Imagine showing up for your very first week at one of America’s most prestigious liberal arts colleges, wide-eyed and ready to start a new chapter. You’re told there’s a mandatory “tradition” performance that everyone has to attend. Sounds fun, right? Maybe some funny skits about dorm life or inside jokes about the dining hall food.
Now imagine instead watching fellow students writhe under blankets moaning loudly, throwing condoms into the crowd like it’s New Year’s Eve, and acting out graphic sexual scenarios while the administration smiles and calls it “education.”
That’s exactly what happened recently at a top-tier college known for its progressive values, and the backlash has been intense.
When “Sexual Respect” Goes Too Far
Every year, incoming freshmen are strongly encouraged—some say coerced—into attending a student-run theatrical production that’s been part of orientation since the late 2000s. The show uses excerpts from the freshmen’s own admissions essays, supposedly to celebrate individuality and humor.
In theory, that could be charming. In practice, many students describe it as one of the most uncomfortable experiences of their lives.
What Actually Happens On Stage
According to multiple accounts and leaked footage, the performance quickly escalates from lighthearted to overtly sexual. Upper-class students act out skits that include:
- Simulated sex acts under blankets complete with exaggerated moaning
- Throwing handfuls of condoms into the audience
- Graphic discussions and demonstrations about sexual topics
- Songs and dances centered around hook-up culture
One junior who sat through an earlier version told reporters she seriously considered walking out—something she’d never done for a mandatory event before—because it felt so invasive and inappropriate.
“I’m not someone who breaks rules or skips mandatory events, but it was disgusting enough it almost forced me to leave.”
She wasn’t alone. Anonymous posts on campus apps exploded with hundreds of likes from students describing the show as “traumatizing,” “scarifying,” and “way over the line.”
The College’s Defense: It’s All About Wellness
The administration, unsurprisingly, sees things differently. Officials describe the production as a creative way to open conversations about sexual health, consent, communication, and respect.
“The skits are part of our broader commitment to promoting wellbeing and sexual respect on campus. They encourage conversations about topics that can sometimes feel difficult to discuss.”
– Director of health education
They insist the content isn’t graphic, that the script is reviewed and approved by staff every year, and that the goal is to create a “relatable, engaging format” for important topics.
But here’s the rub: even students who generally support comprehensive sex education found this approach disturbing. One said the forced nature of the performance actually made them less likely to have open conversations about intimacy.
Why Mandatory Sexual Theater Feels So Wrong
There’s a massive difference between offering honest, respectful sexual education and staging a sexually charged performance in front of a captive audience of 18-year-olds who barely know each other.
Think about it. These students have just left home. Many have never been away from their families before. They’re trying to make friends, figure out where the laundry room is, and not look lost on the first day of classes.
The last thing most of them want is to be bombarded with theatrical sex acts performed by strangers who will soon be their classmates and dorm neighbors.
In my experience covering campus culture over the years, I’ve found that the most effective intimacy education happens in small groups, with trained facilitators, and—crucially—with the option to opt out. When you remove choice, you remove trust.
The Bigger Conversation We Should Be Having
This incident raises some uncomfortable but necessary questions about how we teach young adults about sex and intimacy:
- Can sexual respect truly be taught through shock value?
- Does forcing exposure to explicit content actually reduce shame—or create new trauma?
- Who gets to decide where the line is between education and violation?
- Are we conflating “breaking taboos” with respecting individual boundaries?
Perhaps the most interesting aspect is how this reveals the generational gap in approaching these topics. Many administrators came of age during second-wave attempts to destigmatize sexuality through confrontation. Today’s students often prefer nuance, consent in all contexts (including education), and mental health consideration.
There’s nothing progressive about making people uncomfortable in the name of progress.
Real sexual respect education should empower students to set their own boundaries, not steamroll over them with condoms and theatrical moaning.
What Healthy Intimacy Education Actually Looks Like
Some colleges get this right. They offer:
- Small-group workshops with professional educators
- Anonymous Q&A sessions
- Online modules that can be completed privately
- Peer-led discussions with strict respect guidelines
- Clear opt-out policies without penalty
These approaches recognize that everyone arrives with different experiences, comfort levels, and even trauma histories. One size never fits all when it comes to intimacy education.
The goal shouldn’t be to shock students into awareness. It should be to create genuine safety so they feel comfortable learning at their own pace.
The Aftermath and What Comes Next
Students report having “flashbacks” when seeing the performers around campus. Some needed mental health support afterward. This isn’t education—this is institutional failure.
Until colleges understand that consent applies to education too, these kinds of incidents will keep happening. And each time, they’ll push more students away from the very conversations administrators claim to want.
True sexual respect begins with respecting students’ right to learn about intimacy on their own terms—not being forced to watch a sex show on day three of college.
Maybe it’s time we trusted young adults to handle these topics with the maturity we claim they have, rather than treating them like children who need to be shocked into responsibility.
Because from where I’m sitting, the real education here isn’t about sex at all.
It’s about the importance of boundaries, choice, and genuine respect—in every context.
