Can I Kiss You -koe -jcr -dlh

Sarah Buckley

Picture it. You’re at a party. The music is going full-blast, and someone hands you a drink and beckons you to dance. The room is swirling with people, but amidst all the confusion you are still able to make out (pun intended) the eyes of that special someone who asked you to dance, and they’re checking you out. But, without warning, those pair of eyes grows bigger and BIGGER as they come closer to you until, WHAM **********– that certain someone makes an awkward fish-dive into your face.
Suddenly the room snaps back into focus, and either you find yourself in a momentary heaven or you find yourself thinking, “Did this person brush his teeth today? How the hell did this happen?”
This was the premise of the successful presentation titled “Can I Kiss You?” sponsored by SOUP earlier last week. The speaker was healthy dating and sexual assault expert Mike Domitrz, who was inspired by his own sister’s sexual assault crisis. Mike has traveled to almost one hundred college campuses across the United States sponsoring training programs and explaining the correct meaning of consent in a healthy dating relationship or the occasional hookup, whichever might apply.
In his program, Mike emphasized that both men and women refrain from asking their partner if they can kiss them out of fear of being rejected. He used student volunteers who attended the program to act out skits to demonstrate the correct way to approach a person and ask them for a kiss. He made several jokes as he interacted with the students, such as, “Imagine how exciting this would be for you if you were talking to someone other than me!”
The presentation took a serious turn as Mike talked about rape on college campuses. Although there are countless sexual assault victims at colleges across the country, the number of assaults reported each year is usually between zero and four. He emphasized that we should feel reverence for rape victims, rather than pity. “We should be honored that we are able to talk with such an amazing person who has survived such a horrible thing,” Mike said.
The presentation had an extremely good turnout of concerned students, who were awarded with T-shirts, pins, and books for their participation. Freshman Mark Johnson gave the presentation a very high review, saying that Mike “brought this topic to a level that made sense to us so that we could apply it to our own lives.”
So will you ask in the future? Sure, you may sound like you’re in junior high again, but chances are, the person you’re asking to kiss won’t mind. This reporter isn’t going to lie: ladies, I’ve asked before and it works! And guys, girls might think you’re cute if you ask, maybe. It’s worth a shot anyway. As Mike said in his presentation, you have no excuse for not asking except fear of ruining your image, and what better way to boost your image with your fellow students than by respecting them? Think about it the next time you’re at a party looking to score *********– ask first! And don’t forget to brush your teeth.