Yale University is hosting Sex Week from February 4 to 14, featuring discussions on pornography that include adult industry figures and anti-pornography advocates. The event has generated debate on campus, with an alternative "True Love Week" also scheduled.

Sex Week Returns to Yale

Yale University's Sex Week 2012 is scheduled to run from February 4 to 14. The series of events includes a panel discussion focused on the ethics of pornography, featuring adult performer Maggie Mayhem and anti-pornography advocate Gail Dines. Student organizers have stated that pornography is a component of the series, but a small one, and that other speakers, including authors and activists, are also on the itinerary.

Paul Holmes, a student organizer, commented that an issue does not need to be exclusively exciting or educational, suggesting it can be both. Holmes also stated that the discussion itself should be interesting and stimulating for some students, while clarifying that the events would not be explicit or inappropriate. The central question for the panelists in the ethics discussion is, "Is it ethical to film sex?"

Gail Dines, whose views on the adult industry have been documented, will participate in a panel discussion on the harm of pornography. Dines referred to Maggie Mayhem, stating, "She's basically a really small player; she's not a player, really."

Maggie Mayhem's Background and Engagements

Maggie Mayhem, who declined to provide her real name for personal protection, is scheduled to be part of the ethics of pornography panel discussion. Mayhem is described as a "sex pos" individual and a "loud and proud sex wo" (sex worker).

Mayhem has a background in HIV prevention. From 2003 to 2010, she worked as an HIV test counselor, clinic coordinator, and later as the HIV Senior Specialist at Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco, CA. In 2009, she worked at a district hospital in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, providing care for individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Mayhem is also a co-founder of Mayhem Multimedia.

Her work and perspectives have been featured in various publications and interviews. In June 2022, she reacted to the US Supreme Court Dobbs decision on CBC. In February 2019, she was interviewed by Sydney Jarrard for the Counterspeak podcast by the American Booksellers for Free Expression. August 2018 saw interviews titled "Sex Workers' Rights in the Digital Dystopia - Interview with Ms. Maggie Mayhem" by Nodya for Dead Dialect, and "Sex Work After SESTA/FOSTA: A Discussion With Maggie Mayhem at DEFCON" by Unicorn Riot. In June 2018, Jenavieve Hatch interviewed her for Huffington Post in an article titled "What This Queer Sex Worker Learned – And How She's Giving Back to Her Community." She was also interviewed by Labyrinthos Academy in August 2016 for "Sex and Eroticism in Tarot, with Maggie Mayhem."

Mayhem has contributed to print publications, including "The Golden Age of Porn Is Just Beginning" in Screw the System: Explorations of Spaces, Games and Politics through Sexuality and Technology (2013), edited by Johannes Grenzfurthner. She is also listed for "Sex, birth, and death" in Eros and Thanatos, edited by Nadia Lev and Meredith Yayanos, which is forthcoming.

Mayhem has been cited in several reports and articles, including "The Resurgence of the Abortion Underground" by WNYC/NPR's The Experiment in May 2022, "The activists championing DIY abortions for a post-Roe v Wade world" by Poppy Noor in The Guardian in May 2022, and "The Future of abortion in a post-Roe America: Inside the covert network preparing to circumvent restrictions" by Jessica Bruder in The Atlantic in May 2022. She was also cited in "How the abortion underground is prepping for a post-Roe v. Wade world" by WHYY/NPR's Fresh Air in April 2022. Other citations include "Margo St. James, Matriarch of the Modern Sex Work Movement, Has Died" by Joe Kukura in Broke-Ass Stuart in January 2021, and "Bound to Capitalism: The Pursuit of Profit and Pleasure in Digital Pornography" by Jennifer Miller in Fast Capitalism in October 2019.

Mayhem was also a presenter at SXSW 2013 for "Open Source Sex Science & the PSIgasm Project." This project aims to create open-source hardware tools to record physiological data about the human sexual response, using custom silicone inserts with sensors to monitor pressure, temperature, heat flow, and blood volume density. The data is streamed wirelessly and displayed in real time. The project seeks to move the systematic investigation of sexuality outside of traditional academic and industry settings to access larger and more varied datasets and reduce reliance on politically motivated funding.

Campus Opposition and Alternative Events

Not all members of the Yale community support Sex Week. The Undergraduates for a Better Yale College are sponsoring an alternative event, True Love Week, from February 5-14 on Yale's campus. This group had previously petitioned against Sex Week. Eduardo Andino, co-founder of Undergraduates for a Better Yale College, stated that Sex Week organizers are "trying to make their agenda look more palatable by putting an educational cloak around it," in what he perceives as an attempt to promote a casual "hook-up" culture.

Key Facts

  • Yale University's Sex Week 2012 is scheduled from February 4 to 14.
  • The event includes a panel discussion on the ethics of pornography featuring Maggie Mayhem and Gail Dines.
  • Maggie Mayhem is an adult performer and co-founder of Mayhem Multimedia, with a background in HIV prevention.
  • Gail Dines is an anti-pornography advocate.
  • The Undergraduates for a Better Yale College are sponsoring an alternative "True Love Week" from February 5-14.
  • Mayhem presented on the "PSIgasm Project" at SXSW 2013, an open-source hardware initiative for studying human sexual response.