But LeJeune had taken care to ensure that it would. (FYI: Most of the women I met were in their mid-twenties and early thirties, though members can range from 21 to 49, and 70 percent were attending for the first time.)Įveryone seemed genuinely warm and eager and polite, and at that point in the evening, I couldn’t picture a transition to the orgy I was expecting would happen. There was no subconscious sizing up of the competition-we were all on the same team. It was the kind of small talk I’d expect at any gathering of strangers, but here, it felt sincere in a way it sometimes doesn’t when men are around. I could never pull off that lip color, but it looks great on you. When I got to the party at a downtown loft in NYC around 8 p.m., every woman was fully clothed in a black dress and masquerade mask, sipping champagne and speaking exclusively in compliments: Cute shoes! Your nail art is fun. Or maybe they’re motivated by the shifting power dynamics around sex and pleasure, and want to see what sexuality means in a room without any men. Maybe the interest stems from the need to scratch an itch they’ve always felt, or to see if that itch even exists at all. As a two on the Kinsey scale, I’m right in the middle of Skirt Club’s target demographic: mostly straight women who-for their own, private reasons-are attracted to the idea of a sex party with only women. She wishes Skirt Club could be embraced by the larger LGBTQ community because, as she likes to say, “LGBTQ has a B right in the middle of it.” LeJeune insists that lesbians are more than welcome to join, but by her last calculation, only about six percent of Skirt Club’s members identify as such.
“I’m very confused about how anyone can own a sex position,” she says. LeJeune doesn’t understand that argument.
One article called Skirt Club “ Lesbianism Lite,” and Rolling Stone described it as “Katy Perry singing ‘I kissed a girl and I liked it.’” When we spoke, LeJeune mentioned a YouTube video in which two women discuss how lesbian sex belongs to lesbians, not the type of women who go to these sorts of parties. Some argue Skirt Club is nothing more than a surface-level game of sexual experimentation for straight, bored women. Is it possible that Skirt Club-a sex party where men are explicitly refused-is the best, safest, most progressive way for women to take care of their own pleasure?Ĭritics beg to differ. Demand could be so high because Skirt Club’s founding mission seems predestined to appeal specifically to the current mood among women in America: As men are finally being held accountable for bad behavior and the rules around sexual power dynamics are being rewritten, more women are taking ownership of their right to explore their sexual sides. Joining is free, but attending any of the official parties ranges in price between $150 to $180. Now, LeJeune says more women than ever are applying for Skirt Club membership. And then Los Angeles, Berlin, Shanghai, and more cities every month. As word quickly spread, demand increased, and soon, LeJeune was hosting her first US party in Miami. The first parties were with LeJeune’s friends and friends-of-friends. “I thought, How do you really explore your sexuality if you’re constantly performing for someone else?” LeJeune began to imagine a different kind of environment: A safe, judgment-free space where women could act out their desires on their own terms, away from the male gaze.Īt first, LeJeune spent a lot of time meeting women for coffee, convincing them about her idea. “Almost every time I met a bi woman there, it was her boyfriend edging her on to do something for him to watch or indulge in,” LeJeune says.