​PASHion for sexual health

On Friday, the Peer Advocacy for Sexual Health (PASH) Center opened its doors in Crowell Quadrangle’s Griffin House. Staffed by sixteen peer advocates, the center aims to provide sexual health peer counseling and pleasure products to the student body. Since its conception, it has garnered attention and controversy for its promotion of a sex positive attitude. We believe it provides an open and inclusive platform for students to discuss sex and sexual health. Its unique position as a student-driven initiative separates it from other Student Affairs programs by allowing students to cultivate their own sex health discussions, a welcome change from the rigidity with which many of us have studied the topic in the past.

When PASH received funding from Duke Student Government last Spring, many opposed its creation. The allocation of student activities fees toward the creation of a sex positive environment angered students who believed that their money, instead of being spent on a “sex” center,” ought to have been utilized elsewhere. Some felt uncomfortable supporting an institution they believed would disseminate information ostensibly promoting promiscuity. Others believed the center would provide an inappropriate public arena for discussions that ought to be private. Despite the backlash though, the center pushed forward, carried by its mission to ignite dialogue on campus about sexual health. We believe they did well. Sidelined by moralizing taboos, sexual health education has long been relegated to awkward physical education classes and peer misinformation. That has left people badly educated about sexual health, but unable or unwilling to ask necessary questions. PASH can answer those questions and meet unsated student needs, providing a breakaway from the moralization of sex.

We recognize that for many students sexual health is a sensitive topic. To them PASH is a moral problem, not a well-intentioned health initiative. They oppose its existence but feel they are forced to indirectly fund it through their student activities fee. Perhaps that is true, but it is still no reason not fund PASH: that could be the case with the funding of any student group on campus since the general student body contributes very little to the discussions that ultimately determine funding.

Preventing the creation of the PASH center, at any rate, would not suddenly curb sexual activity on campus. The center will neither promote sex nor shame it: it will simply educate on it and make it safer and better for students.

Our approach to sexual health on this campus often deemphasizes the key component of health in these discussions with many focusing on the first term and incorrectly moralizing the subject. The PASH center can facilitate the long-term process of re-teaching sexual health on campus by educating the student body on how to be more cognizant about sex and its implications. It can function within the realms of the university to deconstruct and analyze the subject to help eliminate any obscurity for students. These sorts of explorations occur with every academic subject on campus. There is no reason they should not be expanded to sex.

When the Student Health and Wellness Center opens, we hope to see the PASH center granted a larger space within the building. And as the center expands, we encourage PASH to recruit full-time experts to facilitate the education and training process. While the student-led initiative creates a uniquely comfortable space for students to converse about sensitive issues, we hope to see PASH evolve and grow into an established, permanent institution on campus.