T H E I N D E P E N D E N T TS UD BE LN I CTAS TT IO NA I VTEI O R SNI TO Y F ATTH B FN FA N CAET 1B9U 5F 0F A L O , S I N C E 1 9 5 0 HTEU ID NEDNETP EPN UN D EO NF T T PH UE B LU IC E UU I VLEO R ,S ISTI Y
ubspectrum.com
Wednesday, february 11, 2015
Volume 63 No. 47
PHOTO BY YUSONG SHI, DESIGN BY KENNETH CRUZ AND JENNA BOWER
Three’s company 50 Shades of Fetishes A close look at how society handles threesomes
An exploration into kinks, fetishes and where they come from
About 10 percent of UB students have had a threesome, according to a survey of 837 students conducted by The Spectrum. YUSONG SHI, THE SPECTRUM
BDSM, a kinky form of rough sex involving a dominant and a submissive, is growing in popularity and gaining acceptance in mainstream media with the release of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Some students, however, still struggle to accept their own kinks or fetishes. YUSONG SHI, THE SPECTRUM
TOM DINKI SENIOR NEWS EDITOR After getting a drink and coming back to the dance floor during a party near South Campus, David Stockman* found a girl he’d been flirting with earlier in the night dancing with one of his friends. But the friend, Cam Lucas*, wasn’t trying to steal the girl from Stockman – he wanted to share. “Yo, she’s down for a threesome,” Lucas whispered. That night – which started out as a possible normal hookup for Stockman – would become his first and only threesome experience. And he’s not the only college student who’s sexually experimented with more than one person at a time. About 10 percent of UB students have had a threesome, according to The Spectrum’s sex survey of 837 people. And according to sexual health experts and educators, college students are sometimes more willing than other age groups to participate in them. “In that age range, people are more likely to experiment and explore and get things out of their system, so to speak,” said Dr. Justine Shuey, a sexologist and
sexuality educator who is an adjunct professor at several colleges in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Threesomes – which can be considered any sexual acts involving three partners of any gender – are well-documented fantasies for both men and women. But they aren’t limited to college campuses. A threesome with two women is the No.1 fantasy of heterosexual men, according to Shuey. They’re featured in both pornographic films and mainstream pop culture. How I Met Your Mother dedicated an entire episode to characters coveting a ‘Threesome Belt.’ But trying to get better at threesomes from watching porn is like trying to be a better driver from watching a Fast and Furious movie, said sex and relationship expert Reid Mihalko, who lectures about sexual health at college campuses across the country. “It’s really hard to go to rock climbing without someone showing you the basics. We don’t talk openly about the basics of sex, and we don’t talk about the basics of sexual exploration,” Mihalko said. “Culture does a terrible job of preparing young adults for exploring things safely.” SEE THREESOMES , PAGE 4-5
RACHEL KRAMER
MANAGING EDITOR
Brittney is turned on by the sound of urine falling into a toilet. It’s one of her kinks. Lorna Loster has been tying men up since she was 14 years old. It’s her fetish. A fetish is something one needs in order to have a fulfilling sexual experience while a kink is just something sexual one enjoys. Although sometimes thought of as taboo or uncommon, 23.5 percent of UB students admitted to having some sort of kink or fetish including spanking, public sex, feet and bondage in The Spectrum’s sex survey. Brittney, whose name has been changed for her privacy, is aroused by urine-related activities. This kink is also defined as urolangi, or “watersports,” including watching people urinate, getting urinated on – a “golden shower” – or watching people wet themselves. This is only one of countless fetishes and kinks people could have. Some are more common, like a foot or spank-
ing fetish, while others are less common and even illegal, like erotophonophilia, arousal from killing someone, or bestiality, the desire to have intercourse with an animal. Bondage, however, is a fetish that has recently grown in popularity and acceptance. In 2010, the American Psychiatric Association announced it would change the diagnostic codes for fetishism and BDSM – overlapping abbreviation of bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism – in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The new definitions will have a distinction between behavior and pathology, meaning consenting adults will no longer be considered mentally ill for being a sexual minority. The “Fifty Shades of Grey” phenomenon is also helping to alleviate the stigmas surrounding the BDSM community. But some students still struggle to accept their kinks and fetishes, though they may not be as uncommon as people think. SEE FETISHES, PAGE 2