The College Fix

Several top-tier universities host student clubs, workshops dedicated to kinky sex

Princeton University has become the latest Ivy League institution to host a club for students who seek to explore sexual desires that delve into bondage, domination, sadism and masochism, underscoring a larger trend found at many top-tier universities.

The student-led club, Princeton Plays, launched earlier this month after Princeton’s student government voted to officially recognize it. It joins Harvard’s “Munch,” Columbia’s “Conversio Virium” and Cornell’s “Crunch” clubs as active student BDSM groups in the Ivy League.

Several “Sex Week” campus events at various high-profile colleges over the years have also included workshops on the sexual subculture, which can include ropes, whips, blindfolds, flogging, master-servant role play and much more.

For example, the University of Chicago’s annual sex week observance typically includes a BDSM workshop. In 2014, a presentation there dubbed “Taste of Kink” gave students an opportunity to explore “sensations that can be generated by floggers, rope, electricity and more.” Likewise, in 2016, the university hosted a “sexual pain” workshop and BDSM tutorials. And earlier this year it hosted “Intro to rope bondage.”

Also earlier this year, at the University of Michigan, an “Ins and Outs of Kink” workshop included “introductory kink and BDSM concepts.” Workshops on BDSM at that university date back to at least 2014.

“Kinky Trojans” is the name of a BDSM club at the University of Southern California. Late last month, it hosted a meeting on “kinky toys of all kinds: impact, bondage, a bit of edge play, you name it,” according to its Facebook page.

Meanwhile, BDSM at the Ivy Leagues is in full swing.

In 2015, Harvard University hosted a workshop as part of its sex week titled “Work Hard, Fuck Hard: The Guide to BDSM in the College Dorm Room.” And just last month Harvard hosted a workshop called “Unleashed: Kink 101” as part of its sex week events.

Also last month at Columbia, its “Conversio Virium” student members were offered a “hands-on rope bondage” workshop, according to its website.

Cornell’s “Crunch” club meets Tuesdays, according to its website.

The newest Ivy League BDSM group, Princeton Plays, aims to “provide a safe space for students interested in non-traditional relationships” and “to promote values of sexual inclusivity and affirm that all types of safe and consensual activity between individuals is valid,” according to The Daily Princetonian, which reported on its launch earlier this month.

The Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Student has also recognized the group, which hopes to meet twice a month, The Princetonian reported. With that, the group will now have access to some funding from the student government and may reserve university rooms for their meetings.

The College Fix contacted the Princeton Undergraduate Student Government and Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Student via email to determine if the group would use university facilities for their BDSM activities. Neither replied to the emails.

Members of Princeton Plays said in The Princetonian that the group “hopes to provide a safe space for students interested in non-traditional relationships … to promote values of sexual inclusivity and affirm that all types of safe and consensual activity between individuals is valid.”

In an interview an anonymous member discussed how the group started: “Through conversation, we kinda realized that we wanted a space for this on campus, more than what was out here, which was nothing.”

The College Fix contacted Ivy Truong, who reported on the new club for The Princetonian, to see if she could convince members from Princeton Plays to comment on the group’s intentions. Truong replied that the group declined to offer comment to The Fix.

MORE: University of Michigan Teaches Students How To Be Kinky, Engage in BDSM

MORE: Harvard Sex Week: 13,000 condoms, 1,200 bottles of lube, and ‘BDSM in the dorm’ lesson

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