BODYTALK creates outlet for students to discuss sexual health
The next issue will be "The Medical Issue" in honor of World AIDS Day.
Published Nov. 17, 2009
Senior Joseph Beeman began an online magazine, BODYTALK, this semester as a way to regularize discussion of sexual health and sexuality.
"The focus of the 'zine is to normalize conversations about sexuality, bodies and reproductive health and just to create a safe space where anyone can contribute about any experience and just get their voice heard," Beeman said.
The first issue was published October and was called The Virgin Issue. It includes an introduction stating the magazine's purpose, 10 personal submissions that range from personal experiences to discussions of the notion of virginity, "Virginity 101" and a comic strip.
Beeman and a group of students who regularly contribute choose the themes.
"The first one was pretty easy to figure out because we wanted to start at the beginning of people's sexual lives so we chose virginity," Beeman said.
Triangle Coalition President Erin Horth, who contributed a story entitled "Lost and Found," focused on her personal experiences and how her perception of virginity changed as she discovered her personal definition of virginity as a lesbian.
"I think I just realized that it's not concrete and it's extremely socially constructed and based upon who you are and where you come from," Horth said in reference to the definition of virginity.
Horth said her main issue with society's definition of virginity is that it is one-sided.
"It's very hetero-normative," Horth said. "It doesn't at all really allow people who are not heterosexual into the idea of having virginity or really any sort of sexual identity in that respect."
The first step in changing this definition and people's overall knowledge of sexual health is to discuss it openly, Beeman said.
"I feel like conversations about sexual health and sexuality are oftentimes pushed to the side, and I just feel like open, honest and public conversations about sexuality is a great way to ensure that people are getting the right information and giving proper attention to sexuality," Beeman said.
Although no organizations formally sponsor BODYTALK and it is completely student produced, the Sexual Health Advocate Peer Education program will regularly contribute the Sex 101 section.
"(They) came to SHAPE because we are the sexual health organization on campus, and they wanted to make sure that the standards were as high as the SHAPE program holds with information and evidence based," SHAPE Curriculum Coordinator Heather Eastman-Mueller said.
The "Sex 101" segment will be published every edition to provide fact based information to complement the personal stories.
"We're trying to get our SHAPE peers to do the Sex 101 and contribute to that, so it's kind of student development within our organization as well," Eastman-Mueller said.
Students are chosen to write personal articles by the creators of the magazine, who generate a list of people they know and focus on finding a diverse mix. They then send e-mails asking for contributions with a broad prompt Beeman said. Unsolicited submissions are accepted as well.
"I was asked to do it as the president of the Triangle Coalition, which is the LGTBQ student groups," Horth said. "I felt like having been asked, it was kind of an honor and I definitely felt like I had something to say on the subject. There wasn't really any reason that I wouldn't have done it, per se."
The next issue is set to be published in December and since World AIDS Day falls on the first day of the month, the issue will be called "The Medical Issue" and will focus on medicine and sexuality Beeman said.
"It will include any story in which medicine intersects with people's sexual bodies and sexual health," Beeman said.