I’ve started trying to write this blog post about five times now, so I’m really wondering why I volunteered to be the guest blogger for this month’s SHWI meeting! So, after so many failed attempts I’m just going to dive right in and hope that no one looks at my internet browsing history. I’ll also give you a heads up that this post, especially some of the links, might not be suitable for the workplace but I’ll leave that to your better judgement…
The meeting kicked off in traditional fashion with plenty of tea and cakes (yum!) before Lindsay went through some key pieces of information from the last committee meeting. There are lots of exciting things going on at SHWI at the moment , with the Sheffield food festival, our amazing cookbook, bunting and charity nominations to pick out just a few!
Our guest speaker was Liz Wilson (who had really fab leopard-print tights on by the way!) from the Centre for HIV and Sexual Health was at the meeting to talk to us about women’s sexual pleasure…. I was already a bit nervous about what I’d let myself in for and I have to say my trepidation only increased when one of the ladies on my table said “oh my goodness, she has love eggs and lube”.
That said, Liz put us all at ease immediately when she told us we wouldn’t be recreating any scenes from Fried Green Tomatoes – phew!! Liz gave us a brief history of women’s sexual pleasure (I had no idea the Kama Sutra is as old as it is!) before kicking off a discussion about our perceptions of women’s sexual pleasure. It was really interesting to hear different views from lots of the women at the meeting, and also really funny. My favourite anecdote was about an awful, and completely useless, sex education video which I also remember being subjected to when I was about 11!
Liz showed us a really funny Friends clip; check out the clip if you can as I won’t be able to do it justice, but basically Chandler asks Rachel and Monica for advice about how to please a woman and Monica draws him a diagram and gives him some tips. This led to a discussion about what things we thought affected women’s sexual pleasure. There were some really thoughtful and serious points raised but again I have to share the funniest – Xbox!! Liz also introduced us to Geena the ‘gina. Yup, you read that right!! Geena is a fold up vagina in a box and a very useful tool for explaining female anatomy. We didn’t get to meet him, but there’s also a George the ejaculating penis apparently….
If you hadn’t guessed by now the talk and discussion was only going one way; how we thought you could increase women’s sexual pleasure. I’m not going to go into the ins and outs (no pun intended!) of what was discussed but I do want to share the highlight of my evening. Liz was showing a selection of… items, specifically a picture of a famous model of said item, when someone (who shall remain nameless!) declared that theirs broke within a day! Naturally, we all jumped to the same conclusion but apparently it was not from overuse.
I’m pretty sure I can speak for everyone there (and it was another packed meeting!) when I say it was a really fun, vibrant and enjoyable meeting – and also a lot less embarrassing than I’d expected. Stay tuned for next month’s blog post though as we will be doing some tea tasting and I’m already really excited as I love tea!!
Leanne, SHWI committee
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