The Sexploratorium Opens on South Broadway for Your Learning Pleasure

Ever wonder why sex ed begins and ends with one section of health class back in middle school? That doesn’t seem like a great time to wedge the subject into a curriculum, and, frankly, it’s mostly the adults who really need the help. You know, the people out there actually having the sex in question. There’s no shame in this simple fact: Sex, like all things, takes information, application and practice to do well. Anyone who thinks they already know all there is to know? You’re probably part of the problem.

Fortunately, there’s a new place in Denver to learn all the things you never thought you could, should or would have the opportunity to ask about. The Sexploratorium bills itself as “innovative, embodied, & inclusive sex education,” and the bell rings for the first class on Tuesday, August 1. The facility at 1800 South Broadway will not only host classes six days a week, but will also serve as a center for sex-themed shopping, art and events.

The two founders conceived of the idea when they team-taught a cross-curriculum course at Red Rocks Community College eight years ago. Stina French (who also goes by sister rainbow scream, and whose book, Listen to Your Skin, we profiled back in 2021) taught erotic literature; her colleague, Fawn O’Breitzman, taught human sexuality. The course was instantly and immensely popular; they both won endowed teaching chairs for their work. “We always had really positive student evaluations, but for this class, the reactions were remarkable," French says. "Students would ask, 'Why didn’t we take this in ninth grade? Why aren’t people talking about these things? Why didn’t I know most of this stuff already?' We live in a society that’s not just failing to give us appropriate, accurate, timely information about our bodies and sex; we live in a world that will punish parents and educators for even trying to.”

For now, the Sexploratorium is definitively adults-only, but French and O’Breitzman believe it’s important to teach those who are teaching teens and kids. O’Breitzman recalls the impact that discovering new information had on her, even as a degreed professional teaching human sexuality and sociology of deviance, when she took a learning community class to Amsterdam. “I got to see sex museums for the first time,” she says, “but it was the Children’s Museum that had a display about sex that really got me. It had things in it that I’d never encountered before. One was a gauge that measured whether an erection was occurring. I’d never seen this, and it was in a children’s museum! I thought, 'Just how far behind are we that I, as a sex educator for twenty-odd years, have never seen this stuff?'”

Last year, French and O’Breitzman decided that they wanted something more. “We wanted to do something that reached more than just our college students. We had people who’d bring their mothers in, their partners in, their sisters, their brothers,” says O’Breitzman. “That’s how much people were hungry for this kind of information.”

The Sexploratorium has three stages planned; the opening on August 1 is just the start of phase one. Phase two is expansion, and phase three is where it really gets wild. “The eventual goal is to become something like Meow Wolf for sex,” French says. “Really interactive exhibits.”

“Like a walk-through of the genitals,”muses O’Breitzman. “Where you actually walk through the vagina and go to the Womb Room and see the egg and you see the sperm.” The walls would even shed a “little light river every 28 minutes.” Both of them are laughing; it’s clear that whatever the classes they offer might be, joy is definitely part of the syllabus.

“For now, we’re starting with a retail space and a lounge,” explains French. “We’ll have a specially curated selection of books and a warm, welcoming place that will be a pleasure just to hang around in. We’ll also have a classroom for our classes. We see ourselves becoming this hub for shame-free and celebratory community interaction.”

The classes themselves are wide-ranging, but will rotate over the course of each month. Every Friday and Saturday night are devoted to social opportunities. “We’re designing those so some people can show up single and that space will be curated so as to still provide the opportunity for interaction," says French. "Or you can show up with your partner.”

“Or partners!” O’Breitzman interjects.

“Absolutely,” French laughs. “We’re very poly-friendly, queer-friendly, identity-friendly, straight-friendly. Inclusivity is the thing.”

French says she’s excited to get back to teaching sexuality from that brain-space they did in academia, but even more so about the “embodied learning experiences” they’ll be able to provide. “We’re leading a kissing workshop on Friday the fourth of August,” she grins. “And we’re going to go over the history of kissing, what other cultures have said and done about it. But then we’re going to conclude with a kissing practicum. If you come with a partner, you’ll be guided through a practice. And if you came solo, we’ll have a spin-the-bottle option in which you get to be respected and respectful of others. That’s beautiful to me, that we’ll actually have the opportunity to learn and then practice. Get a little sexy together.”

“And that’s something we could never do in academia, obviously,” adds O’Breitzman. “So it’s very freeing. We can respond to what we want to teach, what so many people have told us they want to see in a class like this, without worrying about institutional limitations.”

French and O’Breitzman say they’ll teach about three-quarters of the classes currently on the calendar, but that they’ll be “tapping local talent for those classes we’re not qualified to teach,” according to French. She adds that the Sexploratorium will be careful to stay on the positive side of the professional line in terms of how interaction works within the confines of their coursework: “We’re doing our best to make sure we have responsible waivers and we communicate everything really carefully to everyone involved. For their safety, and for ours.”

“We really want people to come away from these experiences knowing their bodies so much more,” says O’Breitzman. “That’s what excites me. I’ve watched for twenty years this massive amount of ignorance. It’s just rampant. It didn’t matter how old or experienced the person is.”

“I was one of those people!” exclaims French. “I was 37 when I first sat in on Fawn’s class on anatomy, and I’m a kinky, explorative, shameless kind of person in general. I thought I knew my body, thought I knew it all. But I learned so much. There’s so much to discover. There’s so much for everyone to discover. It’s way past time.”

Sexploratorium Classes for August 2023

All About the Vulva (August 1 and 15, 1-2:30 p.m.)
All About Sexual Anatomy (August 2 and 16, 6-9 p.m. and August 5 and 19, 1-4 p.m.)
All About the Penis (August 3 and 17)
Pucker Up: Exploration of Kissing (August 4, 6-9 p.m.)
Ecstatic Dance (August 6, 1-4 p.m.)
Masturbation for Health and Pleasure (August 8 and 22, 1-2:30 p.m.)
Masturbation and Communication (August 8 and 23, 6-9 p.m. and August 10 and 26, 1-4 p.m.)
Sexual Communication & Boundaries (August 10 and 24, 1-2:30 p.m.)
Speed Dating: Pansexuals and Bisexuals (August 11, 6-9 p.m.)
Erotic Touch (August 12, 6-9 p.m.)
Discussion of the Sacred Sexuality: Sex Magick (August 13, 1-2:30 p.m.)
Erotic Writing Workshop & Open Mic (August 18, 6-9 p.m.)
Body Boundary Basics with Queer Cuddle Puddle (August 19, 6-9 p.m.)
Erotic Movement: Tantric Yoga (August 20, 1-2:30 p.m.)
Dry Mouth Wet Pussy: Cannabis & Sexuality (August 25, 6-9 p.m.)
Introducing Kink Into Your Relationship (August 26, 6-9 p.m.)
Transgender Identities 101 (August 29, 1-2:30 p.m.)
Exploring Gender and Sexual Identities (August 30, 6-9 p.m.)
Queer Identities (August 31, 1-2:30 p.m.)
Overcoming Shame: Flirting and Dirty Talk (September 1, 6-9 p.m.)

The Sexploratorium opens for business at 1800 South Broadway on Tuesday, August 1. For more information, see the Sexploratorium website.