Football captain Cody "Bubba" Collins performs his poem at the PAC poetry slam. 

Students filled the informal lounge in the Campus Center on March 9 to hear poetry by their peers – about porn.

Amy Bremel, coordinator of Creating Honoring Advocating Nurturing Gender Equity, came up with this topic for the Poetry Slam after researching pornography’s impact on students.

Bremel has been investigating how pornography affects relationships and how it gives people an unrealistic view of what sex should be like. She wants to spread awareness about this on campus and came up with the idea of using one of the frequently held Peer Advocates for Change Poetry Slams as the mechanism.

The events allow for social issues to be addressed poetically in a supportive atmosphere where students can express their views.

But Bremel was unsure what to expect from the event.

She was unsure of how many people would come or even speak. She even got some negative feedback before it even happened.

“It’s the first time ever, in my almost seven years here, that I’ve received e-mails back saying take me off your e-mail list,” Bremel said.

Speaking with her after the event, however, she talked about how happy she was to see the event taken seriously, despite the uncomfortable topic.

One of the judges at the poetry slam, assistant football coach Kevin Trigonis, was impressed by the of spectrum of different perspectives expressed in the students’ poems, although he saw some of the poems as showing the negative ways pornography has affected how people look at sex.

“There needs to be some knowledge dropped about this topic,” Trigonis said.

He said he believes that this event would have been great for the Soundings program.

The poems read at the event ranged from students talking about their first experiences with porn and how much they love porn to very anti-porn poems.  Some of the poems brought laughter while others addressed provoked thoughts about pornography and how it is not appealing to everyone.

Audrey Phillips, a sophomore and member of PAC, read a poem about how pornography is not something that she sees as attractive. She identifies as asexual and does not like how unrealistic some of it is. She stated throughout her poem that her type of pornography is living life. She would much rather eat a piece of cake and have meaningful conversation than watch porn.

Phillips did say, however, that she has no problem with pornography as long as it is realistic.

“As long as it’s not consuming your life and as long as it’s porn that really shows the intricacies of sex and all of those other things, then I am fine with people doing whatever they want to do,” Phillips said.

Student Frank King IV, a sophomore, discussed in his writing how life is full of pleasure that can be found outside of pornography.

 “Pornography is in every moment of our lives, not just when your roommate leaves the room,” King said at end of his poem.