Two weeks ago, Duane Long Jr. taught his fellow students the details of spanking, paddling, caning and the makings of a good sex toy.
As a senior and president of the Cuffs student group at Iowa State University, Long gives most of the biweekly lessons in Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadism and Masochism at the school’s Memorial Union, their equivalent of Northwestern’s Norris University Center.
But at Norris, the most popular mini course this fall was Beginner’s Knitting, not an auspicious sign for any members of the BDSM community who were considering holding lessons. Destin Mesmin, the student supervisor of mini courses at Norris, was skeptical about the viability of a BDSM class.
“We’ve never had a class of a sexual nature,” he said. Mesmin, a Weinberg junior, cited deterrent factors of lack of student demand and issues of liability for emotional and physical harm to students. He also said he doubted NU administrators would go along with the idea.
The Cuffs courses at Iowa State are offered by the student group and not though a framework administered through the school.
However, because the courses are partially funded by the university’s Government of the Student Body, Long and the other Cuffs executive board members have signed waivers accepting responsibility for injury. Despite the waivers, Long said he saw little chance of students getting hurt.
“Show a difference between teaching proper bondage and paddling techniques and a martial arts class where students kick and throw one another,” he said.
According to Long, the Cuffs meetings are safe by nature. Cuffs guest speakers discuss sexual assault and STD awareness, as well as what to do when a neighbor does not realize that sexual play is consensual and dials 911.
Visiting police officers have explained to Cuffs members that if they enter a house where one partner is bound, they usually remove the dominant partner to ensure that the submissive partner has consented. They then ask partners to be quieter in their play.
Yet even if liability issues were resolved, Mesmin’s second point of student demand could be the biggest obstacle to a club similar to Cuffs on NU’s campus. At Iowa State, fliers for the club are usually torn down within a day. NU students do not seem to be much more enthusiastic.
“I wouldn’t go near it,” said Andy Kim, a Weinberg sophomore.
Other reactions were not as harsh.
“I think this would be my gut reaction,” said Music freshman Daniel Berkowitz, showing a shocked face. “But there are a lot of repressed and uptight people who need some whips and chains.”
A bondage club at NU would have to undergo Associated Student Government procedures to earn the privileges of room reservations and monetary funding, which could be awarded “as long as the group provides quality programming for the entire campus and doesn’t break any laws in trying to do so, and follows the rules and protocols as an ASG recognized group,” said ASG senator Darin Smith-Gaddis, a Weinberg sophomore.
But some students are lukewarm about funding the club.
“I think the kinky sex club is a little extreme to be funded by the student government,” said Karen Chong, a Communication freshman.
A bondage club at NU would join the ranks of both Cuffs at Iowa State and Converso Virium, a similar club at Columbia University. Long said he has been contacted by students who want to start clubs at three other schools.
Courses teaching BDSM would have a high lab fee because rudimentary bondage equipment, such as leather cuffs, floggers and chains, can cost up to $150.
“It’s really a seller’s market,” Long said. “Vendors know you can’t just go down to Wal-Mart and pick this stuff up.”
