Student bondage club makes comeback at ISU
No, college was never quite like THIS back in the day....
Ames, Ia. - Jayme Howard spends his days at computer science class. At night, the Iowa State University freshman learns how to tie up and spank partners.
He gets his nighttime lessons from Cuffs, a campus club that teaches students about bondage and other sexual fetishes.
The club, after dissolving last year, is trying to make a comeback at ISU. Today, Cuffs leaders plan to ask the ISU student senate for $100 from the student fee fund, mostly to pay for promotion.
"It's always been interesting to me," said Howard, 18, who got involved in Cuffs after he met the club's president. "I'm learning more."
A Christian family advocate said Tuesday that the group shows a need for lessons in morality among ISU students.
"This is an alarm bell," said Chuck Hurley, president of the Iowa Family Policy Center in Pleasant Hill. Hurley says rape is vastly underreported on college campuses.
"I think for the university to condone this act in the light of the rape problem is like throwing gasoline on a destructive fire. It's just going to make it worse," he said.
The highlight of a Cuffs meeting this week was the film "Secretary," about an attorney and his assistant who find a common bond in masochism, or inflicting physical pain for pleasure.
Howard and a dozen other students watched it in a small room at the ISU Memorial Union. Instead of popcorn, they snacked on "S&M's": a mix of Skittles and M&M's candies.
Leaders hope membership will more than double for the next meeting, a how-to session that could involve paddles, leather, ropes and a fur-covered "flogger."
Clothes stay on at meetings, said Duane Long Jr., an ISU senior who is Cuffs' president and primary instructor.
I suppose that there are a couple of different ways to look at this sort of thing. One would be that these are all adults curious to learn new and different things and looking to meet like-minded people. Another would be that this is yet another example of why the Apocalypse is upon us- the complete and total moral decline of Western Civilization, if you will.
Personally, I'm from the "As long as no one gets hurt...." school. Is this the sort of thing that publicly-funded colleges and universities need to be sponsoring? Again, I suppose it depends on which side of the moral fence you happen to be sitting on. If you accept the premise that these are all like-minded curious individuals looking to explore an aspect of their sexuality, why not? How is this any different from a College Republicans club? College should be a place where our children can learn and explore in a safe and welcoming environment. Perhaps a bondage club is not something that you or I may have taken part in during our college days, but there is safety in numbers, and young adults need to be allowed to explore questions and issues concerning their sexuality.
Your tax dollars at work, eh??
