Sexperts Committee to discuss benefits of self pleasure
By Annie Lu
May 28, 2014 12:21 a.m.
An undergraduate student government student wellness commission committee and the Gamma Rho Lambda – Zeta chapter at UCLA are co-hosting a masturbation workshop Wednesday night.
The goal of the “Finals Can Wait, Masturbate!” workshop is to educate students about self pleasure and break stigmas about masturbating and having sex for pleasure, said Savannah Badalich, the Undergraduate Students Association Council student wellness commissioner.
“We talk a lot about safe sex in the context of heterosexual individuals, but we don’t really talk about self pleasure and masturbation,” Badalich said.
The workshop will be led by sex educator and writer Elle Chase, who will be demonstrating the use of different sex toys and presenting various masturbation techniques. There will also be a raffle with sex toys, and all attendees will receive free condoms and climaxing cream.
Badalich said the workshop aims to promote healthy masturbation practices because some research has suggested that masturbation can reduce stress and increase happiness. She said the committee wants to provide students with tools to understand self pleasure.
Next school year, the Student Wellness Commission Gender Health Committee will become the Sexperts Committee and plans to host more workshops related to sex for pleasure, said Chrissy Keenan, the director of the committee.
The workshop is meant to be gender inclusive and open to students of all sexualities, Keenan said.
Keenan, a second-year human biology and society student, said she hopes that people will walk away from the workshop feeling more comfortable talking about and experimenting with masturbation and sex for pleasure.
Compiled by Annie Lu, Bruin contributor.
