This is one of the better articles I’ve recently seen in the mainstream press on kink. It’s not often you see Bitchy Jones referenced outside of a femdom blog. It’s primarily about a current performance of Venus in Furs at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, but Clarisse Thorn is also interviewed to provide some cultural context. It makes a nice change to see an article writer find someone who actually knows what they’re talking about and then ask them sensible questions. It’s also refreshing for that person not to be a pro-domme, which always seems to be the default interviewee whenever femdom gets mentioned.
The image is taken from a previous production in Washington DC of the play. That’s Christian Conn and Erica Sullivan in the two lead roles, directed by David Muse back in 2011.
The article is not bad but this is irritating:
“Love it or hate it, you can’t deny that the publication of the Fifty Shades trilogy made it much more acceptable to acknowledge, discuss and practice BDSM”
Fifty Shades is a badly-written bodice-ripper that simply accentuates some of the unhelpful stereotyping that lurks in some BDSM theory and practice.
Oh, and you probably know this, but the great-great niece of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch who is mentioned in the article is none other than Marianne Faithfull.
On the 50 shades thing I just put up another post touching on that exact topic. And no, I did not know about that connection between Leopold and Marianne Faithfull. Weird. That’s another odd little fact to add to her already complicated biography.
-paltego
50 Shades is probably the worst thing I have ever read.
Actually, I couldn’t read it. The excerpts from Amazon.com “look inside!” were enough to convince me. It was clearly written by a person with no real experience in BDSM….or even sex, for that matter. Who uses baby oil for lube? Seriously?
Anyway, paltego, you are right! Practically all of the women dominants interviewed or discussed in media are prodommes!
And they’re portrayed as “mean” dommes at that! I don’t think that is representative of femdom. Sometimes I am strict and harsh, but often I am maternal and playful (or even girlfriend-ish), which vanilla media never understands.
I only got as far as the look inside bits as well. I couldn’t bring myself to read more than that. But as I just blogged, Cliff over at the Pervocracy is doing a great job of reading it and saving everyone else the bother!
I get why the media interview pro-dommes. They’re easy to find and have a niche in mainstream culture that everyone understands. But it’s still lazy journalism.
-paltego