There were no Safer Sex parties when I was a student at Oberlin College. Nor did the student-run Sexual Information Center have any reading material on BDSM or kink.
Fast forward to the late 1990's and early 2000's. Students try to set up a BDSM educational group on campus. Folks on the supposedly liberal campus are up in arms. The group's charter application goes to the General Faculty, which debates it to death and blocks approval. Yet, apparently, the group somehow continues to survive - at least for a while.
There's scant information on this, but what I read bothers me. Set aside the questions of free speech and tolerance. The major reason we kinksters organize groups like this is to be safe - to share much-needed information, to look out for one another, and to educate outsiders about who we really are and what we're relly about. Just like every other community out there.
So strange, then, that a respected educational institution like Oberlin College does not get that. Even stranger, considering that, in 2006, they sanctioned a gun club for students. College students can learn gun safety, but they can't learn safe bondage? Does not compute.
But, as I said before, there's little online info out there. So, if you are a fellow alum, or otherwise connected to this, please let me know.
And if you're a student at Oberlin, looking to resurrect the group, let me know if I can help!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Just found this while googling college BDSM groups.
ReplyDeleteOberlin's "original" group was called "SECURE" which stood for something like Students Exploring Consent and Understanding Regarding Equality. Or something like that, which really didn't say much about what the group's purpose was. As you say, that group made it to a General Faculty vote where it was blocked (in some controversial proceduring, if I remember correctly). That would have been in...1999, perhaps? Maybe as early as 1998, but I don't actually think so.
I was there from 2000-2002, during which time we tried to re-vitalize the group. The original group had apparently been known for some kickass parties. We never had parties, and in fact, kept it pretty much discussion and demo focused. With the advice of older students and a few alums, the group was called "Oberlin Sexual Minorities" or "OSM" (Oh! S/M!), with the idea that if the group focused on sexual minorities, it would be an equal access issue if they didn't allow (charter) the group. It wasn't specifically a BDSM group: we focused on BDSM, polyamory/non-monogamy, sex workers, and...something else.
We formed an official charter; I still have that, and probably some other key documents, on my computer - I can't remember if I passed on the historical binder of SECURE & OSM at some point, or if it is somewhere in my closet).
When we drafted the charter, we looked at every other charter that dealt with sex or sexuality AND every charter for organizations that engaged in risky behavior (such as the Outdoors Club which led rock climbing trips) and borrowed language from all of them, talked to their leaders about how they avoided liability, and tried to get student leadership support.
The first time we tried to get chartered, the student government rejected us, with concerns such as:
* We didn't define consent (note that at the time, Oberlin's sexual offense policy stated "Consent cannot be meaningfully defined for every given situation").
* We promoted prostitution, which was illegal activity.
* We could be engaged in beastiality or pedophilia, which are illegal and non-consensual
* various other charges such as this.
So, we re-wrote, and submitted what might be the longest charter ever, which *defined* consent (and called the college out for failing to do so), specifically outlined that we only supported legal and consensual activity, and then spelled out specific activities that we did not support.
I don't remember how far we got in the process: I'm pretty sure we got it to the full student government at some point, but maybe not. At any rate, our efforts ceased in part because I dropped out of school (and in fact, a lot of this happened during Fall 2002...when I had lots of time to work on it since I wasn't taking classes). At a certain point, we didn't want my lack of student standing to undermine the whole thing!
My understanding is that after I left, the group kept on meeting, though didn't pursue recognized status (at least for a while). At some point, I forwarded a whole bunch of info to some folks who were continuing with the group. That was probably in 2004, or maybe as late as 2005 or 2006.
If I had to bet, I'd say that some variation of that group still exists, though probably meeting either under another organization's charter, or informally.
Hopefully, they are back to having play parties, too. We just never really had any, partially because so many of us lived on campus (and partially because I think we wanted there to be a clear distinction between any parties and the organized discussion group).
-Rek
Rek: Thanks for the valuable history lesson! The comments you got from the student government are especially telling; it shows how far we have to go even in liberal/progressive circles. I've been checking the Oberlin website, and don't seem to see OSM or any similar group active. Let's hope some latter day kinksters there get the ball rolling once again!
Delete