5 of 6 – EcoSex @ U Conn – Weiss’s EcoSex – Student Responses: Adam’s Take

Dear Earthlings:

The EcoSex course at U Conn is in process. It’s a great experience. We are reading amazing books. Thinking out of the box and across disciplines. Students are sending their responses in, with discussion questions. In class, we connect the dots: a holograph of what we’ve read together, the “required readings.” Multiple perspectives and good synergy. Here, we offer a glimpse. Stefanie Iris Weiss’s EcoSex: Go Green Between the Sheets, was one of two introductory books. We got five responses: from John, Alex, Adam, Rhiann, Alissa, and Michael.

Here’s Adam’s take:

Response to Stefanie Iris Weiss’s EcoSex: Go Green Between the Sheets

I found “Eco-Sex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make Your Love Life Sustainable”, by Stefanie Iris Weiss, to be a very interesting, informative manual, if you will. The book is very well written, and done so in such a way that the author maintains a conversational tone while upholding a sense of authority and, in some cases, even severity. This writing style makes reading effortless and kept me captivated.

In addition to being composed eloquently and effectively, Weiss touches upon, examines, and reflects upon some real problems and conundrums we all face, and offers meaningful, realistic answers. It is difficult, in this day and age, to live a completely green, vegan lifestyle, but “Eco-Sex, Go Green Between the Sheets” makes the possibility infinitely more feasible by providing practical advice and expansive lists of ‘green’ companies, recipes, products, etc.

One of the things I learned and found most interesting is how companies attempt to ‘greenwash’ their names and products. I did not know the full extent to which companies will blatantly lie and mislead consumers about the environmental-friendliness of their products and practices, and I did not fully know how inept we, as patrons, and our government, as a regulator, are at reigning in these practices. Weiss’s argument, that our synthetic, chemical-laced, inorganic, excessively consumptive lifestyles are to account for many of our ailments and environmental issues, is well founded, and discussed ad nauseam throughout the book.

I found myself feeling very critical of myself and my routines as I read further into the text. I always considered myself to be an aware, conservative, conscious consumer, and I always recycle everything I can and have a vegetarian diet. However, after reading this book, I feel as though that is not truly enough. My discussion questions are thus: in what aspects were you living ‘greenly’ before this book, and what, if anything, do you plan on changing after reading it?

Adam Kocurek

Published with permission

WGSS 3998 – Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love

Prof. Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio

U Conn, Storrs, Spring 2013

Course Announcement and Description

Dear Earthlings:

Let “nature” be your teacher in the arts of love. Education is the heart of democracy, education to love. Come back for more wonders: Students Responses to appear every Tuesday. Book Reports to be scheduled soon. Check out our summer offerings: Ecosexuality in Portland, OR, July 17-21. Registration here!

Namaste,