Josie Black
Staff Writer I signed up to write an article about a campus event on Tuesday evening called Sex Signals, knowing nothing about what the event would entail or why it was coming to campus. Quite frankly, the word “sex” enticed me to request the article.
I must say I felt like a big weirdo walking into a dark Dana Auditorium, finding a seat in the back and pulling out my journalism notebook. I must have looked like a girl desperately awaiting any sex tips to scribble down for for future use.
I soon learned that no sex tips would be given in this show.
The event, a part of Chaos Continues, was required for all first-years. Several bouncers waited at the exits to ensure that none of them escaped.
The show began as two actors, a male and a female, entered the stage. They spoke in exaggerated voices and seemed excited about everything.
I had flashbacks to my high school auditorium where I was required to endure guidance-counselor-sponsored performances entitled “Hugs not Drugs” and a musical interpretation of “Let’s Talk It Out.”
The actors explained that they had come to talk about dating by acting out skits and taking audience feedback. I sank lower in my seat as I envisioned the next two hours of my life.
The skits unraveled slowly, and most of the audience seemed to enjoy the oversimplified stereotypical roles performed by the actors. The room exploded with laughter when in a bar scene, the woman looked at the man’s crotch and exclaimed, “I want to meet the real fighting Quaker.”
“I guess parts of it were funny but mostly it was stuff I already know,” said first-year Gabe Guindon. “You know, stuff we have been hearing since middle school.”
While the show definitely attempted to break down certain gender stereotypes, it inadvertently supported others. It divided men and women into opposing camps, making certain characteristics male and certain female, without room for a medium ground.
After the first couple of scenes, the show took a serious twist and took on a skit about date rape. The actors did a good job of demonstrating that date rape often occurs with someone you know and can be a result of lack of communication.
“People weren’t really hearing the message,” said senior Kim Abrams. She felt the show downplayed the seriousness of the matter by starting with so much humor and bringing up the rape aspect so late.
“If the audience comes in with the frame of mind that this is going to take a broad look at dating and relationships and communication and sexual assault and how those are intertwined,” said Leslie Moss, Assistant Director of Campus Life, “then I think it is good.”
Don’t worry if you missed the show this year. Moss said that Sex Signals will probably return to Guilford next year if Campus Life has the money. So we can all rest assured for another year, knowing that our first-years know how to date.