Discussing sex with the expert

The stereotypical college student’s mind is consumed by three things: alcohol, partying and sex.

While this is certainly not representative of all, or maybe even most, college students, one professor at the university has devoted his studies to the act of mating.

Robin Sawyer, a public and community health professor, has published more than 15 sex-related writings, produced several films, given more than 450 presentations at colleges and universities (and more than 25 presentations at national conferences) and has won 11 national and international film awards, along with a number of teaching awards.

Sawyer is currently researching how his film on date rape impacts its viewers. He tries to “research from practicality” and is hoping to be able to apply his findings, whatever they may be, to real-life situations and people like the students in his lectures.

The Diamondback sat down with Sawyer to find out what he thinks about sex in
College Park.

The Diamondback: What drew you to study health and adolescent sexuality?

Robin Sawyer: I was actually in graduate school, because my undergraduate was English lit, and I came from England and I had to take courses to be certified to teach here, so I just took a health course and it was like a little light bulb went off, like “Oh, sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, that seems [like] kind of cool stuff,” so I kind of fell into it.

DBK: Could you describe your human sexuality course?

Sawyer: It’s a pretty basic survey course. I deal with a lot of different topics in not-too-great of depth. I try to make it relevant to students’ lives. I use a lot of humor [and] a lot of video that’s totally non-educational, but funny, like Seinfeld, When Harry Met Sally ... whatever I can find to make a point that I think students can relate to. I really encourage students to be involved and talk and share ideas and thoughts about it. And to be honest, by the time I finish the semester, I think I’ve learned as much from them as they have from me.

DBK: What would you say plays the greatest role in shaping students’ conceptions of sex?

Sawyer: I think culture, certainly media. I’ve been at Maryland 23 years doing this, and I would say the current generation has been totally brought up in a hypersexualized
world, where you’ve got cable television, you’ve got computers, you’ve got ads that are fairly risqué. It’s just become part of the fabric of the culture right now — that’s what it looks like. And I don’t even think people
notice it.

DBK: How do you feel about the portrayal of college students’ sexual lives in movies and TV?

Sawyer: I think a lot of it’s exaggerated sometimes. If you believed what you saw on
television around that area, you’d think everybody’s sex fiends and no one ever goes to class and all they spend their time doing is getting high and having sex. The reality is, that’s not how it is. Is there a lot of sexual activity on a college campus? Well, of course. But there has been since the 1960s. It’s a time of freedom; it’s a time of being away from home for the first time; it’s a time of opportunity. So I think the fact that people become more sexually active on a college campus is perfectly predictable. But I don’t buy into the stereotype that’s sometimes perpetuated by the media that all college students are these sexual addicts rushing around having sex all the time.

DBK: What, to your knowledge, is the truth about sex on the campus? Are as many people sexually active as students think?

Sawyer: Well, if you look at national norms, coming out of high school, approximately 65 to 68 percent of kids have had sex. Then by the time people graduate, that number’s probably in the 90-some percentile. That means the other third have pretty much become sexually active on a college campus. That gives you a kind of a rough picture about what’s going on sexually on a college campus, I think, with regards to how many people are sexually active.

DBK: What’s the best resource for students who have questions or concerns about sex?

Sawyer: One of the best resources and one of the worst resources is online materials. There are a host of awesome websites that give really good, solid information about sex, and there are a host of awful websites ... so the difficulty of having the wonder that is the Internet is that you have to be sort of media literate. You’ve got to be able to work out what’s good and what’s bad.

DBK: Any advice you’d like to offer the students at the university?

Sawyer: Don’t buy into the Nike ad and “Just Do It.” Think about it.

ga@umdbk.com