Sexy Time With Dawson
by Auréa Cariou
Sitting in my Communications Design class on a Wednesday afternoon, four hours left to go. My classmates look a little tired, like most students at this time of the year – or ever, really. The teacher, Reisa Levine, presents our final project: anything we want. By that, I mean that she has decided to allow us to work together on a project of our choice. This seems to catch everyone's attention, as the concept of twenty-three students working on one project could make for a powerful end result. We all start brainstorming topics. We narrow down our choices and come to an agreement: we will produce a podcast about sex education.
Sexy Time with Dawson (STD) is a student-run podcast that will demystify sexual myths, explore sexual health, and have discussions on various subjects related to intercourse. The podcast hosts will present facts, as well as testimonials and fun stories. With appearances from professionals (such as the Dawson College nurse), the production team hopes to bring a new service that will encourage students to have their secret questions answered, while getting their stories heard. "The goal of the podcast is to share valuable information that current or past Dawson students can enjoy and learn from. It's basically an audio sex ed class for free", said Maya Mongiat, a Studio Art student in her fifth semester and main host on the podcast. Each episode of the podcast will cover a different topic, leaving room for suggestion from the listeners. The first episode of the podcast, coming out this month, will have testimonials. "If you want to get inspired by strong men and women coming out with their personal stories, this is for you", said Maya. Not to worry though, the podcast will also share anecdotes and funny stories submitted by Dawson students. The production team, divided in various groups (Editorial, Tech, Marketing, etc.) is putting a lot of extra time into this project, to guarantee an impressive result. Reisa Levine, overseeing the project, believes "there are some really talented people in this class." While staying as a guide on the side, she hopes it is a good learning experience for the students: "This project resembles the real production world. It's an opportunity to see how hard it is. I'm happy to just sit back and let things happen as much as possible." She also said the project is "all about communication," which encourages the students to take initiative. "When things are badly communicated, they fall apart," she explained.
Another Arts, Letters and Communications student focusing on Studio Arts, Lucia Linaje-Ferrel (third semester), is excited about the podcast coming to Dawson. Not being part of the production team, she has only heard about the podcast from myself and from seeing one of the posters promoting the launch of the first episode. She believes it is a good idea, "especially if it has a humorous angle, because projects like these can make people more uncomfortable with the topics." Lucia thinks "positive messages regarding sexuality are needed today. Stories of violence and aggression are circulating more and more, which should be talked about, but they stir up a lot of anger and fear. People need to hear different narratives as well, and to know that living a healthy sex life is possible."
The student-run podcast hopes to give Dawson students the chance to know more about sex and everything that comes with it, while creating a safe space on which they can share serious or funny stories without fear of judgment. Always open to anonymous testimonials, the production team can easily be reached through social media (Instagram: @dawsonsexytime , Facebook: @DawsonSexyTimeSTD ). The team behind the scenes looks forward to the response from the student body. For more information, make sure to follow the podcast on social media, and stay tuned; the first episode is coming soon!
