The professor poses a Socratic question, and the answer has something to do with sex. Eyes dart back and forth from the professor, then to peers, back to the professor. Oh no, you just made eye contact with the professor. Quick, look down at your hands in shame. No one is moving. You contemplate whether you’ve gone deaf, but then you hear a bead of sweat roll off the temple of the kid next to you. We’re stubborn and too far into this thing to give up. But the professor will wait. Students are twitching and spontaneously combusting. One guy pees himself. It’s only been 30 seconds.
“You guys can say it: sex,” the professor finally says. With permission we let out a collective breath, giggle and softly turn our heads to the people sitting next to us (like in that one scene in Mean Girls when they all admit they’ve been trash-talking each other).
That was a close one. Hopefully the next time we have to talk about a subject listed under Seaver Student Handbook examples of misconduct, it’ll be about failing to posses a valid student ID on request or tailgating another car into a parking lot.
Come on, guys, let’s keep this “Pepperdine appropriate.” I’ve had professors and Resident Advisors throw me that line whenever a conversation waded into legal aged waters (e.g. sex, drugs, California State Lottery). Each time I hear some variation of the phrase, I squint my eyes a little harder (Seaver-induced crow’s feet). Pepperdine appropriate? What does that even mean?
It is not defined by the Seaver Student Handbook but by a unique campus climate. This Malibu miracle is fashioned between moral and ethical obligations to the Bible, and an often contradictory reality that comes along with thousands of 18 to 20-somethings learning and living together.
In light of the first-hand account of sex assault at Amherst College and the academic whirlwind it inspired across campuses since, Pepperdine needs to champion an open dialogue of sex, sexuality, sex safety and sex crimes.
On saying the word “sex,” I’ve seen students lower their voices a couple octaves in the Caf or go mute should an RA walk into the room. Some call this a spiral of silence or a climate of silence or a silence-y silence — whatever it is, it’s not healthy or conducive to real-world preparation.
The acts themselves are forbidden, but the dialogue isn’t. “I would rather have all the risks which come from free discussion of sex than the risks we run by a conspiracy of silence.” The quote by a former Archbishop of Canterbury is seriously relevant to campus today. With the start of the semester, I look forward to three things: the return of ABC Family’s Bunheads, the Graphic’s first “sex issue” and more candid conversations about both preceding topics. I also hope to avoid more agonizingly awkward minutes of classroom time.
Follow Mariella Rudi on Twitter.