Last week, a flurry of articles emerged in the national press about the truly magnificent UK drama series “Spooks/MI5”. The furore appears to be the result of a scene due to be screened on BBC1 tonight, where the character Lucas North (Richard Armitage) is “waterboarded” during an interrogation.
Now, for those unfamiliar with waterboarding, it’s a method commonly used by the CIA to extract information. A suspect is bound against a board, a cloth is placed over the nose and mouth, and a stream of water is poured onto the face. This simulates the experience of drowning, stimulating the gag reflex and fight-or-flight reactions, and there is thought to be a risk of long-term psychological and respiratory damage. The debate continues as to whether this constitutes real torture. Much as war itself has been a rebranding exercise over the past decade (invasion and occupation has become “regime change” these days, snipers are now “sharp shooters”, and a massive bombardment is termed a harmless firework display of “shock and awe”) this method of gruesome punishment first thought to have been used during the Spanish Inquisition has been given the kind of name that would suggest a sporting activity one might like to try on a weekend break at Center Parcs. It’s a sad irony that waterboarding is most widely used by the self-imposed guardians of the “civilised world”.
Most people would agree that torture, in whatever form, is abhorrent when done for real. Yet the press hysteria over tonight’s television is surprising. The controversy itself may just be a publicity stunt – after all, the articles spread across several publications were suspiciously similar, and probably originated from a BBC press release. Yet the public appear to have shown more outrage at a drama series that has responsibly depicted waterboarding than at the real thing.
This is a tragic reflection of how BDSM is perceived by those outside it. In a fantasy scenario, sensations and emotions can be explored in a controlled environment, just in the same way as Richard Armitage experienced “real” waterboarding for a matter of seconds during filming, before using the safe-signal and being allowed to stop. Yet scenes of consensual bondage, implied threat and mock-torture are treated as somehow worse than the real thing by their critics. Factions of the press, legislators, and outspoken puritans see waterboarding as a necessary method of extracting information in the “War on Terror”, and see BDSM as something altogether more harmful. The fantasy and the reality of torture are so entirely removed from one another that it saddens me when the lines are blurred by those who simply don’t understand. I read an article a few years ago about the use of Dominatrices as interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, and was appalled. What we do is a fantasy. As soon as all parties no longer consent, it’s abuse, and it’s something I would never want to be involved in.
Well anyway, if you take nothing else away from this, then do watch BBC1 at 9pm tonight. It really is very good. Also, Ros (Hermione Norris) is so supremely wonderful that she deserves her own religion. But more about that another day. In the meantime, this.
