A Tennessee college chaplain tried to host a “BDSM 101” workshop for students featuring local dominatrixes to discuss how to safely engage in sexual practices — but the school quickly pulled the plug.
Students at Rhodes College in Memphis received a surprise invitation earlier this month to a workshop hosted by the Reverend Beatrix Weil, an ordained minister and school chaplain since 2018, Fox 13 reported.
“Chaplain Beatrix will host local dominatrixes to share wisdom on how to safely, sanely and consensually learn about bondage, master discipline, submission sadism and masochism,” it reads, according to the outlet.
“There will be an opportunity to ask questions anonymously,” added the Nov. 10 invitation to the roughly 2,000 students who attend the liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.
The event was scheduled to take place on Wednesday at the Interfaith Lounge but was canceled within hours of being sent by the pastor.
“The proposed event was canceled on Friday as soon as it came to our attention. The event was not reviewed through the appropriate approval channels. No such event is planned for our campus,” college representative Linda Bonnin told the Commercial Appeal in a statement.
The Rev. Beatrix Weil, chaplain at Rhodes College in Memphis, tried to organize a BDSM workshop for students with a local dominatrix but the school quickly pulled the plug. Instagram / rhodes_chaplain
“We realize we need to do some work on our event approval process, so we’re reviewing it and will make changes as appropriate,” he added.
One student called the proposed workshop “absolutely ridiculous.”
“I don’t think anything sexual like that or any seminar like that should be held on a college campus,” Coleman Clay told Fox 13.
“Even if it’s a private school and they can get away with it, I don’t think that’s the case here, especially in Rhodes where I go. I’m not proud of it,” he added.
Weil’s invitation got mixed reactions from students.Instagram / rhodes_chaplain
Conservative columnist Todd Starnes reportedly slammed the idea and said that many parents, alumni and donors were angry with Weil for trying to host.
Fox13’s Facebook post about the event garnered more than 400 comments, with many strongly condemning the pastor and calling for his removal, but others supported him and many students seemed to have no problem with his idea.
“Honestly, it’s not a big deal… nobody really talks about it,” one elderly person who wished to remain anonymous told the Commercial Appeal.
“One of my friends texted me about it like, ‘Oh, he’s bringing a dominatrix. That’s pretty funny. We should go,'” the student added.
Edith Love, a Unitarian Universalist minister and colleague of Weil’s who considers herself a member of the local “BDSM community,” told the outlet the workshop might help students.
Rhodes College in MemphisREUTERS
“This is important information. The fact that there is controversy about it shows exactly why it is needed,” he said. “If everyone understood that what people do in the privacy of their own room or their own private space between consenting adults is normal and healthy, why would we be upset about it?
“There is something very spiritual and beautiful about human beings who, by consent, do something with their bodies to make each other happy,” Love added.
An alum agrees and reminds critics that students are adults.
Reverend Beatrix Weil has been the college chaplain since 2018.Instagram / rhodes_chaplain
“By every sense of the meaning in the law — everything — they are adults. Adults engage in sexual acts, and there needs to be a space to talk about it,” the woman, who did not want to be identified, told the Appeal.
“Sex education is very important. And this is part of it … He’s there to provide guidance to all students, and there are certainly students on campus who could benefit from these types of conversations,” he added of Weil.
Phillis Lewis, who heads Love Doesn’t Hurt, a non-profit organization that supports victims of domestic violence and also teaches BDSM classes, cited the stigma attached to the practice.
“There’s a lot of stigma around it because a lot of people when they hear BDSM or kink they automatically think it has to do with impact and that’s only part of it,” Lewis told Fox 13.
Weil recently hosted a dominatrix to deliver her first year seminar “Let’s Talk About Sex.” Instagram / rhodes_chaplain
“A 200-piece puzzle, the spectrum of kink is so broad that many people see curls as being like wearing lingerie, doing a striptease for your partner, doing a sensual massage for your partner,” she says.
Weil, who does not lead any worship services but serves as a religious adviser to Christians, Muslims and Jews on campus, recently hosted the same dominatrix to present her first-year seminar “Let’s Talk About Sex,” National Review reported.
In an email obtained by the outlet inviting students attending the seminar to also participate in the BDSM workshop, Weil said the sex class “went really well.”
“It was going well until I got my first angry parent’s phone call to the President’s Office because of it,” he wrote. “It took 6 years of working at this school, but hello, I finally *succeeded*.”
Weil could not be reached for comment by the outlet.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
