LillyBoPeep
Posts: 6873
Joined: 12/29/2010 Status: offline
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there are a lot of subs who are also masochists (*raises hand*) so those things often get associated. there are a lot of Dominants who are also sadists, so those things get associated, too. however, for me, S&M isn't the meat of D/s. i think it's the biggest/brightest star in the sky sometimes -- the play is what tends to bring people in for events and such, and organizations that need money want to cater to the lowest denominator. sure that excludes some people, but when you are organizing events and need paying attendees, that's sorta what you have to do at times. so for a lot of new people, the S&M is the first thing they come in contact with, and honestly, it's often the first thing they're interested in. i got interested in power exchange at some point on the journey from having "crazy" fantasies when i was younger, to getting online and finding kinky porn, to then finding this huge world where the sex/S&M was only a part of it. that's not an uncommon journey for people to find themselves on. so for many, they originate at S&M and then travel along and find other things. sex is something people can easily relate to, and SOMETIMES it's easier to deal with/admit to yourself than something that seems more complicated like a LIFESTYLE -- literally the way you want to live your life. just having kinky sex seems less scary and it seems like you confront fewer of your own personal hurdles going that route. once i really started contemplating D;M/s, i had a lot more personal struggle than i did just accepting that i was a masochist. and really, "BDSM" stands for "bondage, domination/discipline, sadism/submission, and masochism" to most people -- sadism and masochism are factored in almost automatically, and it's up to each individual person to factor them out if they want.
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