Professor Defends Sex Toy Demonstration

The professor behind the now infamous in a Northwestern human sexuality class has spoken out, giving his own account of the course.

The class session was not for credit and optional to students. It has been reported that only about 100 of 600 total students in the class showed up to the demonstration.

In the statement, Professor J. Michael Bailey said that he has held similar optional events in the past, including "a panel of gay men speaking about their sex lives, a transsexual performer, two convicted sex offenders, an expert in female sexual health and sexual pleasure, a plastic surgeon, [and] a swinging couple."

All of those speakers, he said, were not particularly interesting to students and refused to discuss their own sex lives. That is what in part prompted him to book Ken Melvoin-Berg to do the sex toy demonstration.

"I had met Ken before and believe he is articulate, open, knowledgeable, entertaining, and yes, kinky," Bailey said, adding that he had no hesitation inviting Melvoin-Berg to the class.

Bailey did hesitate, however, when Melvoin-Berg asked if it would be appropriate to do a live demonstration of female ejaculation using a sex toy on a woman he had brought with him.

"My decision to say 'yes' reflected my inability to come up with a legitimate reason why students should not be able to watch such a demonstration. After all, those still there had stayed for an optional demonstration/lecture about kinky sex and were told explicitly what they were about to see," he said.

A student who attended the optional course said that the demonstration entailed "a woman taking off her shirt, pants, and underwear, lying on a towel and her boyfriend penetrating her repeatedly with a "f*cksaw" (a Black and Decker drill with a dildo attached) to the point of orgasm several times."

"Honestly, unless you decided to move to the front you couldn't see that much because her boyfriend was kneeling over her. I could hear her and that was enough for me," said the student in an e-mail to Evanston Patch. The student requested to remain anonymous due to the nature of the story.

"I didn't find it to be particularly educational, but I didn't find it to be offensive either," said the student, who is a senior. "As I told my mom, this experience has officially rounded out my liberal arts education."

Bailey said the presentation was only 5-10 minutes of the hour-long presentation. Watching the demonstration, Bailey said he was concerned -- not for the possibility of harm for his students, but instead about how word of the presentation could put his speaker series at risk.

In a media statement Thursday morning, Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro , and said the school would "investigate fully the specifics of this incident, and also clarify what constitutes appropriate pedagogy, both in this instance and in the future."

Bailey said he has no regrets about the presentation, as his students are "open-minded grown ups rather than fragile children."

Evanston Patch JR resident Lindsay Goldberg contributed reporting to this story.