Kink on Campus offers sexual empowerment for students
The sexy circus came to town for Cal Poly Humboldt’s sixth annual Kink on Campus event. The main event took place on Nov. 13 in the KBR room found in the Gutswurrak Student Activities Center. Kink on Campus is an event centered around education on kinks, sex, sexual pleasure and more.
Attendees were greeted with raffle tickets to win prizes, mocktails, popcorn and music was provided by DJs from CPH’s student-run radio station KRFH. The week leading up to the circus themed event offered a series of events hosted by the Women’s Resource Center (WRC) that aimed to provide education on sex health. Attendees had the chance to explore multiple sources of information regarding sexual health and enjoying a night of bingo, dancing and performances.
Rayna Silveira and Lexi Thorpe tabled for the event. Silveira, a volunteer coordinator for Check It, a student-led group that focuses on consent-centered culture, shared advice for those who struggle with having conversations surrounding consent.
“If you learn how to say yes, no, set your boundaries, ask for explicitly what you want in every day situations, when you apply that to sex and kinks, it becomes easier because it’s just normal at that point,” Silveira said.
Adding to that point, Thorpe said, “Not just in sex, but in life, everything we do needs to be consensual to reduce harm.”
Kinks typically have a negative connotation, and people may feel awkward discussing them, but Dean Jophiel Washington, a CRGS major, said “Realistically, kinks and fetishes are just things that you really enjoy in sexual spaces.”
Washington also shared some advice surrounding comfortability around consent.
“If you know that you’re anxious or that you have issues with sticking up for yourself, if you have the opportunity to let somebody know before getting into an intimate situation, they can prepare themselves to check in more,” Washington said.
Among the itinerary for the circus was a drag performance, but due to illness, the performer had to cancel. Despite that, the show went on with a dance performance from Trinity Tramp, an early childhood education major. She shared why events like Kink on Campus are important to show up for.
“I think events like this definitely help and give resources for people who are fresh out of high school or shamed for talking about things openly. If you don’t allow things to be talked about openly it becomes shameful and shameful doesn’t decrease it, it just becomes an internalized knot.”
Mary Angelie Mangubat, an environmental science major, was among the hundreds in attendance. Mangubat shed light on the disparities when it comes to who is allowed to explore their sexual autonomy.
“Sex industries from a male gaze omit a lot of different groups like women, non-binary people, trans people, if they want to explore their kinks, it’s already shunned when they’re just not given the time to explore themselves,” Mangubat said.
Mangubat shared the importance of the event for students, and the benefit of having a safe space to explore, express and learn.
“If they [college students] can show up to things like this, or events like this can get hosted, then they can explore comfortably and develop their own self interest and autonomy,” Mangubat said. “And do their own research on their own time without feeling shameful, especially with college students exploring and figuring out who they are, this is one way to do it.”
