Students gathered into the Cartwright Hall Auditorium for Kent Interhall Council’s annual “Sex in the Dark” event Thursday night. 

What attracted students to attend was the question and answer portion, where attendees asked their questions anonymously by scanning a QR code which took them to a website. A vote commenced then, in which the questions with the most votes were chosen to be answered. 

Marshall Miller and Lindsay Fram, sexuality experts from Sex Discussed Here, an organization that provides sexual education programs into educational institutions, were on stage answering questions. The two have assisted in hosting previous sexual education events at the university. 

Miller started by recognizing the diversity of the people present. 

“There are many people here who choose to be abstinent,” Miller said. “There are many people who choose not to put this information to use before they’re married.”

He acknowledged then why other audience members attended. 

“There may be people who say ‘it’s Thursday night of Sex Week,’ they’ll be putting this information to use tonight,” Miller said. 

The crowd was full of enthusiasm for the hard-hitting questions including topics like how to engage in anal intercourse, adequate self-hygiene and the alternatives to penetrative sex. 

Hannah Smith, a freshman zoology major, and Blythe McClure, a freshman environmental studies major, both agreed they enjoyed the event. They said some members of the audience were a little too enthusiastic. 

“I knew there were going to be people that didn’t take it seriously, but there were people that did,” Smith said. 

Miller and Fram also asked some of their own questions to get answers from the students. One of the top questions was where the best places to have sex on campus are. They read out the top responses to the room. 

“Get a hotel and take her out to some place nice,” Miller said. “Put rose petals in the tub and on the bed, do better kings.” 

Another topic discussed by Miller was ways of having quiet sex in a dorm room, which included using a pillow or moving beds away from the wall. 

The pair spoke about some of the challenges of running a sex event such as the difficulty of giving clear answers to a topic as broad as sex. 

“There’s actually a fair amount of data done,” Fram said. “There’s nothing we can say that will be the silver bullet answer for everyone on the planet, but we can share the data. People can think that makes sense, or get ideas of things to try.” 

Miller said there are some common questions they get asked about often. 

“One of them is the idea that sex should automatically be good,” Miller said. “There are some very important topics related to sex. Consent, safer sex and pregnancy prevention, all that stuff is very important to cover.” 

Additionally, he pointed out the lack of sexual education most people get. 

“There’s very little education on what sexual pleasure looks like and how to have good sex,” Miller said. “People get the perception that somehow you should be able to have great sex without ever being taught about it. A lot of the questions we’re answering are filling that knowledge gap.” 

The duo was on campus again Friday for the “I <3 the Female Orgasm” event. 

Fram said since they got so many questions regarding orgasms, they thought it would be good to create an event focusing on them. 

“We just got so many questions about that particular topic — how to have an orgasm, how to help your partner have an orgasm, how to know if you’ve had an orgasm and of course squirting,” Miller said. “So we put a program together to just address that.”

Andrew Bowie is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].