Pillow Talk club provides dialogue for sexual health issues

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “pillow talk” generally refers to an intimate conversation between lovers in bed. It is also the name of a School Within a School (SWS) committee that meets every Friday during F-block on the fourth floor to discuss issues related to sex, sexuality and sexual health.

The committee is completely student-run and serves mainly as an open forum for discussion and education that strives to be more comprehensive and inclusive than traditional sex education.

Pillow Talk has existed for several years; however, this year senior Maya Jakubowski has taken over as the main organizer after the previous leaders graduated.

Jakubowski says the fact that abstinence-based sexual education is legal within the state of Massachusetts is a problem.

“There are schools in Massachusetts that are teaching sex ed based off of religion, and that’s somebody else’s truth, but I don’t think teaching abstinence-based is good,” Jakubowski said. “It’s appalling that some boys can grow up and be in high school and be like, ‘What’s a period?,’ or not knowing what kind of contraceptives are out there. That’s just crazy to me.”

Senior Izzy Schettino, a member of the committee, says part of the appeal of Pillow Talk is the comfortable, relaxed atmosphere.

“It’s mostly just a place to have discussions,” Schettino said. “It’s different from a club. It’s not like: we’re going to do this, we’re going to sell shirts. It’s not necessarily a resource for medically accurate sexual information, but it is a nice space to talk about issues if you have something on your mind and you want to talk to people who have certain experiences or if you want to see the other side of an opinion.”

According to Pillow Talk member Sam Pollak, although some of the topics that come up can be sensitive, it is vital to be able to have inclusive discussions regarding sexual health.

“Things can be hard to talk about but there’s never been another school space where we can talk about that stuff,” Pollak said. “Especially regarding heteronormativity in the sex ed system, it’s very dangerous to not inform people. Gay men and gay women are going to go off into the real world after high school not knowing anything about protecting themselves from STDs.”

Schettino says the atmosphere is generally calm and reasonable, and people refrain from confrontation, which improves the quality of discussion.

“There are some disagreements, but usually people are open and receptive,” Schettino said. “It’s not a back and forth argument. We listen to each other.”

Pollak agrees that having an open forum to express opinions on sensitive issues is healthy and productive.

“It’s important that we talk about this stuff without filters, that we learn, that we create a dialogue and that we keep our bodies and our minds safe,” Pollak said.