Porn Star Parents Weekend
College at Vassar was fun.
When I was 17, I had two choices for college: Catholic or Vassar. I chose Vassar. It was the right choice. It was the weird, creative, fun choice. Case in point: One parents weekend, a porn star was the featured speaker.
I sat near the back of an auditorium packed with fellow students and their parents. Way too many of their parents. My mom was there that weekend, but did not come to this talk. This was a smart decision on both of our parts. It would’ve been like watching Poor Things together. Just no.
At some point—maybe to start—our fêted guest showed a slide of how many feet of dick she’d sucked as compared to the height of the Empire State Building. This visual is why I still remember her 20ish years later.
I thought the whole thing was funny: The kids and parents uncomfortable next to each other. The parents who tried to make it less awkward by being too enthusiastic, thereby making it more awkward. The presentation itself.
I delighted in the subversiveness. As did the woman giving the talk, Annie Sprinkle, who’d had sex with more than 3,000 people as of 2003. A woman who’s had countless papers written about her sex advocacy and performance art at this point. A woman who told SF Gate that she got her Ph.D. in human sexuality so people would take her seriously, and listen to what she had to say about sex and feminism and pleasure.
Mission accomplished.
Now, should Vassar have hosted this talk on parents weekend? …
I started writing this post to document a memory, with zero moral lesson in mind. But there is something to learn, here!
Vassar was fantastic at presenting students with challenging, sometimes radical ideas, and expecting us to listen to and consider these different points of view. In other words, we were expected to approach everything with curiosity.
Seems like the entire world could use a little Vassar education right about now.
BE CURIOUS!
Thank you for reading my Vassar-sponsored LinkedIn post.*
*Post actually brought to you by the article a friend texted me yesterday titled: “Lily Phillips Ready to Take on 1K Dudes in 24 Hours, Learned from ‘Mistakes.’” This Vassar story is the connection my brain made upon getting that text. You’re welcome.
