Thursday 4 March 2010

BDSM; The practice and the law.




My introduction to BDSM was through stories. It was a gentle, yet erotic initiation.
N.T.Morley’s anthology, MASTER/SLAVE, (available from Amazon) showed me the way. Tempting me, enticing me, luring me along the forbidden, erotic pathways.

There’s nothing like the forbidden, to make me want to explore further -- and so I did, and I devoured the stories. I’m not brave enough to have ventured into the alluring world of BDSM, so I talked to people who know more about it than I do.


So, I thought, in a moment of clarity, that’s what they mean. It’s not just about inflicting and receiving pain and humiliating the submissive. It’s a negotiation, between adults, capable of making their own decisions in a simple and loving way. It’s a two way compliment and commitment from one to another. It’s a relinquishing of power, an exchange of power.


I love you and I trust you. Of course to the uninitiated it’s horrifying -- whoever wants to make love to the sounds of their lover’s cries and sobs. But to those involved, it’s intoxicating.

Jude Mason told me; “I can't speak for anyone but myself. But, in my mind, it's nothing like that at all. The person who gets a thrill from having someone else control him/her is simply enjoying an aspect of themselves not everyone has. A spanking can be the most sensuous act between two people who enjoy it. The feeling/shock of being spanked at the instant of orgasm is amazing. Having someone offer up their bodies for you to play with is such a rush.”







The stories in Morley’s anthology are amazing. M.Christian’s, superb, IN CONTROL -- who is in control? The master or the slave? Kristina Wright; IN THE STACKS -- a little homage to the Marquis de Sade. Midori; I SHOULD NOT WANT THIS -- a slave questions her willing participation in a violent whipping. She concludes; how could I not want this?

Life all fetishes BDSM has a long history; it goes back deep in time. Here’s what Wiki tells us.







The historical origins of BDSM are obscure. During the ninth century BC, ritual flagellations were performed in Artemis Orthia one of the most important religious areas of ancient Sparta, where the Cult of Orthia a pre-Olympic religion, was practiced. Here ritual flagellation called diamastigosis took place on a regular basis. One of the oldest graphical proofs of sadomasochistic activities is found in an Etruscan burial site in Tarquinia. Inside the Tomba della Fustigazione, (Flogging grave), in the latter sixth century b.c., two men are portrayed flagellating a woman with a cane and a hand during an erotic situation. Another reference related to flagellation is to be found in the sixth book of the Satires of the ancient Roman Poet Juvenal (1st–2nd century A.D.), further reference can be found in Petronius’ Satyricon, where a delinquent is whipped for sexual arousal. Anecdotal narratives related to humans who have had themselves voluntary bound, flagellated or whipped as a substitute for sex or as part of foreplay reach back to the third and fourth centuries.






Do you get the feeling that I’m avoiding talking about extreme BDSM? Yes, I am; but I think I have to; talk about it I mean. We have the right to do as we wish to our own bodies; don’t we? We have the right to give consent to someone else to someone else to do things to our own bodies; don’t we? Well, apparently not.



Yet I can visit a tattooist and have tattoos all over my body. I can have my clitoris, my nipples, or any other part of my body pierced. Of course I can.

But in 1990, the infamous Spanner case was brought to our attention.

In December, 1990, in the UK, 16 Gay men were brought to trial and given prison sentences of up to four and a half years for engaging in consensual S&M activity. This followed an investigation, by the police called “Operation Spanner” prompted by the chance finding of video tapes of S&M activities.

During a raid in 1987 the police seized a videotape which showed a number of identifiable men engaging in heavy SM activities including beatings, genital abrasions and lacerations. The police claim that they immediately started a murder investigation because they were convinced that the men were being killed. This investigation is rumoured to have cost £4 million. Dozens of gay men were interviewed. The police learned that none of the men in the video had been murdered, or even suffered injuries which required medical attention. However the police may well have felt that they had to bring some prosecutions to justify their expensive investigation.

The convictions have now been upheld by both the Court of Appeal and the Law Lords in the UK and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

If the police discover you have engaged in SM activities which have caused injury, you and your partner could be prosecuted for assault.

Despite what you may have read in the newspapers, for the most part, the men were convicted of the standard offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Their defence, that they had all consented to the activities, was denied.
S&M is not itself 'illegal'.





It’s not very comforting to know, is it, that if the police investigate you for participating in BDSM, the law is not on your side? Even though you have freely given your consent.

5 comments:

  1. Billie - a thoroughly absorbing, thought provoking piece here!!! I agree totally with Jude,for me as a man the thrill and turn on comes from submitting completely to the right woman / Goddess (thats what she would be to me) the feeling of her control over me and the fact that I am her helpess slave excites me so much!Knowing your body exists only to satisfy the woman's needs means my own deepest needs are satisfied- so mutualy beneficial.... (Jude's own BDSM work is fantastic by the way!)She alludes to the pain and pleasure mingling, and to me, being restrained and whipped by the woman as she wants, is indescribably erotic. I think the marks of her punishment are my badge of courage, a sign that I have confidence in my own needs and desires and can give myuself to her body and soul. Strength not a weakness to me! Your two part tale featuring Joseph and Ulena was perfect for me personally, you captured exactly my desires and I totally identified with Joseph as he came to terms with the raw pleasure of submission and the power exchange-so liberating for me!!! Thanks Alex XXX

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  2. Hey billie!

    Very interesting take on an age old topic. I believe BDSM has been around for as long as men and women have. The cave woman must submit to the dude because she needs protection. She may not be thrilled with it, but it's necessary for her survival as well as the survival of her offspring.

    The wedding band is the symbol of ownership. The high heel shoe, a hobbling device. There are dozens of other things we see daily, but don't connect with the history.

    It's almost acceptable for a woman to be submissive. I mean, after all, we've been raised to become someone's property, yes?

    But, for men, it's somewhat different. They're supposed to grow up and be strong and dominant. Until recently, say the 1950's or thereabouts, it wasn't common for women to even have a job outside of raising children. Oh, they could be teachers or secretaries, subservient to the male principle of boss. We'd grown to like our role. Without much choice, we had to. If you didn't submit to the man, you didn't get the man.

    Men who submitted were thought of as abnormal, and to a large extent, they still are. Unfortunately. How very sad we've made it okay for one sex to enjoy submitting while vetoing it for the other.


    I could go on for a very long time on the topic. LOL Personally, I think kink should be taught in some kind of school when you reach adulthood. It'd be great if we could do that before then, but I can't see that ever happening. I just feel so horrible when I hear about a young man or woman thinking there's something wrong with them when they crave a spanking or love someone in a different way.

    Going to work now.

    Awesome post, billie

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  3. Thank you both so much -- it was a journey of discovery writing this. I had no idea that the law dictates that we can't do as we wish with our own bodies. That we can be thrown in jail, for participating in an act that people say is abhorent, simply because they don't understand.

    There's a lot I don't understand, but that doesn't mean I think it should be illegal.

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  4. British law says you can't consent to your own assault.

    And in a non-BDSM context, I can see good reasons for that law. It allows the CPS to prosecute in cases (eg domestic violence, female genital mutilation) where the victim may be under social pressure (or genuinely desire) not to press charges.

    The law doesn't work in BDSM cases. But to put it in context - Spanner was 20 years ago when BDSM was not nearly so much in the public eye, and thus it was considered more shocking. Plus some of the incidents were really on the extreme edge of BDSM - one guy got his cock nailed to wooden board, I believe. Despite the fact that we have law set by precident, so far as I know there hasn't been a rash of follow-up prosecutions with BDSM enthusiasts being jailed.

    The other day I was talking to someone who had an insider report on a police raid on a dungeon. The police were doing it because they thought the building (isolated, windows boarded up, lots of single visitors) might be a drugs den. When they were given a tour by the domme they thought it was hilarious, and a policewoman even got her sergeant to pose bent over a spanking horse, for photos...

    So yes, the law is not necessarily right. But how it is administered is even more important.

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  5. Thans Janine. Yes of course the law has to be there to protect the vulnerable. Scarcely a day goes by where someone -- a man or a woman, isn't discovered badly beaten, or even killed by a partner. The violence has sometimes gone on for years -- it's only after someone is hospitalised, with gruesome injuries. Only then can something can be done, within the law.

    And even then, the victim may not want to prosecute.

    But bdsm is different. I guess it's a matter of proving that consent has been given. But then as you say Janine, "British law says you can't consent to your own assault."

    I still think that one should be able to have a penis nailed to a plank of wood, if that's what you choose to do -- without fear of prosecution.

    What does the law say about body dismorphic disorder? I shall try and find out.

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