Start off Valentine’s Day with a bang

The annual UC Davis Generation Sex Week kicks off Monday, which also happens to be Valentine’s Day.

Generation Sex Week, put on by the ASUCD Gender and Sexuality Commission (GASC), is a week of workshops and events concerning genders and sexualities.

Working toward creating a conversation about genders and sexualities on and off campus is the goal of the commission, said Ashley Matson, GASC commissioner and senior English major.

The week focuses on both enjoying sex and sexuality, and examining problems that can arise. Events are open to all UC Davis students and alumni.

“It’s about celebrating sex and sexuality, but it’s also about raising awareness about issues relating to sexuality,” Matson said.

Through Generation Sex Week, GASC hopes to educate students on different issues surrounding sex in order to help them make the right choices.

“Generation Sex Week’s goal is to create awareness surrounding genders and sexualities and the diversity of genders and sexualities on our campus, not only for education, but also to empower students,” said Caitlin Alday, GASC commission chair, junior women and gender studies major and senatorial candidate.

Events include a wide assortment of subjects, ranging from workshops on safe sex and asexuality to a talk with a genderqueer porn star. Many different groups – including the UC Davis Women’s Resources and Research Center, Planned Parenthood and Good Vibrations, a store selling sex-toys in San Francisco – will be hosting the events. A full list can be found on the Facebook event page or on fliers posted around campus.

“We have a genderqueer porn star coming to Davis, which I think is really important because this person talks a lot about sex positivity. I think the speaker will be really awesome and I’m hoping people from outside the queer community can also learn from it,” said Jennifer Giang, GASC commissioner and Asian American studies and women and gender studies double major.

GASC is excited to present UC Davis with a week full of workshops and events that are diverse and hopefully interesting to everyone on campus. With events ranging from “Sex Toys and the Physiology of Pleasure” to the “Gender and Sexuality Art Exhibit,” most students can be sure to find an event that piques their interest.

“There’s a lot of information put on by a wide variety of groups. GASC collaborated with a lot of different resources so we were able to cover a wide range of topics from different perspectives,” Alday said. “I think it’s a great chance for students to expose themselves to different ideas and find out new information that they might not have known before.”

Through Generation Sex Week, GASC hopes to get a lot of students involved in the conversation about genders and sexuality.

“The events are for everybody, there are some that are really political, really social, really fun and frivolous or really serious. There’s definitely something for everyone this year,” Matson said.

HANNAH STRUMWASSER can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.