The Justice

Students listen to sexologist Charley Ferrer speak about sexuality in the Latina community during Hispanic Heritage Month's opening ceremony Monday evening.

Dr. Charles Ferrer says her interest in sexology stems from a particularly maddening experience in which she was forced to confront society's narrow perception of sexuality.

Ferrer, 44, had returned to school at the age of 29 and enrolled in a course on sex therapy. Her professor assigned her to study a couple experiencing a sexual crisis.

"My couple was into alternative lifestyles," Ferrer remembers. The male in the relationship confessed to Ferrer that repressing a particular sexual desire of his was causing him such guilt that he was unable to perform sexually.

Ferrer took it upon herself to mediate between the couple, and ultimately found a way that the man could fulfill his desire without offending his partner. When she presented the results of her work to the class, however, Ferrer recalls with a look of horror, "people went ape."

"'That's abuse! You should have sent her to a counselor. She's being battered!'" she remembers her classmates saying.

Incredibly frustrated and angered by the existence of these sexual restrictions, Ferrer decided then and there to dedicate her life to exploring sexuality, eventually earning her doctorate in human sexuality.

Ferrer, the award-winning author of The Latina Kama Sutra, opened the Hispanic Heritage Month ceremony Monday evening in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, where she spoke to about 20 students, most of who are women, about her own struggles with-and triumphs over--racial prejudice. She offered motivational advice on how to overcome similar obstacles.

"So many people don't know or don't get the right information" about sex, Ferrer says. Especially within Latina communities around the world, Ferrer says "people are still not talking about what is needed to be talked about."

Waving her hands expressively while telling stories, Ferrer relates how the prejudice she encountered eventually caused her to drop out of HIGH? school and "join the wrong crowd." When she ultimately joined the army, Ferrer says she finally felt appreciated; that is until the officers found out she was Puerto Rican.

Continued...

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