Something I noticed while reading stories.

[leo9]

Unless a story filter is explicitly "what Tourguide (or whoever) likes", it's impossible to draw up criteria for what's not acceptable. No two people will agree exactly where the lines are.

I like non-con abuse, but only if the object is to break the victim to slavery (and it succeeds, but not too soon!) I like ingenious tortures and humiliations more than punch-and-kick violence. I can't stand situations that are too like real life, whether it's subordinates at work submitting to the boss to keep their jobs, or abused prisoners in Rwanda/Columbia/Iraq/wherever. But all these are just my tastes, and I couldn't claim they represented any kind of absolute principle.

The point of the story codes is to allow every style and subject on the Library, while letting people pick what they want to read. I can't think of a better system.

[BDSM_Tourguide]

Unless a story filter is explicitly "what Tourguide (or whoever) likes", it's impossible to draw up criteria for what's not acceptable. No two people will agree exactly where the lines are.

One exists. The advanced search feature. Anyone can turn off the story codes they don't want to see before they even get a list of stories.

[Dr Mabeuse]

There's all sorts of violence. A slap can express as many things as a kiss, maybe more. And no doubt there are a lot of men who call themselves doms who are basically sadists and misogynists.

Why is rage so close to passion? Why is anger and threat often so sexually exciting? I've got a lot of theories about BDSM. On the one hand there's the obvious one that says that BDSM is an exaggeration of the usual sexual stereotypes of the aggressive male and the passive female. It's almost as if people who are into D/s have a need to act out these roles in the extreme. The man wants to dominate and control, the woman wants to be taken and controlled.

I have another theories too. Theories are easy. Whether they're true or not is another matter.

---dr.M.

[leo9]

.

Why is rage so close to passion? Why is anger and threat often so sexually exciting? I've got a lot of theories about BDSM. On the one hand there's the obvious one that says that BDSM is an exaggeration of the usual sexual stereotypes of the aggressive male and the passive female. It's almost as if people who are into D/s have a need to act out these roles in the extreme. The man wants to dominate and control, the woman wants to be taken and controlled.---dr.M.

At a science fiction convention recently I sat in on a light-hearted panel on the question "Who is the most erotic character in sf/fantasy?"

The interesting and unexpected conclusion was that all the characters people named and discussed had one common characteristic - or rather, one or other side of one characteristic. They were either totally innocent and vulnerable, or they were powerful and/or manipulative.

Everyone agreed that one's imagination could play it either way, fantasising being in control or being controled. But the panel and the audience (at least half of whom, by my guess, identified as vanilla) agreed that, judging by results, what they all found erotic is extreme power exchange relationships.

<wry smile> Who knew?