BONDAGE, DOMINATION, SADO-MASOCISIM
(A GREY AREA)
IS BILL GATES TO BLAME?
Whilst the net has many great benefits; from the obvious ease of the passage of information about events, and the provision of forums where opinions and ideas can be shared with those much further afield than your local club/munch, widened interests and the bringing of some local individuals together - and others out of their closet; it has also, however, opened a door for those who are essentially not equipped to cope with what is to be discovered within.
The waters of the BDSM pond have been muddied by those who have neither the ability to understand how individualistic real life can be (when you make the effort to leave your PC switched off), nor the good sense and manners to keep their unqualified opinions to themselves. These people, whom I used to refer to as 'typists', have sadly now spread their opinionated selves through our real life locations too, and make the assumption that all BDSMers enjoy every aspect of BDSM. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Those who enter web-site chat-rooms looking for direct and hard facts about BDSM find only a cyber-scene. This can only ever convey the message and opinions of those interested in the dominance and submission aspects. People enter there and, having duly appointed themselves the grandest titles such as Mistress, Master, Lord or Lady, commence to rule the world from their armchairs. The majority will never be brave enough to venture outside their heads with any aspect of BDSM. Others, having served a short self-styled apprenticeship (the only realistic qualification they could have possibly achieved being RSI III, had they bothered with the exam), finally leave their bedrooms to impose their Masterful will and opinions on the world at large. They cannot fathom upon their arrival in the real world, why doors are not thrown open for them or why each and every person they pass does not pay homage. Its because they are filled with nothing more than their own self-importance; they have never been heard of, let alone earned the friendship and respect of the people who populated the BDSM Community before the internet. The 'submissives', there again, aren't any better. Take a look at them. These are people who seem willing to sign up to bow, scrape and tug their forelock to individuals they have never met and would doubtless volunteer to be hung, drawn and probably quartered, by people whose only real ability is to type! It is this that is the root cause of the muck at the bottom of the pond moving!
The knock-on effect of all this is that a way of life has been turned on its head. The hard work done by many people over the years to fight for the right for people to express themselves through BDSM, and the old belief in the solidarity of 'perverts' - for that is what the majority of 'normal' people think we are - has all but been lost in a sea of gossip and bickering about inconsequential rubbish. The 'lifestyle' they rave on about so much, has become a circus, and one with far too many Ring Masters. Those who found and learnt this art through the internet have only one opinion, that of their own styled D/s way, they have never understood, nor been aware of the main principles that have always brought B, D, S and M together.
As I finish writing this piece, I am once again reminded of the problem. A girl who actually thinks she understands having had, after-all, two years experience in the 'lifestyle' commented to me that "Sado-masochism has got nothing to do with BDSM anyway'. Given such a statement, I can only realistically make one reply:
"My dear, where do you think the last two initials come from? or don't you actually care"!
No. I don't blame Bill Gates. I blame people like her, with an ignorant and narrow-minded attitude. They have sought only a little bit of shine in their drab lives, and they do not care at what cost it comes!
But hey, what would I know. I've only been around it for nearly 20 years!!
©2001 Gary ... slutcpl
