A “sensual embodiment” workshop being held at the University of Guelph (U of G) is only open to those who identify as non-white 2SLGBTQIA+ people.
The “Live Your Best Sensual Life: A Sensual Embodiment Practice” workshop featuring sexual health and pleasure educator Natasha Lawrence is just the latest segregated event held at the southwestern Ontario university.
“Join Natasha ‘Natty Love’ in an exploration of all things sensual,” reads the workshop description on U of G’s website. “We will activate the senses through the practice of embodiment.”
The event description says embodiment practice is “utilizing the body as a tool for our own healing. Sensual Embodiment takes a pleasure-centered approach towards our own healing.”
“Let’s reconnect with our bodies through the power of sensuality!”
The website notes that the workshop is “exclusive to 2SLGBTQIA+ students, staff, and community members who identify as Black, Indigenous, racialized, or a person of colour.”
On her business website, Lawrence says that her “sex positive, sex worker positive, and kink/BDSM positive” practice “encompasses discussion around sexual pleasure, sexual agency and autonomy, sensuality, eroticism, and consent.”
Her work is “grounded in Anti-Racism, Anti-Black Racism, Anti-Oppression, Queer Theory, Sex Positivity, Intersectional Feminist, and Trauma-Informed frameworks,” which she says helps support “her efforts in prioritizing racialized and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, that are often fed false narratives of being unworthy of pleasure.”
Lawrence typically charges $110 per hour for her services, but notes that she also offers affordable sliding scale options. She says she has helped out children, youth and adults “who hold multiple intersections and identities” through her work.
The U of G event, hosted in part by the University of Guelph’s Cultural Diversity and Sexual and Gender Diversity offices, takes place on Monday, Mar. 20 It features refreshments, swag bags, as well as “sex positive” prizes and giveaways.
The Ontario university previously hosted Lawrence in 2022 for a Black History Month workshop titled “Mapping Out Your Pleasure and Liberation.” The virtual event was “exclusive to Black-identifying students, staff, and faculty.”
U of G has also hosted racially segregated art sessions and yoga classes, and offers weekly “LGBTQ2IA+ Only” swim times at its athletics centre – as previously reported by True North’s Campus Watch series.
True North reached out to U of G and Lawrence for comment, but neither responded in time for publication.
