UT Sex Week to feature porn star under guise of ‘sex educator’

A porn star will lecture on “butt stuff” and “oral pleasures” at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s (UT) controversial annual Sex Week.

The organizers of the event, however, are bringing her in under the moniker of “sex-positive sex educator.”

Sophia St. James, an amateur pornographer who has starred in adult films such as “The Return of Post-Apocalyptic Cowgirls,” will deliver two lectures, one on anal sex and another on oral sex.

“Butt Stuff with Sophia St. James,” the first talk is titled. “Learn more about it with this workshop led by Sophia St. James, sex positive and body positive sex educator in a safe, friendly, non-judgmental environment where questions are encouraged to help end the stigma. Topics include safe practices in anal sex, consent, and communication.”

Immediately following her first lecture, St. James will help students “learn exciting and safe new ways to explore all the titillating crevices and protrusions” of their bodies.

“Fellatio, cunnilingus, analingus: maybe you’ve heard the word, now it’s time to find out about doing the deed with sex-positive sex educator Sophia St. James” the description states.

Organizers of the event claim the talks are being given due to popular student demand.

“These events are critically important and were chosen based on an overwhelming number of requests from the UT student body, whose feedback we rely heavily upon in selecting our events,” Colleen Ryan, co-chair of Sexual Empowerment and Awareness (SEAT), told Campus Reform.

Ryan added that St. James is uniquely qualified to address to students on the “different practices” of anal and oral sex because of her alleged experience in both the nursing and military fields.

“Sophia’s talks will be appropriate for an event attended by adults in a university atmosphere. She is uniquely qualified for these talks through years of background in both nursing and the military as well as hundreds of talks at universities and other venues,” Ryan added.

The taxpayer-funded university is already in hot water with state legislators, who recently voted in favor of a bill that would strip funds from the school’s diversity office.

[RELATED: TN legislators ponder cutting funds for Diversity and Inclusion, Sex Week]

The bill, HB 2248, advanced through the House Education Subcommittee earlier this month and would, if approved during a final budget review in April, explicitly prohibit the use of state funds “to promote the use of gender-neutral pronouns, Sex Week, or to promote or demote a religious holiday.”

A similar bill is working its way through the General Assembly and would prevent any state funds from going to UT’s diversity office, effectively limiting its budget to federal allocations, which it currently does not receive.

UT’s historically rocky relationship with state officials can be traced back to the inception of Sex Week in 2013, when UT agreed to cut funds for the event after lawmakers threatened to reduce the school’s budget.

[RELATED: Lawmakers: UT diversity office a ‘national embarrassment’]

SEAT, the student group that organizes Sex Week, still managed to “privately fundraise the lost funding in 36 hours with the public’s help.”

Campus Reform reached out to UT to ask if it approves of hosting St. James, and if it anticipates another budget battle with local politicians, but received no response in time for publication.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @AGockowski