Just recently life slowed down for a cool five seconds and I
had the chance to finally listen to the Evo Revo town hall with Sera Miles, Guy
Baldwin, and VI Johnson. If you haven’t listened to it, take an hour over your morning
cup of coffee and put an ear to it. Listening
to such amazing people such as Guy and VI give me the chills. I love their
candid, open, and blatant way of approaching questions.
You can find the interview here on the Leatherati site:
There was one point were they talked about our culture going
mainstream and what can happen to our history, and our practices as the BDSM culture
is absorbed by the larger culture. They talked
about some people not being able to stand the new influx of people, and going
underground. Some will stay and teach others, and how parts of our culture will
die with time and change.
I thought about this part of the conversation a lot.
I have always been conflicted about the mainstreaming of our
culture. Honestly speaking, teenagers wearing collars and slave bracelets make
my skin crawl. They always did, always will. Fifty Shades of Sexually
Frustrated Housewife makes me itch. I haven’t even read it BUT-
I pegged the plot. Woman- pure,
untouched. Man - broken wounded. He
gives up what he loves as a dominant, they marry. Tell me I’m wrong…….
I do enjoy the bits on TV that are obviously BDSM- that does
make me giggle.
But seriously though- the mainstreaming of our culture, does mean
that there will be a watering down of
some of our practices, just as masses of people step into the community with access to more information that
was never available before. More bedroom players, more people who take on roles
and titles without really putting in the time and practice and self knowledge
that it takes to be that title, all because it is easy to become a Master at a
click of a mouse. And Master SOUNDS SO COOL......
I have to remind
myself that as there will be a fair share of serious players that come into the
life as well. Those vested in history, knowledge, skill, and self evolution.
Just not as many…..
Then I got to thinking, that although mainstreaming will hit
our community in a lot of ways, that ultimately the good will out weight the
bad.
If mainstreaming means that BDSM cannot be brought up in divorce or custody proceedings, cannot be
grounds to fire someone, if it means
that Dr’s need to became more educated so that Leather, kink and BDSM can be brought
into the examination room and have questions and concerns discussed openly,
if it means that laws need to be adjusted so that tops won’t be arrested for assault and bottoms
can’t be arrested for accessory to, if it means that we are able to protect our own community
better from predators because we didn’t have to remain so secret, if it means
that hotels and restaurants are vying for our events and munches instead of
shying away from them …… then mainstreaming is absolutely worth it.
Bring it on.