Ever wait in line for a printer in the Glenn G. Bartle Library when you suddenly have the image of everyone stripping down and joining together in a giant orgy? Maybe this is just fantasy, but maybe not. Films and television shows like “Eyes Wide Shut” and “True Blood” depict group sex as an activity most commonly engaged in by adults. And if you Google “Group Sex in College,” you’ll find a goldmine of threesomes filmed in dorm rooms. So are these sex parties happening on our campus?
When you go to State Street or a frat party, it’s not uncommon to see four or five couples leaning against a wall, shamelessly making out next to one another. Is it that uncommon for a group of horny undergraduates to take that step from the bar to the bedroom as a team? Pipe Dream conducted a survey to find out.
Of the 179 male and female Binghamton University students who filled out our survey, 13.4 percent said they have participated in an orgy, while about half said they know someone who has participated in an orgy.
When asked if they would participate if they hadn’t previously, 36.8 percent of the respondents answered “Hell Yeah,” 42.9 percent answered “Fuck No” and 20.2 percent answered “only under the influence of drugs and alcohol.”
In response to whether orgies are more likely to occur on college campuses or later in adulthood, 63.1 percent responded “college,” 27.4 percent said “adulthood” and 7.3 percent said “neither.”
Where are our friends having orgies? And how can we explain the discrepancy between what BU students think and what they have actually experienced? Based on the survey, one hypothesis could be that when students answered that college is the most common place to have an orgy, they did not have Binghamton in mind.
Another survey question asked students if they considered their college campus to be a sexually liberal environment. 39.1 percent said “definitely,” 50.8 percent said “slightly,” 3.9 percent said “not at all” and 6.1 percent answered “I can’t tell who likes men and who likes women.” When the survey was filtered by specified sexual identities, the majority of students who answered “slightly” were heterosexual.
Sexual identity may be an influence on the results. According to the survey, LGBT students are more likely to try an orgy. It seems that Binghamton is doing a good job supporting its students who aren’t straight.
Mike, a junior majoring in linguistics, believes that students with minority sexual identities are more sexually experimental. [Due to the nature of this article, names have been changed to protect the privacy of those interviewed.]
“Orgies are definitely more common in homosexual culture,” Mike said. “Kids are always worried about being judged and what sexuality should and shouldn’t be.”
Our college years should be the prime time in our lives to have an orgy, but it seems as though factors like ego, homophobia, academics and a general feeling of self-consciousness stand in the way of experiencing a sexual awakening. The students in Binghamton are not unique in this regard. So is the lack of orgies a product of living in the 21st century?
Eric, a junior majoring in psychology, believes that Freud may play a role in the sexual conservatism on campus.
“People are more self-conscious because this is not a liberal school,” Eric said. “We’re owned by our mothers.”
While our family values may play a larger role in our decisions than they have in previous generations, Eric dismisses our constant need to please our parents as the sole reason for abstaining from an orgy. Instead he thinks the lack of orgies is due to an issue of physicality.
“The academic excuse is a front,” Eric said. “I don’t think that enough people on this campus are attracted to each other.”
Binghamton may fall low on the ranking of most attractive student body, but the overall mentality of the academic environment doesn’t allow for us to see each other in a better light.
“People are too competitive with each other and teamwork is a key component in having a successful orgy,” Eric said. “I think if we got rid of the School of Management, people would be down.”
Mike shared similar sentiments about academics preventing students from taking part in such activities.
“The students here are very career-oriented, goal-focused to the grindstone, almost like zombies,” he said. “Everyone is too caught up in their own shit to even entertain the possibility of pleasuring someone else like that.”
Academics take up a good portion of our brain power, leaving little room for thoughts of sexual exploration. And binge drinking on the weekends may not be enough for us to let go of inhibitions. Taking part in an orgy requires an even greater force than alcohol that many students still do not possess even by the time they graduate. That force may be maturity.
The kids of the 21st century are often plagued by a fear of vulnerability and insistence on self-entitlement, which makes college feel more like an emotionally hostile environment than a place where free love can thrive. Because we are more educated about sexual health, there is a greater concern for catching an STI or HIV, so when considering having sex with multiple partners, fear and discomfort prevail.
If you are interested in staging an orgy, students may be more receptive to a résumé submission process. It couldn’t hurt to take a look at past experiences, internships and a letter of recommendation before accepting three or more people into your orgy crew.