MONDAY
Susan Wilson, MS:Ed, executive coordinator of The Network for Family
Life at Rutgers, received this year's Richard J. Cross Award. Recipients in years past
include Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
It's the first morning of Sex Week. As people filter in, some are shocked by the posters on the walls; others who have attended before simply smile and take a seat.
Robert Hendren, MD, professor of psychiatry at RWJMS, tops the lineup. He asks the students what they would do if the following patients came to them for advice: a 12-year-old boy who thinks he is gay; a 30-year-old woman who had sex with a dog while she was intoxicated; and a 20-year-old man who has a ketchup bottle wedged in his rectum.
"All these people came to see me," he says. "Others like them will come to you, no matter what your specialty." Hendren urges the group to get as much as possible from the course, in preparation for such cases. He also gives pointers on taking a sexual history, particularly from patients who have sex-related problems or think they are "different." "Ask patients when they first felt they were different. Progress chronologically," he says, "going from the least to the most taboo."
Richard Cross, MD, professor emeritus and founder of Sex Week, follows with a slide presentation of normal male and female genitalia. He discusses the anatomy of both, and speaks on what is considered a normal-size penis. "Don't believe everything you hear," he says. "There's a wide, wide range of normals."
The lunchtime movie, "Expressions of Love," shows lovemaking between a young married, heterosexual couple, with an emphasis on communication. Fondly referred to as "the Barbie and Ken of Sex Week," the couple epitomizes sex performed with agility and beauty.
The next speaker, William Stayton, ThD, begins by admitting he is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the couple in the film. "At my age, the agility in sex is gone," he says. Stayton is a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches human sexuality. He is also an American Baptist minister and a sex therapist. His lecture focuses on sexuality, values and religion.
A panel speaks next on cultural differences in sexuality. A Hispanic sociology professor says in his culture, a boy must stand up for himself to be considered macho. As a young adult, he must put great emphasis on being attractive and expressing himself sexually; when he is older, he proves he's a man by caring for his family. Women, on the other hand, must be sexually attractive to be considered feminine, but they are to remain virgins until marriage. "Because balancing the two attitudes is difficult," he says, "chaperones are common in our culture."
A gynecologist who practices in Brooklyn tells the future physicians not to be shocked if they see mutilated female genitalia. Recent immigrants have had clitorectomies, she says, and women from other countries, living in America, sometimes request them. She says in some African tribes, it's believed female babies who do not have the surgery will die. In other tribes, it is a rite of passage for girls, and in still others, women are considered ineligible for marriage unless they have the surgery.
"It's your duty to inform patients of the health risks and explain that the procedure is illegal here," she says. "But it's a cultural belief, so you must treat these patients with respect."
An orthodox Jewish rabbi on the panel sits with his glasses in his hand. "I'm not
wearing my glasses so I can't see the posters on the walls," he says. "In my
religion, looking at sexually suggestive pictures is forbidden. Sex and procreation in
marriage, however, is considered sacred."