Catholic Church v. sex toys

How surprising. A Catholic priest is up in arms because of a sex study conducted at Duke University. Huh. Who would have guessed that a Catholic priest would be opposed to progressive dialogue on sex.

The Rev. Joe Vetter, the Roman Catholic chaplain at Duke University, is criticizing a study for which female undergraduates were recruited to small parties at which they could see and discuss sex toys, The Raleigh News and Observer reported. The university noted that the study was subject to standard peer review procedures.

The research comes at a time when some researchers have advocated education about sex toys as a way to encourage healthier attitudes about sex. Father Vetter isn't convinced, telling the newspaper: "I'm concerned about promiscuity also."

via www.insidehighered.com

I'm concerned that he's concerned. I'm also curious exactly what he's concerned about. That students are having more fun than he did when he was their age? Or that by marching to the beat of their own drums those college-aged women escape the control of clerics like him?

My favorite quote was the priest's inadvertently self-revealing observation,

"I don't think it's a good developmental practice to just tell somebody to just sit around and masturbate. I don't think that promotes relationships."

Um.  I feel sorry for him now.  Not only because I imagine how lonely and sexually confusing the life of a priest must be because he totally missed the point.  It's precisely to develop a positive, healthy sexual model, unhindered by moralizing prudes or religious dogma, that sexologists conduct studies like these. 

_{image of evil incarnate from Eden's Fantasy}

Comments

[Fan Girl Amanda]

I work at Duke. The University is such a place of extreme opposites. Sometimes there is such a contradiction between being extremely conservative and being super liberal. I can honestly say I've never been in a place with such contradictory habits!