Boston College Bans Free Condoms; Students Say 'Eff That'

Free condoms and college campuses kinda go hand-in-hand. Sex is clearly going to be had and schools would prefer students do it without spreading STDs—everyone wins, right?

Well, Boston College, a private, religious university, recently banned the staple campus freebie, saying that the distribution of birth control went against its core values. (Because it's easier to just pretend that students aren't having sex, than actually make sure they're safe doing it, right? Logic!)

However, members of the campus group Boston College Students for Sexual Health, which distributes the free condoms in question, said no way to this new policy, even though ignoring the condom ban could result in disciplinary action.

As Lizzie Jekanowski, the chairwoman of the group, told the New York Times, rather than going against the school's religious roots, having free condoms actually reinforces them.

“It harkens to a much deeper … morality of caring for your neighbor — and that’s literally what we’re doing, caring for our neighbors,” she said.

Can't argue with that. (And, major props for Jekanowski showing that religion and sex education don't have to be at odds.)

This news comes on the heels of the announcement that no tuition dollars would be used to fund Penn's first-ever sex week—and that no state money would go toward similar festivities at the University of Tennessee. And, just last month, Central New Mexico Community College suspended its weekly student newspaper after it published an issue devoted to sex. (The paper has since been reinstated, but still.)

Now, we know that college isn't all about getting busy, but we're a bit confused as to why everyone seems to be getting all uptight about students having sex—not to mention merely talking about it.

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Bonkers Chinese Professor Says Female Students Should Wear Makeup to Improve the Boys' Studying Skills

There's been much talk in the last week of exactly what constitutes "inappropriate" professional/academic behavior towards women. After President Obama joked that California Attorney General Kamala Harris is, among other things, the "best-looking" Attorney General in the country, a shitstorm of criticism and backlash of defenses cropped up in the press.

While many asserted that Obama's joke was inappropriate, some female pundits on Fox and Friends as well as CNN columnist Roxanne Jones said that the anger was a severe overreaction. The gist of their argument? "I'd be flattered if the President said I was pretty." (How nice for them!) But we don't really know how Harris herself feels about it: Smartly, she's stayed out of the subsequent debate.

All this begs the question: When do we draw the line between a harmless remark and a sexist statement? And regardless of whether it was meant to be sexist, isn't the offhand objectification of women by a figure in power sort of harmful either way?

Yesterday, Professor He Guangshun of the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies posted a comment he made in class to Weibo (the Chinese Twitter):

It’s cruel that girls have to come to class at 8:30 am. They should have more time to put on their makeup and enter the classroom elegantly. That way, encouraged and moved by their beauty, boys would have the drive to work hard.

First of all, I always considered going to any pre-noon class in makeup the same thing as going to the gym in makeup. No, sir. I will carry on the proud co-ed tradition of greasy top-knot and pizza-stained sweatpants, thank you muchly. If the boys were "moved" by anything, it was the fact that I smelled like rum, cigarettes, and one ineffective spritz of Gap Dream. IT'S CALLED BEING LOVELY, PEOPLE. TRY IT.

Second of all, I mean... nothing about this makes sense. Put on makeup, you've got a class full of Beautiful Minds. Put on yoga pants, and you're distracting? Other points of confusion: The fact that Guangshun thought it was OK to say in class. The fact that he thought it was so clever he should put it on the Internet. And, above all, the fact that many people are laughing it off or agreeing with him. Including women.

Part of the reason for this is that Shanghai students, even those who have access to a college education, show a marked disinterest in gender studies education and traditional gender norms are huge. Then again, what's our country's excuse?

On the bright side, I'm all for nixing all 8:30 AM classes. You?

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