With all COVID restrictions happening around the world, the hit on the kink community is disheartening. We lost many spaces, many in-person events, and opportunities for sharing intimate moments within environments where more than two people are present. As with everything else which ended at once, we all deeply missed those moments and have been waiting for the next occasion we can enjoy them. However, it doesn't seem like this will happen anytime soon, or at least not in the way we used to practice and educate ourselves about kink.

All those restrictions - mainly the ones about gathering in closed spaces, touching, and close physical contact are a major issue for all bodyworkers, sex workers, sex educators, and yes kink educators and spaces. Karada House - a queer collaborative art space in Berlin was also suffering from the restrictions, and they moved some of their workshops online. In this specific way, the crisis presented an opportunity - one for online kink education. And grabbing this opportunity, on August 1st the team behind Karada is launching OhYesPlease - a new online platform for sexual and kink education.

I do believe that the need for such platform existed even before COVID. The existence of online kink classes, led by a faculty of experienced, passionate, and diverse instructors solves 2 old and well-discussed problems within the kink community. One is that kink and kink education are and have been a privilege - one that usually requires you to live in a big city (which comes with a higher price of living), where kink spaces and opportunities exist. Mind you, simply a big city is not enough, it has to be a big city with a sex-positive culture and open-minded people.

The second big issue I observed with kink education is that it is often non-diverse, non-inclusive, not body positive, and often follows well-known stereotypes and gender roles. The need for a consent-informed, body positive, and shame-free kink education coming from diverse perspectives is there, and I am happy to see the team behind Karada stepping up and providing this opportunity.

What is OhYesPlease

It is a video-based platform offering a gender inclusive, shame and blame free kink education. It provides a body positive, risk-aware, and consensually informed point of view for you to discover your individual sexualities, boundaries, and desires. It offers a variety of kink topics, and the ones included in the first batch are a good mix of intro videos (“Find your kinks”, “Consent, boundaries, and negotiation”) and deeper explorations on specific topics, such as “Canning intensive” or “Delicious Pressure Points”. The vibe is playful, yet informative, often funny and hot.

How to watch OhYesPlease videos

There are a few ways to access the classes. You can buy your courses with a lifetime license, so you can watch and re-watch at any point in time. You can also pick and choose specific classes to buy. And finally, you can buy classes in bundles - this option will be available at a later stage, together with special discounts for BiPOC and sex workers.

The launch is August 1st and it will launch here. It is perfect for people new to kink, but also experienced people, who are longing to see a gender inclusive, body positive, shame-free perspective on a kinky play.

• All photos of teachers and assistants are provided by Oh yes Please