The Beginners Guide to Hosting Play Parties with Reid Mihalko
You want to throw a play party for your friends but you're worried it won't go well... Maybe you've already been to or hosted play parties and all you see is that they cause MORE drama and upset than fun and orgasms...
It's true that a successful play party has lots of moving parts and things to consider, especially if you want to reduce potential harm and increase the odds that your friends (and YOU!) have a wonderful & debaucherously sexy, non-pressured, and consensual time!
The good news is throwing a kick-ass play party is easier than you think, especially if you know how to:
- Avoid the most common mistakes even smart play party hosts make when first starting out.
- Pick a play party format that is intentionally designed to help you and your friends start the party out in an informed, empowering, risk-aware and consent-savvy way.*
- (*Sometimes the drama is coming from the design of the play party itself.)
- Set up the play party space so it's sexy AND conducive to an amazing (and easier-to-run) play party experience — This includes the music playlist, what safer sex supplies to have at the ready, and which snacks to have on hand (and what NOT to serve)!
- Invite the friends who are already a good fit for a play party (rather than trying to recruit or make exceptions for the friends who are the WRONG fit!)
- Support your friends before, during, and after your play party so your community feels nourished, inspired, and excited to help you throw the next one!
While the world is full of sex negativity, shame, and trauma, you and your friends deserve the opportunity to create brave, safer spaces where you are free to frolic, explore, and celebrate your bodies, your pleasure, and your desires in ways that honor everyone's nos as well as their yeses. Where everyone is encouraged to change their minds (especially in the middle of sex) and be thanked and respected for it. And so much more that can help us grow and support each other as the amazingly complex and flawed humans that we all are.
Friends don't let friends "just wing it" when it comes to throwing play parties. True friends do what they can to stack the deck in everyone's favor of having a GREAT time AND "leaving the campsite better than they found it."
Is that you? Are you that kind of friend?
If what you just read has you excited (or nervous with excitement), come join professional sex geek and play party facilitator, Reid Mihalko, for his best advice and approaches on the ins and out of throwing a kick-ass play party!
ABOUT REID: As seen on NETFLIX'"Chelsea Does..." alongside Chelsea Handler, Reid Mihalko(he/him)of ReidAboutSex.com is an internationally known sex and relationship geek who threw an orgy for Oprah's OWN Network on Lisa Ling's"Our America." He has led thousands of workshops and play parties, and his work has been covered by media outlets across 7 continents. His charisma and easy-to-understand, pragmatic advice have helped people at virtual and in-person events. His workshops and college lectures have been attended by over 60,000 people from across the globe.
Reid would also like you to know that, in early 2018, some very brave people came forward during #MeToo sharing the harm that Reid had caused them. Reid stepped down from teaching and initiated a transformative justice-based accountability process to address his misconduct and make amends if and where possible. The formal, year-long process along with Reid’s apology and resources were shared publicly and can be found at: https://medium.com/reid-mihalkos-accountability-process