It was fish for dinner Tuesday night at Dana dining hall, with a surprising side of activism. Around 6:30 pm Tuesday evening, several groups of students stood up during dinner and performed songs based around sexual awareness that those who were watching will not soon forget.
A total of five groups of students in various places around Dana Dining Hall jumped up and sang songs varying from Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” to “Let’s Talk About Sex” by Salt-N-Pepa. Of course, several of the lyrics had been changed to incorporate the theme of the surprise presentation. The “flash-musical” was performed by professor Danielle Egan’s class: Sexuality, Society & Culture. Daniela Cockwill ’11 described the performance saying, “Our goal was to change the culture on campus and make it a more sex-positive environment. If the performance seemed somewhat shocking or eye-opening, good, it was supposed to be. By not only talking about sex and sexuality, but singing about it in Dana, our class hoped to break taboos, encourage discussion and show that it really is okay to talk about sex of all varieties. Discussion promotes greater understanding, acceptance and distributes information.”
Haley Feickert ’11 shared what she thought about the “flash musical,” “I think that it definitely served its purpose in the sense it got people to stop and listen. I appreciated it on a personal note because of classes I have taken. I also understand what they are trying to do, which is to disrupt the status quo. Our culture tells us that we shouldn’t talk about sex, but their point is that we should be more open about sex and talk about it more.”
There was a hand-out for people who wanted to know more. A portion of it read like this:”The individual groups tackled the topics of teen pregnancy, oral sex, hook-up culture, ‘sextin” and the so-called gay conspiracy. We combined these topics together to perform a flash musical that would shock and awe SLU students, and promote conversation among the students about different sexual issues on campus.” This was definitely the most entertaining, yet informative performance that has ever occurred in Dana.
While most students were taken by surprise and stopped eating to pay attention, others seemed to accept the performance as a normal occurrence, shook it off and continued to eat. After the last song, the mood in the room was ecstatic and the applause that followed made it quite clear that many people listened and hopefully appreciated the message.
