A College Chaplain Attempting To Organize A Dominatrix And BDSM For Students Comes Under Fire

An ordained minister and chaplain at Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee, offering spiritual guidance to Christians, Muslims, and Jews on campus, sought to organize a workshop named “BDSM 101” for students. The purpose was to have a local dominatrix lead discussions on the safe exploration of BDSM. Nevertheless, the school swiftly canceled the workshop.  The unexpected invitation to the event was arranged by Rev. Beatrix Weil, the school’s chaplain.

The invitation announced, “Chaplain Beatrix will host a local dominatrix to share wisdom on how to safely, sanely, and consensually learn about bondage, discipline-domination, sadism-submission, and masochism.” It also mentioned, “There will be an opportunity to ask questions anonymously,” addressing the roughly 2,000 students at the liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian church.

Scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 15, in the Interfaith Lounge, the event was swiftly canceled by the chaplain within hours of its announcement. College representative Linda Bonnin explained, “The proposed event was canceled Friday as soon as it came to our attention. The event was not vetted through appropriate approval channels. No such event is planned for our campus.”

Recognizing the need for improvement in their event approval processes, Bonnin stated, “We recognize we need to do some work on our event approval processes, so we are reviewing that and will make changes as appropriate.”

One student, Coleman Clay, expressed disapproval, calling the proposed workshop “absolutely ridiculous.” He stated, “I don’t think anything sexual like that or any seminar like that should be held on a college campus,” adding, “Even though this is a private school and they can get away with it, I don’t think that that belongs here, especially at Rhodes where I go. I’m not proud of it.”

The event stirred controversy on social media, with a Facebook post generating hundreds of comments. While many strongly condemned the chaplain and called for her dismissal, others supported her, and a significant number of students appeared indifferent to the idea.

A senior who opted for anonymity, played down the controversy, stating, “Honestly, it just wasn’t a really big deal… no one was really talking about it.” Another student added, “One of my friends had texted me about it and was just like, ‘Oh, she’s bringing a dominatrix. That’s kind of funny. We should go.’”

Edith Love, a Unitarian Universalist minister and colleague of Weil, identifying as a member of the local BDSM community, voiced support for the workshop by highlighting its potential benefits for students. Love said, “This is important information. The fact that there’s controversy about it shows exactly why it’s needed,” and added, “If everyone understood that what people do in the privacy of their own rooms or their own private spaces between consenting adults was perfectly normal and healthy, why would we be upset about it? There’s something deeply spiritual and beautiful about human beings who, with consent, do things with their bodies to make each other happy.”

An anonymous alum endorsed the idea of discussing these topics on campus, emphasizing the adult status of the students. She argued, “By every sense of the meaning in the law — everything — they’re adults. Adults engage in sexual acts, and there needs to be a space to talk about it,” further noting, “Sex education is incredibly important. And this is a part of it… She’s there to provide guidance to all students, and there are definitely students on campus that could benefit from this type of conversation.”

Phillis Lewis, the head of Love Doesn’t Hurt, a nonprofit advocating for domestic violence victims and offering BDSM classes, addressed the stigma surrounding BDSM. Lewis explained, “There’s so much stigma around it because a lot of people when they hear BDSM or kink they’re automatically assuming that it has something to do with impact and that’s just a piece of it,” highlighting the broad spectrum of the kink community, including activities like wearing lingerie or engaging in sensual massages.

The article also noted that Weil had previously hosted the same dominatrix for her first-year seminar “Let’s Talk About Sex,” and in an email inviting students from the seminar to join the BDSM workshop, Weil reported that the sex class “went really well.”

Tamera Glenn lives with her family in Denver, Colorado. She specializes in covering global news and stories.