Kama sutra, strip clubs, and adult book stores. It may sound like a dirty adult film, but it is actually part of the course of study for a Human Sexuality class at Moorpark College.
Sally Ponce-O’Rourke, professor of psychology at Moorpark College, walks into class a bundle of energy and ready to start her discussion. Setting up the screen is Professor Riley Dwyer, a first-year humanities faculty member at Moorpark College. The class is actually two classes that are combined together, the Human Sexuality class and a Contemporary American Film class. The Contemporary American Film class introduces contemporary foreign cinema, focusing on works of important directors and reviewing popular genres, production systems, American influences, and unique movements and approaches. The marriage of these classes brings out Human Sexuality as a study, with the help of analyzing how we see sexuality in film. Students find the two classes very interesting and work well together.
The class begins with Ponce-O’Rourke and Dwyer asking discussion questions for the day and student writing their anonymous answers on a card. The questions pertain to the area of study that they have been focusing on that week. The discussions are open and literally everyone in the class seemed to participate and was very interested. Contradictory to what most of the class focuses on, the focus on this class was that of the idea of love and commitment. The class discusses their own views, and also discuss the same ideas in the film “Closer”, which the students had watched the class before. The discussions of love, and monogamy play an interesting contrast to the normal sexual, and sometimes pornographic nature of the class.
“It’s pretty funny watching the porn films because they stress that the people are married,” said Katie Hoctor, 19, a psychology major. “But it’s a really good class. I get a lot out of it, and I really enjoy it. There is more to it than just raunchy sex. The tests are really hard, you learn about anatomy and stuff, its not just strip clubs and porn.”
The atmosphere is open and although some of the lessons, such as watching adult videos, could force a laugh or two, everyone is really focused on watching how society and we as people in the 21st century look at sex. Students watch these films as well as contemporary films in order to get a better understanding of sex in society and also how to view films without making them a part of their reality.
“When we started, we hoped that when they walked out of here they would have a more open-minded view of sexuality and the cultural influences,” said Ponce-O’Rourke. “We also want to emphasize the idea of ‘normal.’ So we looked at physical anatomy, and saw that physical parts come in different sizes and different shapes.”
Ponce-O’Rourke said that people may watch actors in movies and wonder why they don’t look like them, and think that they are inadequate in some way. This class is designed to teach students that ‘normal’ is a relative term.
This is the first time that Ponce-O’Rourke and Dwyer have taught together and this time there is more focus on sexuality in film than in past classes because of the combination of the film class. Ponce-O’Rourke and Dwyer will teach the 6-unit Learning communities class for the spring 2006 semester. The class is offered on MW from 11:30-12:50.
