Nothing can stop you from being amused at whatever, although it may reflect certain things about you what you are amused about.. I am not sure that it is silly to take any aspect of human sexuality seriously, but it is your right to regard this expression of human desire as absurd. No one will care, I am sure, if you mock them. Or pay any attention to your mockery either. Just a question: would you mock homosexual desire? Or queers taking their sexuality seriously? Does that strike you as risible? Is only straight vanilla sexuality worth taking seriously, or is even that absurd to talk about? Don't bother to explain, just think about it.
In the meantime it seems to me that the discussion has raised important issues about the nature and limits of consent, the role of sex radicalism in social change, the relationship of pleasure and pain, the extent to which it is permissible to judge the desires of others as wrong or sick, and other fundamental philosophical and social questions that are not risible at all. And that the discussion has been at a reasonably high level.
--- Daniel Davies <d_squared_2002 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> I've tried to follow this one as closely as possible
> and it seems that we're
> close to agreement that the whips 'n' chains bunch
> have got a right to do
> whatever they want and we shouldn't condemn them
> from a political point of
> view. That all seems fair enough.
>
> On the other hand, I have to confess that I find the
> whole concept pretty
> hilarious. It's partly the way that they appear to
> take themselves so
> seriously, but I would be fibbing if I didn't admit
> that I also find the
> activities in question pretty risible as a way of
> getting your kicks, rather in
> the way that sucking poisonous smoke into your lungs
> is, objectively speaking,
> a pretty silly way to spend a tea break.
>
> Is there a duty on me to at least try to take BDSM
> etc seriously in its own
> terms? Or am I OK to continue to chuckle at the
> utter ridiculousness of it, as
> long as I'm not too nasty to people to their faces,
> and as long as I don't
> whine if they have a go back at me? Would it change
> matters if I pretended to
> get sexually excited by mocking BDSMers?
>
> best
> dd
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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