If you’re in need of a sexual event that educates as much as it provides entertainment, then SHADES’ sixth-annual sex carnival, titled “50 SHADES,” this Saturday might be right for you.
Chartered in 2011, SHADES is an organization made for queer and trans people of color. Their goal is to give a voice and representation to LGBTQIA+ students of color at Binghamton University. For this semester, their major event is “50 SHADES,” which will be a sex-themed carnival filled with games aimed at sex positivity and sex education. The event was originally conceived as an educational event for sex and has upheld that mission while having some fun with different sexual topics too. Soledad Arianna Perez, president of SHADES and a senior majoring in Spanish, wants these topics to be the main takeaway for guests of the carnival.
“We give a lot of information and knowledge on queer sex and kinky sex and the types of sex that are not talked about,” Perez said. “The biggest takeaway from this conversation about sex is sex positivity — stop stigmatizing queer sex, stop fetishizing brown bodies and bring a sense of empowerment to the student body.”
Other activities at the carnival will include a lap dance and the cutest couple contest, as well as local drag queens Cherry Blasé and Paris LuRux coming to perform. Last but not least, one of their most popular games, “pin the clit on the vagina,” will be present as well.
One of the main features of the event is the self-pleasure raffle. This raffle gives patrons the chance to win more than $200 worth of sex toys and self-care supplies. With donations from sex toy companies such as Adam & Eve, there will be a wide variety of sex toys raffled off. For the rest of the audience, there will be self-care items available, including products like soaps and lotions. Perez feels the raffle can serve as a good gateway to buying sex toys.
“If you are uncomfortable going to a sex shop and would rather go to a carnival and win a toy for yourself, I feel like that’s a much better experience for someone to go through especially if it’s their first time getting toys,” Perez said.
The previous SHADES sex carnival felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on student life, but recovered in an amazing fashion. In October of 2020, SHADES chose to postpone their biggest event to the spring so that they could rebuild their E-Board and have more time to plan. Once the event came to fruition, it used a virtual format on Zoom to its advantage featuring an appearance from Kat Blaque, a Black trans woman who specializes in BDSM knowledge with 447,000 subscribers on YouTube. The event turned out to be one of their most popular virtual events of that semester and showed SHADES could thrive in the face of any challenge.
The last major SHADES event was the “Vogue Ball,” which invited students to show their skills in runway walking and voguing. The Vogue Ball was founded by Perez herself and she said the planning of that event helped propel the planning for the “50 SHADES” carnival.
“Everyone was fresh off the heels of event planning, and this one had its own unique challenges compared to the Vogue Ball,” Perez said. “However, we were ready and prepared to plan another event, and we are super excited to host it this Saturday.”
The “50 SHADES” sex carnival will be located in the Mandela Room on Saturday, Feb. 19 from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets are available here for $7 and at the door on the day of the event for $15.