SEXBEAT Saucy stuff puts Providence in prime position BY JESSICA GROSE

She is literally a blue-haired lady. Betty Dodson, the self-described "godmother of masturbation," befitting her 74 years, has naturally white hair when viewed from the back. When she faces an audience, however, wistfully saying that "unless you’re lucky, you don’t get to claim your own pussy," you can see that her white bangs are streaked with various shades of blue, from electric to baby.

Punky-haired Dodson spoke to an audience of about 60, mostly female, mostly Yale students, as part of a recent event known as "Sex Week at Yale." According to its Web site, Sex Week, which concluded February 14, is "a celebration and exploration of sex and sexuality at Yale University." In practical terms, activities range from academic lectures by Yale faculty (professor Naomi Rogers speaking on the history of the vibrator) to the more commercial side of sex (a lecture and private discussion with Joe Francis, the smarmy entrepreneur of "Girls Gone Wild" fame).

Sex Week is the brainchild of Yale senior Eric Jay Rubenstein. He chose to place the event in mid-February because, "People think about sex and relationships naturally around Valentine’s Day . . . [Sex Week] is a great way to ignore not being in a relationship and to have fun anyway."

Fun is definitely foremost in Betty Dodson’s agenda. In her talk, she shouted reaffirming maxims like, "Women’s genitals are like snowflakes — they’re all different and all beautiful." A curly-haired man introduced as her assistant flanked Dodson, continuously reminding her to stay on topic. Halfway through her chat, Dodson admitted the guy is actually her lover. "We’re in an intergenerational relationship," she says. "I’m 74 and he’s 27." Although the Yale audience seems accepting of most of Dodson’s proclamations, young heads nodding and small fists pumping when she talked about female empowerment, more than a few giggles emerge when she discusses her May-December fling. I imagine it’s because Dodson, though a very well-preserved septuagenarian, ain’t no Demi Moore.

It might also be that the climate at Yale is not a sexually open one. Dodson was disappointed at the small turnout for her lecture, and attendance for the more academic events rarely reaches double digits. Audiences of almost 500 have turned out to hear the Godmother speak at other colleges. I attended a showing of Dodson’s video, "The Joy of Orgasm," at Brown in 2000, and students were spilling into the aisles, even though Dodson herself was not in attendance.

While Yale is among only a handful of colleges to have full-blown sex weeks, the student response seemed tepid. Most students weren’t even aware they were in the midst of a Sex Week. "People have sex at Yale?" was the confused response I got on more than one occasion.

The consensus was that the emphasis of Sex Week, not unlike most elite institutions of higher learning, was heavy on discourse, skimpy on action. After hearing recent discussion about a new student-run sex magazine at Harvard, I remembered reading in the Harvard Crimson in 2001 that Ivy League students were less sexually active than the national average. Brown was the one Ivy exception. With course offerings like a group independent study in Feminine Sexuality and a class on the History of Sex Panics in the American Civilization department, Brown may well be at the forefront of sexualized academia.

Be proud, Providence. We might not have an academically orchestrated Sex Week, but with such regular events as the Sex Workers Art Show at AS220 and the Suicide Girls’ burlesque show at the Call, I think we surpass our Ivy neighbors to the south, in both practical discourse and action.