Harvard University Now Have a Student BDSM Sex-Club

Harvard University, home to the best and the brightest, now has an official club for the kinkiest. [2] Harvard University granted a controversial BDSM sex-club official school recognition on Wednesday, Campus Reform has confirmed. [1] The expected go-ahead by the Committee on Student Life entitle the group “Harvard College Munch for the BDSM” to meet for lunch or dinner on campus, promote gatherings on school grounds and apply for grants from the school’s Drug and Alcohol Peer Advisors organization, the Crimson reported. [2] [3] Once an informal gathering for like-minded individuals to discuss their proclivities in the bedroom without fear of being judged, Munch now has “institutional support” to provide reassurance for its members, its anonymous founder “Michael” said The student club, Harvard College Munch, is a group of roughly 20 members that meets weekly to explicitly discuss matters related to BDSM and other forms of kinky sex.  [1] The genesis of Munch goes back to last October, when a group of seven or so students with like, and sexually twisted, minds began meeting over meals to discuss their affinity for kinky sex. Needless to say they were kicked out of quite a few Chili’s before eventually finding a safe home [12] when Harvard University granted official recognition their BDSM sex-club on Wednesday.  School recognition will allow the club to apply for university funding and promote their group on school property, reports Harvard’s student newspaper, The Crimson.  [3]  In an article published earlier this year, students in the group spoke freely about fantasies of rape, forced feeding, and impersonating animals during sex.  The founder of the group, who has been kept anonymous, told The Crimson that the chief advantage of being granted recognition “is the fact of legitimacy.”  He added that school recognition “shows we are being taken seriously.” [1]

Trying to defend the organization, one Munch member told the Crimson that the club could provide a haven for those who engage in BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism) after they have been scarred by sexual abuse or other trauma. [1] “The impact on campus will be that students who feel outside of the sexual mainstream will now have a safe space to talk about their interests, to feel socially validated, and to build a community,” said Dr. Justin Lehmiller, Harvard psychology lecturer and a sex columnist, to ABC News. [5] [7] Another Munch member confessed to the Observer that she had been hit with a riding crop, a belt and canes in a private Munch get-together. “Floggers are my favorite,” she said. [2] Yet another member, known as Mae, told the Crimson that finding a “kink” group meant finding a home on campus. “I didn’t think that anyone was even remotely interested [in kink] on campus,” Mae said. “It’s a community where you can feel safe, and you can feel comfortable talking about [kink].” “Kink” is most commonly used to refer to BSDM: bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism, and masochism. [7]

But some young members of such groups are finding the subculture is offering them more of an education than they expected, confronting them with serious issues involving consent, disclosure, anonymity, sexual violence, guilt and innocence, crime and punishment. While the scene’s mantra—“safe, sane and consensual”—is heard so often it might as well be translated into needlepoint, violations of these maxims are common. In the last year, hundreds of people have come forward to describe the abuse they’ve suffered within the scene. The victims are mostly women, and like 50 Shades’ fictional 22-year-old Anastasia Steele, many are also young, submissive and uncertain about their boundaries.  [20] The BDSM scene can be violent by nature. Physical and psychological power, and the lack thereof, are at the heart of the erotic experience. As a result, sexual assault can be harder to define and harder to prove. But that’s not to say it doesn’t happen. Indeed, awareness of the problem seems to be growing, and controversies around the issue have been roiling the tight-knit fetish community all year. [20]

There is historical precedent. The Iowa State University student government funded a bondage club in 2003, calling it a triumph for diversity, one publication reported. Now S&M clubs are increasingly popular at elite institutions as “50 Shades Of Grey” climbed the bestseller list, the Observer said. Columbia, Tufts, MIT, Yale and the University of Chicago have them, though the story did not say whether they were officially recognized. Assault cases from within some groups have sprung up as well, the paper said. [2] [20] At the University of Minnesota, Kinky U is Student Organization No. 2370. It meets weekly — after office hours “for maximum safety and confidentiality” — to discuss “topics related to kink and the kinky community.” At Tufts University in Medford, Mass., Tufts Kink started meeting this semester. There’s no national registry of campus BDSM groups, but consensus is that the oldest is at Columbia University, in New York, where Conversio Virium meets on campus every Monday night at 9.  “Conversio virium” is Latin for “conversion of forces,” and the group says it dedicates itself to ‘the full exploration of BDSM, both in its sexual and spiritual aspects.” [10] Actual sex isn’t allowed at the club’s meetings, but the occasional live demonstration of safe and consensual kinky sex is. It remains to be seen whether Harvard follows in Columbia’s footsteps in regard to live demonstrations being allowed during “Harvard College Munch” meetings. [11]

The Crimson produced a short video, in which Harvard students were asked which club they would rather join, Munch or the Anscombe Society. More students said they would rather become members of Munch.  [6] Watch the video here: