By Jodi S. Cohen
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO (MCT) — Northwestern University acknowledged Wednesday that an unusual demonstration was held on campus last week in which students observed a naked woman being penetrated by a sex toy.
The sex act was performed in front of about 100 students in psychology professor John Michael Bailey’s human sexuality class. The demonstration occurred after class, and attendance was optional.
The university will pay several hundred dollars to guest lecturer Ken Melvoin-Berg, co-owner of Weird Chicago Tours. His Feb. 21 discussion of bondage, swinging and other sexual fetishes was arranged by Bailey, who gets extra funding from the university’s College of Arts & Sciences for lectures and other activities he routinely holds after class.
“The students find the events to be quite valuable, typically, because engaging real people in conversation provides useful examples and extensions of concepts students learn about in traditional academic ways,” Bailey said in a prepared statement.
After an initial discussion at Ryan Family Auditorium, the students were told that a couple were going to demonstrate the use of a sex toy and female orgasm.
“Both Professor Bailey and myself gave them five or six warnings about what was about to happen and it would be graphic,” Melvoin-Berg said.
The woman undressed and got on stage with her male partner, who used a device that looks like a machine-powered saw with a phallic object instead of a blade. Melvoin-Berg said the couple are exhibitionists who enjoy having people watch them have sex.
“It is probably something I will remember for the rest of my life. I can’t say that about my Econ 202 class and the material that I learned there,” said Northwestern senior Justin Smith. Smith, 21, said students were told there would be a “sex tour operator” speaking about fetishes after class, but they didn’t initially know there would be a live demonstration.
“We were watching a video on sexual arousal . . .,” Smith said. “The main guy, Ken, said, ‘Are you ready for the live sex show?’ We were like, ‘OK.'”
There were several warnings and some students trickled out, he said. He said most students were sitting in the auditorium’s balcony, including a student’s mom who attended class that day.
Once the demonstration began, Smith said, “there was a lot of covering of the mouth like ‘Oh my gosh.’ It was pretty quiet … I didn’t really see people take affront, but they were engaged with the experience.'”
An Evanston police department spokesman said Northwestern police would be responsible for determining whether the demonstration violated any local ordinances. University spokesman Alan Cubbage said “the issue has not been raised.”
Bailey said it was too early to say whether he regretted the demonstration, but, “I certainly have no regrets concerning Northwestern students, who have demonstrated that they are open-minded grownups rather than fragile children.”
Melvoin-Berg said he typically earns $300 to $500 for an hour-long lecture, and that Northwestern had agreed to pay in that range.
“Northwestern University faculty members engage in teaching and research on a wide variety of topics, some of them controversial and at the leading edge of their respective disciplines,” Cubbage said in a prepared statement. “The university supports the efforts of its faculty to further the advancement of knowledge.”
Bailey is no stranger to controversy. In 2003, he was criticized by several transsexual women who said they did not give him permission to use their stories in his book, “The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism.”
Tribune reporters Lisa Black and Carlos Sadovi contributed
(c) 2011, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.