On the evening of Oct. 30, 172 people packed into the Ehinger Center for Planned Parenthood’s Spooky Sex Toy Bingo. Each equipped with a bingo board, they all hoped to take home one of the various prize baskets offered. The highly anticipated event did not disappoint the crowd that turned out for it.
Five different prize baskets were given out to winners, with Halloween-themed names from the “Bone Me Basket” to the “Halloweiner Basket.” Similarly, in the spirit of the holiday, the patterns needed for bingo ranged from the shapes of a spider to a pumpkin.
The lucky winners won festively named baskets filled with a plethora of sex toys and other related products, like a copy of the Kama Sutra. In the first basket was a Planned Parenthood t-shirt, serving as a reminder to why this event was being held.
In addition to using the opportunity of people gathering to raise awareness of the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault during Halloween and associated partying, the event as a whole worked to combat the stigma that surrounds sexual acts in our society.
The goal of the event was to “destigmatize sex and self pleasure, especially for [women],” according to Chloe Dudonis (‘27), the president of Drew’s Planned Parenthood Generation Action Club. By bringing so many people to the event with a fun and exciting activity, this message reached more people, and the overall attitude around the event seemed to reflect a destigmatization of sex around Drew’s campus.
The event certainly brought plenty of amusement to the student community—the cheering and shouting that occurred when the numbers “67” and “69” were called may have been the loudest at any event thus far this year. Despite this perhaps being the most obvious effect of the event, it certainly isn’t the only—or most important—one.
Nathan Moldover is a first year student majoring in Political Science and Philosophy.
