Sorry for the weird subject header but this is bizarre...
A friend of mine, a young lesbian, is a member of a lesbian social group which has been a real life-line for her. She's made friends and received a lot of support thanks to the women in the group. I'm not part of it but I know some of the members and they're good, positive, supportive women.
Today my young acquaintance received a PM from one of the group whom she has met and whom I'll call L. L is apparently training to be a holistic sexologist and is looking for volunteers on whom she can practice. It involves breathing techniques and intimate touching, including anal massage. The message makes it clear that L will be fully clothed and rubber-gloved up at all times and that she will not be providing emotional support or sexual satisfaction: this is about her learning how peoples' bodies work and what makes some people feel sexual. L welcomes everyone to volunteer regardless of sex, gender or body.
I seem to remember a thread a few weeks ago about sex cults where women were lured in by the promise of yoga and breathing techniques and discovering their sexuality, only to be exploited. Alarm bells are ringing loudly.
The young lesbian who received this invitation asked me what I thought and I've told her to say no and tell some of the older women what's happened. The whole thing — the imbalance of power, the activity going on behind closed doors, the 'but you volunteered for anal massage so you can't complain' aspect of it horrify me. And then I began wondering about the person who sent it. They are a member of a lesbian group and one presumes they are female and a lesbian — but who really knows?
Anyone encountered anything like this elsewhere? Do I need to flag it up to the group or is this kind of intimate touching training perfectly legit?