The University of Southern California’s BDSM Club is but one of the school’s more than 850 student-run clubs.
If you’re interested in exploring “alternative sexuality” and doing it safely, this club might be for you. After all, where else can you engage in an “arts and crafts” project like “Make Your Own Flogger”?
The club disassociated from [Queer and Ally Student Assembly] for the 2014-2015 school year to focus more on its mission, according to Surrett and Fair, and has since hosted “The Art of Shibari, a hands-on, over-the-clothes rope tying workshop,” which about 60 students attended. The event, which was mostly advertised on Facebook and via fliers with a poster featuring a cartoon of a tied-up girl, featured a professional instructor and promised a “judgment-free environment” and “friendly knowledgeable people” to any interested Trojans, aged 18 and older.
Other than special events such as the workshop, the club concentrates on bi-weekly meetings, known as “munches,” where students can discuss BDSM, kink and fetishes in a judgment-free safe space over snacks. Seven to 10 students currently attend the discussions regularly.
Richard Sprott, executive director of CARAS, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the study of alternative sexualities, said that the stigma surrounding the BDSM lifestyle is still quite prevalent despite BDSM’s recent attention in popular culture.
“There is this belief that somehow people are [practicing BDSM] because of abuse,” Sprott said. “Research that is out there does not find that to be the case. The number of people who are abused and doing BDSM is not different the number of people who are abused in the general population. A lot of people do also hear things sometimes from doctors or psychiatrists that there’s something wrong with them, but the research does not support that.”
Sprott emphasizes the personal security aspect: “The most important thing when it comes to these activities is learning to do them safely.”
If you’re wondering how “flogging and other types of hitting” are done “safely,” this 2009 Psychology Today article says, among other things, “the dangers associated with BDSM can be greatly reduced by consensually playing with a caring, experienced partner, using safewords, and clearly defining boundaries ahead of time.”
Read the full Daily Trojan article.
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