A vibrator-wielding “pleasure activist” hawked sex toys to students at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, on Friday during a lecture about “sexual racism.”
Alpha News obtained a copy of a campus-wide email announcing the event on behalf of the Minnesota college’s Sexual Assault Resource Network, Cultural Union for Black Expression, and Political Awareness Committee. The email quotes from Alexander Leon, an “LGBTQIA+ activist,” to define sexual racism, suggesting that it’s wrong to not date members of all ethnic groups.
“Sexual racism can be defined as, ‘an individual’s inclination towards having sex with or dating someone based on that person’s perceived racial identity. It’s commonly used to describe the tendency for white people to exclude certain ethnic groups from their sexual and romantic life based on their ‘preferences.’ And yes, these ‘preferences’ do count as a form of racism,” the email reads.
The Zoom-based event was led by Instagram activist Autumn Morris, who calls herself a “certified intimacy educator.” Alpha News viewed the event, which was open to “those outside the St. Olaf community” as well as students at the Christian school.
Morris opened the talk by showing attendees her vibrator, jokingly referring to it as her microphone and offering a coupon code that could be used to buy sex toys on her favorite website.
“My name is Autumn. This is my microphone by Unbound Babes … please feel free to pleasure yourself by getting you one on Unbound Babes, we love them, use code Autumn for 10% off,” she said.
“You can use code Autumn for [a] discount off of your pleasure toys from there, which I hope you are jazzed to do after this lecture,” she reiterated.
She then proceeded to thank her ancestors and introduce the topic of “pleasure politics.”
“Pleasure politics is the policing of the presence of joy, power, happiness and pure fulfillment in life in one’s own body due to social constructions that say what types of bodies deserve said pleasure for no other reason than what they look like, how they function, and to ensure that the power remains in the pockets of the socially-perceived elites,” she said.
Morris told students that her own work in pleasure politics involves an opposition to slut shaming. “Slut shaming is the act of attempting to oppress sexual liberation and pleasure,” she said.
“What is more powerful than a person who is unapologetically fulfilled, pleased, living their best life, sexually liberated or free to consensually express their love and pleasure?” she asked. “Absolutely nothing.”
She also took a stand against “the patriarchy,” and suggested to students that teaching children to masturbate is a way to bring about gender equality.
“As quoted from ‘Pleasure Activism,’ which is written and gathered by Adrienne Maree Brown, if more people were encouraged to masturbate early and often, to learn what feels good to them and that they have the right to communicate that, there would be less sexual trauma, assault, patriarchy, misogyny and general awkwardness.”
Later in the lecture, an attendee asked Morris what her ideal public school sexual education program would look like. She said it would include lessons about “pleasure” as she brought her vibrator back on screen.
