I’ll be honest. I have a slight issue with women consenting to abuse. I mean, of course, to consenting to delirious pleasure that involves a fair amount of pain that results in ecstasy in the end.
Now, for those of us who aren’t au fait with whipping, flogging, bondage, handcuffs, ballgags, choking, suffocating, rape fantasies, being leaded up on a collar, et al, perhaps a little explanation is needed.
It seems even the BDSM world is no longer clear about terms.
We have tops/bottoms, doms/subs (dommes for women), and masters/slaves.
The distinctions vary between tops/bottoms only for a ‘scene’ (ie a BDSM encounter which may or may not involve sex), dom/sub which may be more permanent, and master/slave which is a total 24 hr relationship.
But, reading around, these lines vary.
Anyways, the key thing here is about TPE. Total Power Exchange. One person trusts another to do what they want with their body. In the case of so-called ‘breath play’, they go for choking, strangling, and suffocation. Because the person in charge knows what they are doing. Similarly when they beat the shit out of you.
In return, the bottom/sub/slave gets to go into a euphoric zone known as subspace. It’s a bit like when people hang themselves and have a wank and sadly, kick the chair away, and hence literally kick the bucket as well. I’ve been to enough inquests.
Mostly, luckily, this doesn’t happen in BDSM scenarios.
BDSM involves lots of ‘play’. Lots of pain infliction, humiliation and subservience.
It is, of course, consensual, so that makes abusing each other OK.
There are lots of fantasies. The obvious, schoolgirls, French maids, pirates, prostitutes, and, um rapists. I can not, for the life of me, work out why anyone fantasises about being raped.
Apparently they do. They didn’t live in Yorkshire in the late seventies.
Then, there are the daddy ones. This has me hitting the roof. Who on earth wants to fuck their father? Seriously? But we have ‘daddy’s little girl’. What is that all about? Maybe Ayckbourn had the answer with Wildest Dreams. One of the most disturbing plays I have seen. Yes, she says casually, of course I saw the world premiere for free. A perk of working for the local paper.
But, of all the fantasies, wanting to be daddy’s little girl has me thinking WTF. That and wanting to be choked, and raped.
On a lighter note, we have people who want to be pets. Leaded up like a dog or acting as a pony. Each to their own.
For those of us who live a derisory vanilla life this may be beyond our wildest dreams. Nightmares more like. Occasionally there is more to a relationship than an intense subliminal BDSM encounter. Fidelity? Companionship? Trust? Humour? Love?
Natch. All this whacky spaced-out stuff is pre-agreed. A contract is signed. Disclosures are needed. Anal. Swallowing. Fisting. Plugs (anal). Blindfolds. Nipple clips. Wax. Ice. Any type of shower (no, not water). Multiple penetration. Group sex. Rope. Chains. Body bags. Crops. Whips. Knotted whip. Paddle.
The options are endless. Not forgetting the obligatory medically certified confirmation that one is STD free.
I tell you. I’m glad I’m boringly married.
Meanwhile, on with our BDSM tour, it seems married couples go down this route to improve communication, aka he really wanted to be dominant. Oh dear.
Our relationship is more intense and we have opened up communication and blah yak blah WHACK!
It’s so good that now we do this 24/7. He orders my food at restaurants. He gives me a list of tasks for the day. I ask permission to speak or to go to the toilet.
Really? You wait to ask for permission if you have diarrhoea?
I have no idea where these women come from but it sure as hell ain’t Yorkshire.
Someone else tells me what to do 24 hours of the day? I think not.
I respect everyone’s consenting sexual preferences. No issue there. Even if they want to pretend to fuck their father or whatever. Rather them than me.
But, what concerns me about BDSM are these aspects:
- the perpetuation of woman as sex objects, slaves, submissives, because, however you look at it the ratio of male dominants to female submissives is higher than vice versa
- the rape fantasies. Jesus. No woman asks to be raped. Yet, the idea of this being a fantasy just fuels the idea
- the daddy fantasy. Just yuk again. Paedophilia incestual dream.
But all of this is OK because it is sane, safe and consensual (SSC)
Or, it is risk aware consensual kink (RACK)
And the BDSM community doesn’t judge. Rather, it supports these fuckwit abusive fantasies.
My underlying problem about all of this, from a woman’s perspective however, is, how much of this is deeply ingrained in us, that we are taught that a man needs to be dominant, strong, demanding and so we buy into this sexual mythology. How much of BDSM, from a woman’s submissive point of view is really consensual and not just a product of indoctrination?
This, is not acupuncture.

Fun!
ETA some links:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/could-cindy-gladue-have-consented-to-what-killed-her-299009131.html
http://bigthink.com/focal-point/sex-games-vs-sex-slavery-who-can-tell
https://snowdropexposed.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/hello-world/