Sex toys were out of the bedroom and on the stage of Pfleeger Hall on Thursday.
Prism, an organization at Rowan meant “to educate and support the greater queer community at Rowan University,” according to its Facebook page, held its fifth annual Sex Toy Bingo last week to promote sex positivity and safer sex practices among college students.
“Sex Toy Bingo would be the best way of accomplishing all of our goals while still getting students in the door,” said Kailee Whiting, president of Prism and a double major in applied sociology and communication studies with a concentration in women and gender studies. “The average student would not go to a safe sex seminar, but they will definitely attend a Sex Toy Bingo.”
Pfleeger’s 800-seat concert hall was at near-capacity with 645 students in attendance.
The first 400 students to walk in pocketed a free bottle of personal lubricant. In a way, every student was a winner; everyone received goody bags full of condoms, an abundance of sample lubricants and promotional cards from System JO and Fantasy Gifts.
For sale were penis-shaped pretzels and water. With each purchase, students received tickets for the “Second Chance to Get Lucky” fundraiser. Up for grabs were tickets to “Drag Me to Landmark,” a spa basket, a bondage package and a mystery box. (Spoiler: the mystery box contained a handful of vibrators.)
Prism will donate the money from these purchases to the Triad House in Ewing, New Jersey to support homeless LGBTQ+ youth. The Triad House is the only safe house of its kind in the state. Sex Toy Bingo raised about $450 for the Triad House, which is $100 more than the last bingo in February.
The night started with a seminar called “Lube 101” presented by System JO. Students learned about different types of lube and how to find the best lube for their specific needs.
At 8 p.m., bingo began. Winning a game of bingo meant going onstage and choosing a prize. All prizes, from a golden dildo to fleshlights and massage kits, were described to the audience, and Whiting helped each winner find the toy that best suited them. Different rounds of bingo featured different types of products.
A local shop called Fantasy Gifts partnered with Prism to raise over $5,000 in donations from various companies, like System JO, Jimmyjane and Pipedream.
Between rounds of bingo, “Don’t Cha” by The Pussycat Dolls and “Hard” by Rihanna were some of the songs that played as condoms were thrown into the crowd.
The night was full of sex sounds and sexual innuendos. The crowd yelled every time O-69 was picked, and Whiting reminded students to “ask for consent ‘B4’ you have sex.”
There were also tiebreaker contests. When 11 people got bingo on a single board, students participated in a contest. All the students received a prize, but the five students who blew up and popped a condom the fastest chose from the silver table.
Another contest involved lap dances. Theater major Seth Jackson grinded and humped his way to winning his own stripper pole. The phrase, “Kill it, be sexy,” repeated in his mind as he was on stage, he said.
Students with unlucky boards got lucky if they found rainbow stickers under their seats. Only two of the five stickers were found, but those two students got to pick from the prize table.
“Prism is one of the only spaces on campus where a large section of students feel comfortable enough to come and share their lives with one another, which is something that can be rare for the LGBTQ+ community,” said Whiting.
