The Pitt Program Council prioritized self-love this Valentine’s Day with their highly anticipated “Sex Toy Bingo” on Feb. 11. Offering a wide range of sex toy prizes and a lesson on sexual wellness, the bingo event sold out in just minutes.
Hosted in collaboration with Pitt’s Office for Sexual Violence Prevention and Education and Prevention at Pitt, the event began with a sexual wellness presentation before continuing on to a riveting game of “Sex Toy Bingo.” Club members educated the audience on safe sex and relationship practices, including consent, harassment and communication. To emphasize the night’s theme, the club dedicated a portion of their talk to safe sex toy use. Prevention at Pitt club members also highlighted sexual wellness resources around campus and laid out informative zines on each of the tables.
As the bingo portion of the night began, students erupted into clamor, applauding and banging their tabletops for the night’s main event. The event was emceed by PPC’s Special Events Director, Riley Keenan, a senior majoring in communications and rhetoric. Keenan took to the stage with energy, making topical puns and engaging with the packed audience. Keenan joked while calling bingo numbers.
“O69, yes, kinky, love it,” Keenan said.
The bingo prizes spanned a wide range of sexual interests and kinks. The prizes started off tame, with the first five winners awarded bullet vibrators. As bingo rounds passed, each winner was awarded a newer, bigger prize. These included a rose toy, a pack of cock rings, a Shibari rope tying kit, handcuffs and more. When Keenan announced the rose toy prize, almost every audience member cheered, with some standing, screaming and waving their arms in the air.
Three students won the rose toy bingo round, each of them jumping up from their spot in the assembly room and running towards Keenan on stage. With no way to choose between the members of the trio, the participants conducted a rock-paper-scissors tiebreaker on stage. Audience members yelled in support of their peers’ possible rose-toy-win.
Some community members took issue with the event’s sexual nature. On PPC’s Instagram post announcing the bingo night, a large number of commenters made their opinions heard.
“Wtf is this?” one user wrote.
Others joked with GIFs or mentions of their friends in the comment section. Keenan acknowledged the shocking nature of the event but believes it can aid in spreading awareness and information regarding sexual wellness.
“Having an event called Sex Toy Bingo is kind of jarring to the eye and ear in general, so it really gets people’s attention,” Keenan said.
Clarissa Miranda, a junior majoring in political science and psychology, said she and her friend were intrigued by the racy game night. Miranda was one of hundreds of students on the waitlist for the bingo event.
“I feel like sometimes people just come as a joke, and they don’t really get the full idea, but it’s definitely a nice try to get that awareness. I was definitely shocked when I saw it, but we were like, ‘let’s go for the plot,’” Miranda said.
Lorelai Aprea, a first-year psychology major, agreed that the event seemed humorous at first glance, but she also realized its deeper meaning.
“I kind of signed up a little bit as a joke, but then the more I heard about it, people were really excited, and I kind of wanted to see what the vibes were,” Aprea said.
Aprea recognized the importance of the event’s educational nature, especially as it relates to college students.
“I think it’s really important because I think part of the way to make sex healthier is to make it more education[al] and less stigmatized,” Aprea said. “Especially young people in our generation — the more we are able to talk about it, the more we are able to be educated and perform it safely with others.”
Though there was pushback against the event, it also saw great success. Keenan said the night’s large turnout is an indicator of the student body’s needs and interests.
“I think with every event there is going to be pushback, and I expected it with this one. But I think the amount of positive reaction that it had, the fact that [we] sold out in under 30 minutes, the fact that [we] had a waitlist of five hundred, shows that there is a genuine interest and genuine need for this event, so people are going to comment negatively about anything,” Keenan said.
Keenan recognized the scarcely seen opportunity to host a sex-focused event at an institution like Pitt.
“To be able to be in a community and a program [that] supports creativity and pushing the bounds and making [a] significant impact, that’s something that really is conducive [to] the Pitt environment,” Keenan said.