ThatDamnedPanda
Posts: 6060
Joined: 1/26/2009 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: feydeplume So you and i Panda are clear with where we are coming to this place about semantics from, I come from a, well these days its called gender queer pansexual background in SM. I didn't learn about BDSM on the net at all. I only used the net in terms of SEX for political rallies, where the meet and beat was going to be that week, who was giving what class where, and to post stuff on BBSs about this and that. it was years before i ran into the online BDSM presence and it was culture shock for me. (perhaps it still is). Interesting. Very interesting. And hey, for what it's worth, the online BDSM universe is still something of a culture shock for me every day, and I've been heavily invested in it for 15 years. So don't feel badly! But it's interesting to me to see how the two of us followed such very different paths to get here, and fascinating that we had such very different experiences along our respective paths. My own background could hardly have been more different; my first D/s relationship was my marriage, which began in 1981. Back then, there was no "scene" for most straight people in the Midwest. There were magazine stores, and that was pretty much where I had to get all my information on whatever it was that burned so hot in the depths of my soul. Most of it was useless, because it was just pornographic crap. Nothing of any real value for someone trying to learn how to construct and maintain a healthy, functional, loving D/s relationship, so I pretty much had to learn it on my own. Burned up 2 or 3 pretty damned good relationships with 2 or 3 pretty damned good women while I figured it out, and in all honesty would probably have continued burning up relationships (albeit perhaps at a somewhat diminishing pace) had I not started tapping into a community of peers via the internet in the early 90s. I don't think I learned so much about BDSM itself through the internet, but I sure learned a hell of a lot about how to sustain BDSM relationships through this resource. The internet was literally priceless for me; I don't think I could find the words to describe the happiness and the joy I've been privileged to experience in my life because the internet helped me learn how others had solved the problems of building and nurturing a healthy BDSM relationship. I don't even want to think about how bleak and how colorless my life would be had I not experienced the relationships that were made possible by the help I found on the net. Sorry for the topic drift, but this was one of those moments in a conversation where I suddenly realized i was learning something very different than what I thought I was going to learn from it. Thanks for the insight.
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Panda, panda, burning bright In the forest of the night What immortal hand or eye Made you all black and white and roly-poly like that?
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