We’re all a bunch of bad-ass mofos, no doubt, but there’s this regrettable thing that happens to some people when they discover BDSM that I thought might be helpful to talk about. When I say “regrettable”, I mean that if it happens to someone in your orbit, then one morning they’re probably going to wake…
Category: Lifestyle/Community
Clique Schisms
The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born Antonio Gramsci – Selections from the Prison Notebooks i’ve been clicking around recently looking for a sense of subcultural belonging. One of my favourite podcasts is nosafeword, and i stumbled across an episode called “Clique Schisms”. Sparky…
Fassinger’s Model: Mapping Our Journeys in Kink
This is a companion piece to our previous article The Cass Identity Model: Mapping Our Journeys in Kink In the same way that we looked at the Cass Sexual Identity Model, I’m going to attempt to re-situate Fassinger’s Model of Gay and Lesbian Identity Development in the context of BDSM subcultural identity formation. Fassinger’s Model…
The Cass Identity Model: Mapping Our Journeys in Kink
i grew up with the boom in technological advancement we call the Internet Era, so i am one of the so-called “lucky ones”. In my time, laptops and phones have become thin and the speed of the internet has grown fat, in something of an exponential graph. By the time i was 15 i had…
Are You a Pervert? Challenging the Boundaries of Sex
By Gonzalo R. Quintana Zunino Are you a pervert? I believe you are. This statement might offend you. Perhaps you wonder what would compel me to say something like that about you, especially since we’ve never met. However, a voice deep down inside of you might wonder if I am right. Maybe that voice is…
Living Vicariously: Porn Provides a Tasting Plate for Our Unspoken Fetishes
by Lauren Rosewarne Pornography is hardly an under-theorised medium. For decades, radical feminists have decried its imagery as an instruction manual for rape. As women being objectified, humiliated, tortured. As men receiving positive reinforcement for perpetuating degradation. For decades liberals – be they of the academic, activist or artistic ilk – have raged against slippery…
From the Dungeon to the Multiplex – How Bondage Has Gripped the Nation
by Kevin O’Gorman & Andrew MacLaren The surge of popular interest in BDSM (bondage, domination, sadism and masochism) that has resulted from the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy of novels has been something of a revelation. Beginning as texts whose relative marginality initially seemed ensured by both theme (BDSM) and format (online fan fiction), today…
Ask a Neuroscientist: A Fresh Look at Marijuana in the BDSM Scene
by Hermes Solenzol The recreational use of cannabis is now legal in my home state of California and in eight other states and Washington DC. Medical cannabis is legal in 28 states. So now more than half the people of the United States has some form of legal access to marijuana. In fact, marijuana use…
Scene Etiquette and Leather Protocol: A Few Notes on High Protocol & In Closing (6/6)
by Ambrosio Part 1: General Principles Part 2: More Specific Guidelines Part 3: Cruising with Class Part 4: Play Parties Part 5: Flagging, Symbols and Rituals HIGH PROTOCOL IN PERSPECTIVE i can’t get all involved in what is ‘protocol’ and what is not… good grief, relationships are hard enough… i frankly just prefer to please…
BDSM Is Not an Answer, So Embrace the Uncertainty
In art, one must throw one’s life away in order to gain it. Gustav Janosch – Conversations with Kafka I think there are many different motivations for seeking out BDSM play or a BDSM relationship dynamic: a drive to satisfy kinks or fetishes novelty escape from societal constraints sense of purpose a sense of completion…