating or just placing more value on sex rather than just a routine transactional thing. So you mentioned porn in your article for the Federalist. What kind of role do you think this has to the overall college culture? Porn making it a normalized thing on college campuses has attributed to the kind of a shifted reality. A lot of students don't necessarily, they expect it or they're afraid to have sex because they have this thought in their head about what it's actually like. So university-funded programs like Sex Out Loud and Sex Week also normalize porn.

They make it sound as if every single student watches it and it's a normal thing and it's something that's healthy in a relationship. However, that's not the case for all relationships, although they perceive it to be that way. And I'm sure we have parents and grandparents listening who are having heart attacks right now and are very worried for their children going to college. And, you know, did your parents give you any advice that you felt really helped you? Would you have any advice to parents generally about like how do you talk to your kids when they're still at home before they go off to college and maybe encounter a culture like this? Yeah, well, that's a good point because my parents didn't even know about my experience freshman year until I wrote this article. just because I thought it was normal on college campuses to have something like this. And also, it's an awkward topic. I don't want to bring it up at the dinner table. And also, if I told my dad, he would be so worried, he'd pull me out.

Right. And I feel like this is the case a lot with a lot of young students, particularly during like freshman orientation, where they're faced with this sort of rhetoric, where they are timid about sharing what exactly they're learning to their parents. And also as a freshman girl, you're stepping on the campus, you're finally at the college of your dreams, you're looking up to your professors, your older peers in your class. It seems as if all this is normal and it's expected. And you would be the odd one out, the closed-minded one for saying something, the traditional one for saying something, although that's not necessarily the case. So I would advise parents and grandparents or

those related to a college student on campus right now to, you know, read the article, read more into this issue, speak to your, to the student about their experience. The Center for Conservative Women has a resourceful booklet, particularly for young women, young college women, of their guide to safe sex and how to properly care for their bodies. And it's purely factual of just here are the facts. This is what you should do. Rather than all the mixed, motivations and pressures that colleges and such programs and facilitators have. Well, Carabelle, thanks so much for writing the Federalist piece and for coming in and sharing your experience.

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