International students want more sexual health counselling.

Many International students find having sex is really hard to understand. Students come from China and other Asian countries where they are not allowed to have sex before they marry. They must be a virgin. In China there is no education about sex where as in Australia the locals are educated on sex throughout their high school years. They are also not educated in STI (sexually transmitted diseases).

So when they come to Australia they don't know what sort of things to expect. Amy 18, " This is my first time being overseas and I have just had sex for the first time. I did not know about condoms etc. Now I don't know what I should do just in case I get pregnant".

Unplanned pregnancy is a worry in a student's mind as OHSC does not cover the cost of the pregnancy. A student doesn't have a lot of money for childcare, food and school for the children.

Many students go to their university for information about everyday needs. Some do go to the doctor, but a doctor is very expensive. Two years ago Meld Magazine has done a Sextember section in which every September they put lots of useful information about sex. We will be doing this very soon too.

Students work in the sex industry

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

More and more students turn to the sex industry for work. Last year alone there were about 550+ brothels in Melbourne, most of which are small businesses.

An Illegal brothel. Image courtesy of news.com.au

Students are turning to brothels in order to find work which pays well. Some enjoy it because of the high amount of money that they get from working there.

According to the Age many of them go on to become managers of brothel. Most of them enjoy the work but there are some which don't.

In Victoria alone there is about 800 brothels, about 523 of them are a part of a smaller company.
According to the CAV report it said that many of them were happy to work there.

But there are a lot of diseases in the brothels, though and some students may be unprotected. Also the work is done after dark in a lonely street.

Clients pay somewhere between $100-$400. A licensed brothel usually gives most of the money to the girl but an unlicensed one keeps half the profit to themselves. A license is aroudn $90-$200 per year.

The disadvantages
Social stigma is one of them. Many workers cannot tell anyone that they work in this industry for fear of being stigmatised. Some of them felt discriminated against

Also the hours and work per week varies and they may have to move places. Some of the workers hated that.

Diseases are widespread so its easy for a worker to get an STI (sexually transmitted infection)

The advantages
Workers get to take home about $1000 a week and some don't have to speak English.
 It is also easy for those to work the 20 hours a week. 

Safe sex and what you need to know

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015


Students having safe sex is important as unplanned pregnancies is not not covered by your Overseas student cover. Here we talk about such stuff.

Every year some students get pregnant and then have to go to hospital. They also have to foot the bill for this. The pregnancy may also affect your visa as you may have many days to recover.

Communication
Communication with your partner is very important. You and your partner must have consent to have sex. You also need to talk about the protection as well as many sexual diseases can occur.

You can always say no at any time if you don't feel comfortable by suggesting to do something else or just saying a flat out no. It is your body.
 Most people like to use a condom but there are other forms such as lube and dams.

Yeah Red Aware has many workshops on these and they are run for free.

Diseases

There are a few types and some of them are not detected until it is too late. The most common ones are Clamidya, HIV, AIDS and Gonorrhea. HIV is in two types: a cold sore or internal. Most of them have no symptoms and are easy to treat when detected.

How do I protect myself from these diseases?
One of them is to wear a condom which is easy to put on provided that you don't break it. You have to be very careful when opening it as it is prone to rip. There are free condoms in uni; you just have to ask your student union about where to get these. They are usually located in the queer and womyns lounge.

Another way is a dam and Yeah Aware has some useful info about putting the dam on

50 Shades of Grey

RNIS went to see 50 Shades of Grey at Hoyts and enjoyed the film. They also learnt a few things. Here is their recap of the movie. Do watch the trailer below.

50 Shades of Grey is a powerful movie about sex and abusive relationships which is based on a book by E.L James. The movie is rated MA for the sexual scenes and it is best to see this in Hoyts Lux as it is more intimate.

The movie stars Darkota Johnston as the university graduate, Anastasia Steele. Anastasia studied English literature and in the beginning interviews Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) who is the successful millionare. He owns his own entreprise and mansion. He is abusive and cold towards Anastasia right from the very beginning.

At the beginning she shares the house with roommate Kate. They are very close.  But then she moves out and into his mansion with Christian manipulating her. Christian sells Anastasia's old car and givers her a new one much to her dismay. In the end she gets him to give all the money for the car.

He makes Anastasia sign the contract which in the end she does not do and she requests a business meeting with him in his office. He then takes her to meet his parents and then she goes and sees her mum in Georgetown. Christian then surprises her when she wants to spend some time alone with her mum.

He also takes off her clothes and we see her completely naked.

There are a lot of sexual scenes in the movie most of which are naked.  In these scenes Christian is really forcing Anastasia to accept them. She cries throughout. Anastasia is a virgin. Christian refuses to sleep with her saying that he had a rough time with his mum when he was little. Christian's mum died due to drug overdose and prostitution.

Everytime something bad happens he hits Anastasia in the playroom.

In the end she breaks it off with him in his mansion.

What do we learn from the movie?
* A relationship is a two way street
* You can say no to sex if you want. There is no excuse for raping a woman.
* It is not ok to hit a woman

Do see the movie to arose your sexual fantasies.