From hookup culture and gender identity to prostitution and sex trafficking, a Binghamton University health and wellness course is exploring various aspects of human sexuality.

HWS 330 is taught by Bridget McCane-Saunders, the associate director of health education, who has worked at the University for 27 years. The class has two sections; one is taught by McCane-Saunders and meets twice-weekly, while the other is taught online by health education professor Kristen Ericksen.

According to McCane-Saunders, students take the class as a nursing program elective, though they do not have to be in the Decker School of Nursing to take it. The purpose of the class is to understand how sexuality informs students’ own choices about sex, and to dispel myths about birth control, sexually transmitted disease transmission and symptom manifestation.

“What are myths?” McCane-Saunders said. “What are accuracies? What’s the truth? It gives [students] a forum to talk about their concerns in a safe environment.”

McCane-Saunders said students often think the class will focus on condoms, pornography, sexual behaviors or prostitution, but it is much more than just these things.

“We are going to talk about that,” she said. “But before we talk about safer sex, before we talk about contraception, we have to lay the groundwork and talk about how the body responds to arousal, our sexual response and what happens to the reproductive anatomy.”

Discussions about anatomy and physiology can be detailed, and McCane-Saunders uses anatomy models to ensure accuracy. Samantha Tenenbaum, an undeclared sophomore, said she was intrigued by people’s unconventional sexual habits and preferences.

“We just learned that females are attracted to the smell of armpits,” Tenenbaum said.

Nikole Hurlbert, a junior majoring in psychology, said the class discussions on changing gender roles were eye-opening.

“I guess now the gender roles aren’t as specific,” Hulbert said. “Women are allowed to work outside of the home, whereas, I think they said in some places in Africa, the wives are supposed to come home and have a bowl of water so the males can wash their hands. Not all places are like the United States.”

Jose Lopez, a junior majoring in human development, said the class has taught him to discuss sexuality openly, and exposed him to the ways gender is understood in cultures around the world.

“I never really took the time as to think of what promotes the descriptive blueprint toward how we think or act within our own individual gender roles,” Lopez said.

McCane-Saunders said the class is not only informative, but also allows students to explore topics that are frequently ignored because of their seemingly taboo nature.

“The reason why I’m so excited about classes is that we have students for 15 weeks,” McCane Saunders said. “We can build relationships and have deeper conversations about this topic.”

Rona Neman, a sophomore majoring in English, said students should be more informed about sex and sexuality because it is a prevalent topic on every college campus.

“People don’t know a lot or don’t know as much as they should [about sexuality],” Neman said. “This provides a lot of good information that we should have.”