Birthday Suit Parties
The Ivy League Rebellion
By Daniel Muniz

To rebel against the snobby images of their elite schools, students from Ivy League universities and other top prestigious academic institutions such as MIT have been hosting so-called “Birthday Suit Parties.” But does baring it all make these privileged kids more “ordinary” or are they just trying too hard to be hip?

Among the privileged that attends Yale University, Euan Blair, the son of the United Kingdom’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair, claims that partying naked is a terrific experience. He says:

“The number one thing to do before graduation.”

Source: The Scotsman

Another prominent Yale student that supposedly bared it all in one of these social gatherings is George W. Bush’s daughter Barbara, although his administration had always declined comment on the topic. Also, the offspring from many other well known families are said to have gone to birthday suit parties.

So what is supposed to be so unusual about college kids partying naked? Don’t most of them already take it all off at one time or another at a number of wild parties during their college years?
 

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Yes, that is absolutely true.

In fact, just about any Spring Break destination can attest to the drunken debauchery and the blatant lewdness by tens of thousands of rowdy college students that never stops for an entire week so that is nothing new.

What is really different in these birthday suit parties is that these students are no ordinary kids.

Most of them are the children of some of the most prominent families not only in the United States but also from around the world. And the schools they go to are almost completely inaccessible by ordinary Americans. Furthermore, admittance into these exclusive institutions is by no means guaranteed even to the wealthy and well connected although they have a substantially better chance of getting accepted than the rest of the country does.

As a result, our nation’s most prestigious universities have acquired a reputation of not only elitism, but also that of bland stuffiness. After all, many of their graduates will someday become the power brokers and political leaders that will shape our country’s future so these institutions are not exactly party schools.

So what better way to shatter such an ingrained image by doing something totally outrageous?

That is where the birthday suit parties come into play.

But unlike the lecherously lascivious spectacles that take place in frat houses, apartments, and on beaches by their ordinary collegiate counterparts, the events at Ivy League universities are much more sedate and controlled by being strictly non-sexual in nature. Consequently, only a quick complete body glance is considered to be acceptable but afterwards, eye to eye contact must be maintained with a normal conservation.

In addition, physical touch is also strictly limited to an introductory hello by all the participants so the social gathering is pretty much a “hands off” affair for the rest of the evening.

The campus groups that host the parties claim that the purpose is supposed to be a liberating experience by stepping outside the cultural norms of society especially by the offspring of the rich and powerful. On a more basic level, it is probably a crude way to rationalize a reasonable explanation for everybody to take their clothes off at a party. At least if the intent sounds somewhat intellectual, like overcoming oppression of wearing clothes or whatever ludicrous but sophisticated sounding reason, then it won’t come off as being lewd.

Unfortunately, some Ivy League students have discovered the hard way that regardless of how “liberated” that they may supposedly feel from escaping the harsh tyranny of clothes, they still have to deal with another problem; the raging hormones that are titillated by being surrounded with plenty of naked bodies.

In 2002, a Yale student was placed on probation after he pleaded no contest to a fourth-degree sexual assault charge that occurred immediately after such a party.

And there are probably so many more such incidents that have been quietly swept under the rug by embarrassed school officials and local law enforcement.

But yes, these rich kids are trying too hard to be hip and cool while being totally nude.

At least ordinary college students don’t have to try to come up with a bogus excuse to get drunk and naked. In fact, it doesn’t take much persuasion for clothes to come off, especially in places like Lake Havasu or Cancun.

As for the kids in our top universities rebelling against their clothes, such behavior doesn’t make them appear any more normal or ordinary and it definitely doesn’t make them look more sophisticated just because they are holding a conversation with someone of the opposite sex while they are naked. It just makes them look more out of touch with the people that they will someday be leading.

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