by Sara Russo

Officials at Cornell University's Gannett Health Center, which provides basic health care for students and sells over-the-counter and prescription drugs, are considering adding vibrators to the list of products for sale.

Instigated by Cornell student Somjen Frazer, an action researcher for women's health issues on campus, the proposal to sell vibrators came about as a result of suggestions from women, and particularly lesbians, at the University. "I work for Gannett accessing the needs from and barriers to health care for women, particularly women who partner with women (lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and queer women)," Frazer told Campus Report. The initiative, she explained, "came out of a discussion between Gannett staff and myself and the women that I've been working with."

The proposal initially drew little notice until Frazer sent an e-mail to the campus asking for feedback, and announcing that the decision to begin selling vibrators had already been made. "Ever wish you could buy sex toys without ordering online? There are very few options in Ithaca," the e-mail stated. "Gannett: University Health Services has decided to sell toys…a pilot test; they will carry one model of vibrator and see if it sells. Give your input about…what other sex toys you'd like to see sold at Gannett in the future."

Despite the e-mail's implication that Gannett had already decided to sell one model of vibrator in its dispensary, both Cornell administrators and Frazer now say that the final decision to sell vibrators has not yet been made.

"She sent out a message on a listserve that had not been cleared by the people she was working with at Gannett. And basically she jumped the gun," campus spokeswoman Linda Grace-Kobas told Campus Report. "She said we're considering selling these sex toys, let's have a meeting about what brands we might use, get more information. And so from there, the story has been amplified. Gannett is not selling vibrators at this time."

According to Grace-Kobas, the final decision on the proposal will be made "by a committee made up of health educators and physicians" at the health center. "There's no timeline," she insisted. "As I said, it's an outgrowth of a student project in which that was one of the things that came up in terms of women's health needs on campus."

But Elliot Reed, a reporter for the Cornell Review, the only conservative student newspaper on campus, sketches a different picture of the sequence of events. "When I talked to Sharon Dittman [an employee of Gannett], she said that they'd pretty much decided [to sell vibrators] but after I wrote my article it seems they're backing down a little bit," he told Campus Report. "It seems they want to keep their donors happy," he said, adding that the University may be especially sensitive to negative press coverage during the fall, when high-schoolers are in the process of deciding where to apply to college.

The controversial proposal quickly garnered national attention, and university officials have become much more careful about their statements to the press. Sharon Dittman, associate director of community relations for Gannett, originally defended the proposal's merit. "Vibrators or personal massagers may have a broader appeal to people who use our massage therapy and physical therapy services for muscle relaxation," she told the Cornell Daily Sun, a student publication. "[Using a vibrator] can be part of a holistic health approach." But when approached for an interview by Campus Report, Dittman deferred all questions to the University's spokeswoman.

Despite the barrage of negative attention drawn to the issue, Frazer maintains that the proposal would benefit women on campus. "I think it would be one very small way to illustrate to women that sex is not pathological, that it's okay to do it with a partner, with yourself, with a partner of any gender, and I think it sends a message that masturbation is not pathological, and I think that those are all good messages," Frazer told Campus Report. "I don't think that selling vibrators is the only or even the best way to send that message to women."

Frazer argues that it is crucial that women as a group receive this message because their sexual needs are often overlooked. "They also live with a lot of images that say that women should be really sexual for men, and that they shouldn't necessarily be sexual for themselves, or with other women, or to be asexual if that's what they really want," she explained. "So I think that there are specific reasons that health care is really hard for women and that sexual health care is uniquely hard for women."

But not all students on campus believe that selling vibrators at Gannett would benefit the student body. Conservative student Elliot Reed notes that Cornell students who don't have health insurance are required to purchase a health plan from Cornell, and would thus be forced to fund the vibrator initiative whether they approve of it or not.

"They provide all sorts of different things at this health center, which is fine. They ought to do that," Reed told Campus Report. "But when it comes to the students' money going to this, I think that they really need to ask a larger community of students. They targeted feminists and lesbians, and they're not the only people contributing to the health plan. And they suggest that men have no business in this, because it's not for them."

Some men on campus have latched on to the initiative, arguing that if women's sex toys are to be sold at Cornell, men should receive equal treatment. "If men articulated a desire for sex toys, which they haven't done until this was mentioned, then the healthcare center would consider it just like they're considering this," commented Frazer. "But I haven't heard a mass-articulated desire for men's sexuality to be affirmed and I think that's because men's sexuality is affirmed in almost every kind of image that involves sexuality in pop culture."

According to Frazer, Cornell is hardly the first college to sell sex toys on campus, though at other schools such implements are often made available through less formal channels than the campus health center. "I know that other colleges make available through various student organizations or health organizations various kinds of sexual aids," she said. "I think that most of the conservative detractors would agree that it's a lot more scandalous to sell anal toys than toys that are for vaginal stimulation. And we're not doing that, again, because there hasn't been an articulated desire for it, and because we don't know if people are going to want to buy these things…other schools have done that in the past."

With regard to the accusation that selling sex toys would turn Gannett into a "porn shop," Frazer is adamant that they are exaggerating the impact of the proposal. "Vibrators are not pornographic," countered Frazer. "They don't contain degrading or obscene images of people. So there's a very big difference between a porn shop and two vibrators sitting in the window of a dispensary. And I think that that's a distinction that's been elided by conservative critics."

Another factor cited in favor of selling vibrators on campus is the relatively isolated locale of Cornell, which is situated in the rural college town of Ithaca, New York.

"It's true that sexual satisfaction is not necessary for human existence, but I think that because we live in a very small town where there are very limited options, and because it is very difficult to purchase an appropriate toy if you want to online, to either know where to go or what you want, I think that it's certainly not going to hurt to have them around and more accessible for women," Frazer reasoned.

"We pay about $400 for high speed internet access, so unless people have not heard of the internet, I don't think that's a very good claim," argues Reed. "And there's also this sex shop, downtown, about a block from the library as a matter of fact…if not there, why not put it on their Christmas list? If they're so proud of their sexuality, why can't they put it on their Christmas list, have mommy and daddy buy it?"

The proposal is not entirely at odds with the center's current merchandise. Gannett's offerings include 13 different varieties of condoms, including Reality Female Condoms, 7 types of spermicides and lubricants, "dental dams" for oral sex, and several instruction manuals on sexual practices, including For Yourself: The Fulfillment of Female Sexuality, and The New Male Sexuality. The center also distributes the "morning after pill" which can induce an early abortion by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb.

Asked about how vibrators fit in with the other inventory at Gannett, Frazer noted, "They sell standard first aid and prescription medications, but they also sell a whole lot of condoms, and nobody has discussed, thank god, taking those away. I mean, a lot of really, really conservative people think condoms shouldn't be available because they encourage sexuality, but I think we all are clear that people will have sex, and it's better that they have it safely and in a way that protects themselves and their partner. Again, vibrators are not a health hazard and neither are condoms."

For the moment, Cornell is holding off on making a final decision on the matter, though Frazer remains hopeful that the proposal will be enacted. "Unfortunately, media coverage does change some people's minds about whether things should be sold or not," she noted. "I would hope that this decision would be made based on how they feel they can reach out to women, and how they feel women would be best-served at the health care center."

Despite his firm opposition to the vibrator initiative, Reed believes that Frazer will eventually get her wish. "I think that as long as the Left keeps yelling things like 'you're discriminating,' the University will cave-in to pacify them," he told Campus Report. "I would hope that [Cornell President] Hunter Rawlings and the rest of the administration realize how embarrassing it is for a formerly prestigious university to cave-in to all sorts of wacky ideas and demands of the students."