Debauchery Comes Again

“Debauchery” drew sell-out crowds of would-be femme fatales and Casanovas to Winthrop House last weekend, but whether or not it lived up to its decadent past was questionable. The party sold out in advance, and those without the temporary-tattoo tickets waited in the cold outside, but on the inside, some of the activities were less than scandalous.

“Basically how it works,” says David S. Jewett ’08, a member of the three-man organizing committee, explaining one of the evening’s activities, “is you ask how many marshmallows can you fit in your mouth.”

Students traded “Bauchbucks”—Monopoly-type money—for dance-floor acts aided by marshmallows and whipped-cream. The extra-lubricated condoms at the door, however, were on the house.

Nevertheless, an orgy it wasn’t, as some standard of propriety held sway amid the bumping and grinding.

“Two cameras were taken away, we had to confiscate some outside alcohol, and some people were climbing in through windows to get in,” says Michael J. Robin ’08, one of the Winthrop House Committee co-chairs. “People were very respectful of the rules and of each other,” he added. The “debauch” included a side room labeled the “No Proposition Zone,” and flyers on the wall warned would-be fondlers against non-consensual groping.

Even if Debauchery didn’t prove as bacchanalian as partygoers may have wished, its relative propriety means it won’t be cancelled again quite yet. The co-chairs and the BauchCom were confident that the group grope would be back next year, when HoCo co-chair Christine Cherella predicted there would be “more bang for the buck.”

And though the penis-shaped cookie refreshments were sweeter than they were risqué, the empty tray of condoms at the door proved that there could be good things for those who come.