| I attended this year’s Femme Fatale Carnivale on Valentine’s Day at the invitation of a friend. My sweetheart and I thought the cause worthy – a fundraising event for the not-for-profit YWCA Safe Haven Program, a counselling and support centre for girls ages 14 to 19 years who are involved in, or at risk of, sexual exploitation.
Had we known what the Carnivale actually was, we would never have attended – not because of the weirdness factor, which was high, but because of the complete hypocrisy of the event that has left me feeling awkward ever since.
I admit to having no experience whatsoever with Calgary’s "alternative lifestyle" community, but they were out in full force at the Carnivale. People dressed up as farm animals, those not dressed at all, a full contingent of S&M participants, swingers, and all description of sexual appetites were represented. My issue is not one of judgment. My issue is that the Carnivale – an excuse for all manner of sexual deviants to get together on Valentine’s Day – is underpinned and justified by the worthy cause of fundraising for young girls at risk of sexual exploitation. As I saw myself at the Carnivale, sexual exploitation is entertainment, mutually agreed upon in this case, but degradation all the same. To fundraise at this kind of function in the name of combating sexual exploitation is shameful at best. People engaged in "alternative lifestyles" need somewhere to express themselves for sure. They just should not (and don’t need to) justify the get-together so hypocritically.
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