By Rebecca Cohen
For Unwind magazine
Fashion and sexual awareness meet at Maryland’s fourth annual Condom Fashion Show, sponsored by Global Protection and ONE® Condoms and hosted by the MICA, the University of Maryland Health Center, Bedsider @ UMD and Sex Week at Maryland.
This year’s theme is “Proud and Protected.” The goal of this theme is to get student organizations to identify with what makes them unique and portray that originality in their condom-outfit creations.
University of Maryland students will host this year’s fashion show on April 14 at 6 p.m. at the Stamp Colony Ballroom. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and admission is free.
Sex Week at Maryland started the Condom Fashion show in 2013 with a simple mission: to raise awareness about safe sex by encouraging students to wear condoms when having sexual intercourse. It mainly focuses on raising awareness for HIV and AIDS – deadly sexually transmitted diseases that can be avoided if sexual partners use condoms. All of the proceeds from the Condom Fashion Show are donated to HIV and AIDS awareness.
In addition to safe sex and STD awareness, the Condom Fashion Show attempts to rid the stigma of wearing condoms and encourages UMD students to consider using them more often. The show promotes condom usage and makes them “fun and accessible to students,” said Galya Oberman, the Condom Fashion Show Co-Chair and psychology major.
The Sex Week at Maryland team helps students to become aware of the dangers of unprotected sex and their sexual health resources on the UMD campus. According to Oberman, there are university departments and student organizations helping to educate the attendees about sexual health during the show.
Student groups are encouraged to register to be a part of the fashion show, and Sex Week at Maryland provides the teams with hundreds of ONE Condoms with which they create a condom-outfit. One member from each team then walks the runway in his or her condom-outfit for a panel of judges. The best outfit and performance wins!
In addition to the fashion show and ample sexual education information, there will be a raffle, food, prizes, and other performances during the show.
To register a team for the Condom Fashion Show, visit ter.ps/CFSapply or find out more about the event at ter.ps/CFS2017.
unwindumd.wordpress.com 