College Week, Day 4: Spotlight on University of South Carolina
It’s College Week on Bedsider’s social channels, a chance to highlight the efforts of our amazing campus ambassadors. Today’s “College Week spotlight” is on the super-saucy and creative team at the University of South Carolina. This interview was conducted by their friends at BedsiderATX, with answers provided by Bedsider ambassador Cayla Spear.
A fierce model struts the runway in a dress made entirely of condoms.
Q. What advice would you give the next generation of campus ambassadors?
A. Make sure to make friends with other organizations around campus. There are so many different interest groups at every school and there are plenty that will love to work with Bedsider. We ran events with The Feminist Majority League and SWARM, and many others have expressed interest. Also, never be afraid to mention Bedsider at random school events. For example, USC had a formal showing of the election results last November…and Bedsider postcards may have been mysteriously passed out among the guests.
Q. What has been your favorite event this year or semester?
A. Project Condom, hands down. We made an awesome dress out of duct tape and a couple hundred pink and gold condoms, and we won third place! We also had some fantastic volunteers, a wonderful model, and plenty of help.
Q. How has working on the Bedsider campus ambassador program changed your outlook on sex, relationships, and life?
A. Well, I grew up in the conservative South where people aren’t too keen to talk about anything that has to do with sex. Working with the ambassador program has really made me realize that women and men do want to talk about sex and birth control, but some just don’t know how to. So I’ve definitely begun to talk a lot more about sex and birth control with everyone that I speak to. Instead of talking about sex like it’s a dirty little secret, I’ve come to see it and think of it as part of relationships and life.
Q. What is the craziest thing you have done at a Bedsider event?
A. I’d have to say making our condom dress. There’s just something crazy about having to unroll, cut and shred condoms, and then rubber cement them onto duct tape.
Q. What is the most awkward/embarrassing question someone has asked you at a Bedsider event?
A. I had someone ask me what they should do if their partner’s penis was too big for a condom. I was pretty surprised by the question, but luckily Bedsider has an awesome video.
The Artful Condom
Art can be anywhere you desire, even in your contraceptive of choice. Take the condom, for instance. Putting one on takes a bit of skill—at least that’s what I heard—but practice makes perfect (and fortunately there’s an app for that). While I highly discourage you from creating your own condom, feel free to create pretty things with them! Check out the images below. Apparently, love gloves make for great art tools. Blow them up, paint them, sprinkle them with glitter or add splashes of paint—you’ve got yourself an arts and crafts project that’s probably better than your younger sister’s.
Action figures are so last year. These figurines are fun and inflatable! They’re from Condomerie, the self-proclaimed “world’s first condom specialty shop.” If you happen to be in Amsterdam one day, be sure to visit their display window—it attracts the frisky folks from all over the world.
The animal kingdom gets a little kinkier with these condom giraffes.
Can’t make the Olympic games this summer? This meme shows that condoms can be fun in the bed and in sports, too! Elasun, a Chinese condom company, wants users to get in the game and just do it…literally.
Always go for the gold…in sports and in bed.
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Khalea Underwood is an intern for the digital media team of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. When she’s not writing, shopping, or listening to music, the Howard University print journalism student moonlights as an older sister, a contributor for MTVIggy.com, and a copy editor for The Hilltop newspaper.
What Do Michael Jackson, Safe Sex, and Fairies Have in Common?
Did you know condoms prevent pregnancy, protect you from STIs, and make awesome clothes? Wait, what? You didn’t see that one coming did you?
Last week I was lucky enough to attend University of South Carolina’s Project Condom Season 5. Project Condom inspires students to make clothes out of condoms to raise awareness about pregnancy prevention, getting tested, and generally being awesome. Each designer shows off their creation in a full-on fashion show. This year’s event even had a celebrity judge, Mondo Guerra from Project Runway. You see what they did there?
Alpha Phi Omega’s Michael Jackson tribute to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS prevention took home first place.
But my personal favorite was Love Story’s condom fairy. I mean, it was a fairy costume made of condoms. It’s like a dream come true.
Check out The Daily Gamecock for more pictures and maybe some less biased coverage of the event.
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Stefanie is the Manager of Youth Initiatives at The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. When she is not on college campuses talking about birth control and Bedsider, she is hanging out with some pretty awesome teens. She is from the great state of California and is a little awkward, both of which she will tell you in the first 30 seconds of a conversation. You can also follow her shenanigans on her personal tumblr, Nutz and Boltz.
