Fancy a bit of androgyny with your new car? Well, of course! (Thanks to Rebekka Raynor for this beautiful Toyota ad, at which I can already imagine Jeremy Clarkson sobbing with rage and semi-erect confusion.)
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Extreme Porn Trial: Aftermath
I’ve mentioned the recent extreme porn trial a couple of times lately, and undoubtedly will again. Since the last update, Myles Jackman – aka Obscenity Lawyer – has written an excellent Guardian article about the case. As to where we go from here, have a read of the summer newsletter from CAAN (Consenting Adult Action Network), by Jane Fae:
“Hi again – and i hope you’ve all had a good summer.
Unlike the one endured by Simon Walsh, whose prosecution for possession of extreme porn finally reached its dramatic climax in a trial and acquittal in early August.
Good news? Not entirely. For while he can now begin to rebuild his life, he has seen his name dragged through the mud, his career in tatters, and great damage done to friend and family relations. Extreme porn may or may not damage your health: being arrested for possessing it certainly does.
Now that the dust has settled, we are putting out a slightly more considered response to the issue. The lead in this area is now being taken, very firmly, by Jon Fuller – and if you would like to contact him directly, please do. Otherwise, there is a Woman’s Hour coming up shortly – possibly this week – looking at the issues raised by the trial and asking questions about how best to police online porn.
And over the next few weeks we will be sending out further details of events that reflect our broad commitment to the rights of grown-ups to decide for themselves what they do with their bodies. In case we don’t get further news out sooner, those who support a woman’s right to dress as she wishes – and not be dictated to by the crowd – may wish to support Slutwalk, which takes place on the 22nd of September this year.”
Click here for more about CAAN.
What it Takes
I found the following article from Slate.com uncomfortable. It could just be that it’s written by Katie Roiphe – who is somewhat adept at misrepresenting and generalising the kinks, politics and beliefs of others – but the Domme interviewed appears not to enjoy her lifestyle very much. When she herself speaks, she seems fairly positive about her work. However, like Play-Doh through a scowling plastic Fun Factory hole, the majority of her words may have been squashed through the filter of Roiphe’s interpretation before reaching the page. After all, the most damning points are not direct quotes. The article portrays a lifestyle that is far more sinister than the majority of us – perhaps including the Domme herself – experience. Here’s a snippet to serve as an example:
‘..Sessions are exhausting because you are managing someone else’s fantasy. Alexis describes it as “walking on eggshells upon eggshells.” She watches her subs very closely, for a glance averted, a flicker of an eyelid, tension in shoulders, for the slightest alterations in body posture, for signs that she is going too far or not far enough or in the wrong direction. She is intuiting the fantasy from them, almost drawing it out of their bodies, and she has to be fluid, shifting, perfectly responsive. These guys, she says, are about to blow.
What is striking in her description is that it is the slaves who sound dangerous. The way she talks about it, it is like there is an explosion that she is working around, managing, navigating, negotiating. She compares it to being with mental patients on a ward without guards.
Alexis describes the sadomasochistic drama as being organized around the idea of not facing what there is to face; the whole structure of the fetish replaces any kind of rigorous introspection. She says, “It’s like these guys walk in and need surgery, and we are giving them a massage.
“Is it acting? Well, yeah. But to be good at a role, it has to be you. And this one comes very naturally to me.” She says, “It’s a way to get out my anger, and I don’t feel bad for them because I have this 6-foot-tall man standing in front of me, and I am like poor you. Poor fucking you. … I mean they could get up at any moment and punch me in the face. Game over.”
I wonder if with her particular array of skills and talents, she is ever tempted to find a rich sub who would buy her an apartment. But for some reason this fantasy doesn’t work for Alexis. Even the idea of a rich boyfriend who buys her presents somehow ruffles her, and when in a former life she did have rich boyfriends buy her presents, she didn’t want them, thinking “What am I, your doll?” For her being dependent on a man is as repellent and unthinkable as what she does would seem to many of the stay-at-home moms sipping $11 lattes at D’Ambrosios on Madison Avenue…’
Click here for the full article and make up your own mind.
