#MeToo’s bad news for Burning Man’s Orgy Dome
Is it possible to have a carefully regulated, politically correct orgy? The experiment has been going on for some time at the annual Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, and by this summer, the answer seems to be . . . no.
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The festival’s venerable Orgy Dome — once a symbol of all that was Burning Man: decadent, foolhardy, almost Caligulan — has slid into obsolescence, a victim of societal trends like the litigation explosion, sexual correctness and the #MeToo movement.
Consider the account of a Reddit user who recently visited the Orgy Dome. He said that after he had been issued a ticket, a wrist band and a briefing about properly obtained consent, visiting the Orgy Dome “felt more like I was waiting to pick up a lawn mower at Sears.”
Once upon a time Burning Man was considered an experiment in radical self-reliance. The idea was to cut loose from the “default world” and hunker down in a tent on a salt flat in the middle of the Nevada desert, in 100-degree heat and dust storms, without money, electricity or cars.
These conditions created, well, a scene — a very photogenic scene. The place definitely had a look. It was very Mad Max, very Steam Punk. Photos that trickled back to real world showed a post-apocalyptic landscape sparsely populated by outlandishly dressed, and often naked, people and the occasional wired-together outlandish vehicle.
We live in an image-driven age, and once the photos, especially of the naked women, started getting around, people, especially a lot of single young men, poured in from across the land.
Elders carp that as the festival has exploded in size — 70,000 people attended this year — the old spirit has been lost. Tech giants like Elon Musk now consider it their duty to attend (to touch base with the “youth”), but they stay in a section known as “Billionaires’ Row,” in huge air-conditioned RVs, with chefs and armed guards. Movie stars and famous models visit.
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It was inevitable that the PC apparatchiks and lawyers would descend, as well.
The sexual regulation of Burning Man has been going on for a long time, but it’s gone into overdrive since the #MeToo movement exposed the (very real) abuses of powerful men in Hollywood and the media soon turned into an all-out backlash against men.
This year, the director of event operations sent out an email to ticketholders before the event about the proper way to obtain consent for sex.
To be on the legal safe side, he covered everything else he could apparently think of as well.
“Honestly, for a long time I generally only thought of consent as it relates to sex,” he burbled, “but through my work with Burning Man, I’ve learned how much it also relates to touch, food, photography and many other things too.” Like hugs: “Just because you hugged someone yesterday doesn’t mean you can surprise them with a hug today. . . . Ask every time.”
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A “Burning Man” participant holds up his arms as the wooden man effigy is burned.
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A woman rides a bike on the Black Rock City desert.
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In this sort of climate, it is perhaps understandable that the Orgy Dome instituted new procedures. Would-be visitors must wait in line to be ushered into an anteroom, where they are subjected to a personalized lecture with a counselor who earnestly explains consent ABCs.
Even “touching, and watching intently require consent,” an Orgy Dome administrator explained on Reddit, though “admittedly there’s a somewhat arbitrary and difficult to define line there.”
The reviews are coming in, and not surprisingly, Orgy Dome visitors are finding the experience about as erotic as a tooth-cleaning.
“Nice place and well-run, though I found the experience a bit underwhelming,” wrote one commenter.
Another said, “It’s like the DMV: You get a number, then you talk to one guy and take a test on the rules, then you wait some more.” Some commenters said they visited the dome mostly for naps in the air conditioning.
Welcome to the new, improved, litigation-proofed, #MeToo’d Orgy Dome.
Twitter: @StephMasha
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