Interrogation and torture fantasies excite, terrify and fascinate me. The problem is, people tend to make assumptions because of this. I’ve often been accused of condoning the most dreadful humanitarian atrocities through entirely consensual acts of role-play and fantasy. Yet I’m an ethical sadist. I’m the woolliest of woolly liberals in *real* life. I won’t even hoover up spiders. Correlating that side of me with the darkest, most depraved and debauched edges of my Domme “persona” can be difficult for those who have no understanding of BDSM. My sadistic self is every bit as solid, real and entirely valid as the self who listens to Noam Chomsky lectures on the internet and always picks the vegetarian option. It’s just that she feels she always has to add a socio-political disclaimer at the end of every slap, kick or stroke of the whip, just so that there are no awkward misunderstandings regarding her motives.

The Detainee 063 blog is the real-time republishing of a Guantanamo Bay interrogation log. As a fantasy, it would be a masterpiece of creative humiliation techniques and abuse. Yet it isn’t. It’s real. That’s what reminds us of the vast gulf between what we do in consensual BDSM play and what is done in the name of “the civilised world”. Click here to read.