Rhodes College Chaplain Hosts BDSM Event With Dominatrix

It's not just conservative media that was offended by a recent attempt by Memphis' Rhodes College chaplain to host a "BDSM 101" event; a prominent former president of the alumni board wasn't happy either.

National Review first garnered widespread attention for the scheduled event featuring a local dominatrix, which had been organized by the school's chaplain, the Rev. Beatrix Weil.

Initially, according to Commercial Appeal, the event was sloughed off as ludicrous.

"Honestly, it just wasn't a really big deal ... no one was really talking about it," a Rhodes senior said. "One of my friends had texted me about it was just like, 'Oh, she's bringing a dominatrix. That's kind of funny. We should go.'"

But shortly after the event was announced, the Rhodes administration canceled it.

"The proposed event was canceled Nov. 10 as soon as it came to our attention," Linda Bonnin, vice president of marketing and communications at the school, said in a written statement, as reported by ABC15 News. "It was not vetted through appropriate approval channels, and no such event is planned for our campus. We recognize we need to do some work on our event approval processes, so we are reviewing that and will make changes as appropriate."

The cancellation wasn't swift enough to stave off criticism.

On Nov. 14, conservative commentator Todd Starnes wrote an op-ed about the event for Newsmax, citing outrage from parents, alumni, and donors.

Bill Townsend, president emeritus of the Rhodes Alumni Board and CEO of CollegeRover.com, noted in a detailed message exclusive to Newsmax that he was confounded by the whole "goal" of the event.

"So," Townsend asked, "what was the objective? Education about consent? Probably yes. Take away the stigma about having these conversations? Probably yes. Beyond that, it is hard to determine.

"What about a 17-year-old first-year student on campus wandering in?" Townsend wrote. "I think we can all agree it is not OK to have a BDSM workshop in high school, right? So how do we endorse one three months later for students who might still be the same age. Regardless, the chaplain and whomever else approved of this at Rhodes should have known better than to try this without expecting massive press and backlash."

Townsend said he didn't think the issue should have been a major news story, but blamed the chaplain with setting the event up in a way that conservative activists would respond by seemingly acting "deliberately provocative ... the framing of the workshop as specifically a course on BDSM from a local dominatrix rather than the more low key and imminently more sensible seminar on consent and boundaries within non-normative sexual scenarios (importantly emphasizing safety and consent rather than kink alone) as well as the decision to host the event in the Interfaith Lounge was obviously intended to provoke some kind of outrage."

Weil has not commented on the matter. But Edith Love, a Unitarian Universalist minister and colleague of Weil who considers herself a member of the local "BDSM community," said she thinks holding the event could have been beneficial for students.

But while Love maintained that teaching students about BDSM was "important information," many alumni disagreed, and many students were left perplexed.

Mike Edwards, a 1979 Rhodes graduate, said, "It really comes down to, not that the workshop was taking place — even though that seems way outside the norm of what we, as adults, would normally say was appropriate — the real thing is, it's a chaplain from the school on school property."

One Rhodes junior who spotted the advertisement for the event said, "I was extremely surprised when I saw it. I thought it was inappropriate for the chaplain to hold such an event."