A good friend of mine was recently in need of a "sexy librarian" outfit for a costume party and requested my expertise in locating the appropriately slut-tastic attire. After some shopping, I ensured that my friend was sexed up in a button-down blouse, tight-fitting pencil skirt, yellow Calvin Klein glasses, six-inch black heels and a neon blue corset. Weeks later I discovered that her supposed costume party was actually a party for two to indulge the fantasies of her nerdy boyfriend.
Welcome to the world of role-playing. If you're anything like me, college life is a barrage of theme parties in which scantily clad peers flock to apartments and clubs. Girls sport devil-red cocktail dresses accessorized with a pair of horns, and bend over while a boy decked out in preppy Catholic school attire spanks their ass with a wooden ruler. Well-versed in the art of getting dressed up and pretending to be somebody else, we don't realize our kinky desires are let out of the house along with our under-dressed selves.
While some are sure to be turned off by deviant behavior like role-playing, they shouldn't be.
One of its advantages is that it allows couples an opportunity to reinvigorate an otherwise monotonous love life by inviting a sense of adventure and mystique into the bedroom. Can you imagine your partner playing the role of a secret spy, burglar, fireman, sex slave or doctor who wants you to open up wide and check your tonsils? Hell, even "Friends" got creative when Rachel dressed as Princess Leia for an eager Ross.
Some people insist they cannot understand the attraction of role-playing because they don't want to view their significant other in a radically different light. In this case, not unlike when engaging in threesomes, it's best to role-play with someone to whom you aren't committed.
And though Halloween and themed parties have groomed college students with a keen eye for costumed fornication, role-playing isn't limited to skanky outfits. Over rolls of sushi, I had previously discussed the concept of role-playing with my friend Ethan (names have been changed to protect the promiscuous). Ethan laughed and said he had engaged in role-playing before, though his experience was decidedly less dressed-up. He recounted a story in which he met and brought home a 30-something- year-old cougar. What followed was an incestuous game in which the woman acted the role of stepmother, and Ethan the role of her 20-year-old stepson. Clothing was replaced with showering together, an inspection of the "son's" physical health, and pleads of "don't tell your father, he'll be home in an hour."
Is such a scenario a little too hardcore? Perhaps. Yet, role-playing is about adopting a specific personality and character. It can be light and coy, or brazen and edgy. Regardless, it's about tapping into a fetish and sexually exploring it. Everyone has a fantasy. What's yours?
