At the first-ever Condom Carnival, uncomfortable questions about safe sex practices will be tackled using fun and games.
The carnival is hosted by the Planned Parenthood Generation Club and will take place from noon to 4 p.m. today in the Angell College Center courtyard. There, students can learn about safe sex in a way that is comfortable and fun.
Meghan Corrigan is a senior gender women studies and political science double major and the president of Planned Parenthood Generation. Corrigan works closely with Plattsburgh’s Planned Parenthood to provide students with sexual education and most was recently awarded with the “Best Provisional Club” by the Student Association.
“We want people to be more comfortable with the information and also more knowledgeable about it,” Corrigan said. “There’s a lot of stuff that people don’t talk about when talking about sexual health and education, and doing that in a fun way is our way of reaching as many college students as possible.”
The event will feature games like “don’t pop the cherry”, a challenge that requires players to shave a balloon containing a question. If they pop the balloon, they must answer a question regarding virginity myths and can receive a prize ticket for correct answers.
Prizes to be given out at the carnival include buttons, pins and zines from Pleasure Pie, a sex-positive organization based out of Massachusetts. The stickers and buttons have little sayings such as “all bodies are good bodies”, and “an erection doesn’t equal consent”. The zines are tiny magazines that cover topic such as masturbation and “teaching consent to my kitty”.
Corrigan said she received some inspiration for the carnival through educational events the local Planned Parenthood has held in the past as well as other Planned Parenthood Generation chapters.
“I was looking at what other clubs were doing at other campuses,” Corrigan said, “seeing what worked and what didn’t and how we could adapt it to this campus. That’s how we found out about doing a condom carnival.”
Ryan Senzon is a senior public relations and political science major and vice president of Planned Parenthood Generation.
“We got into full-gear around mid-March, but we’ve been planning [this event] since last semester,” Senzon said.
She said the Condom Carnival is a fun way to offer information about safe sex as well as the services and resources that Planned Parenthood provides as an organization.
“The basis of the whole thing is that we’re trying to bring educational value with fun,” Senzon said.
Another goal of the club and this event is to eliminate stigma and misconceptions surrounding being sexually active.
“I think that’s been one of our biggest efforts on campus, to kind of take away that taboo ideal of what sex is,” Sezon said. “I feel like there are so many people who are aren’t fully informed or who are informed with misinformation. We’re just trying to get people to feel comfortable with talking about it and understanding it.”
Planned Parenthood will be tabling at the carnival and offering “swag” such as t-shirts and water bottles to prize winners. People can also receive raffle tickets and win gift cards to Starbucks, Koffee Kat and Target, and there will also be a cotton candy machine. The event is free to all students.
