quote:

ORIGINAL: sheisreeds
Right now we are all just waiting for the fire to go out, and maintaining what is worthwhile.

quote:

ORIGINAL: MariaB
The younger crowd, at least in London, are now setting up their own private nights. They don’t want a club full of old fogies, they don’t want the rules set in place and have to follow club standards. We have been to some of these parties, even though we are considered ‘old’! and they are absolutely not our thing because it seems to me, what the younger crowd like is, extremely hard core BDSM without limits and then a big gangbang to finish the night off. Even the fetish crowd are more hardcore than most of my generation BDSMers.

The new crowd is coming through, like it or not and gradually the older, perhaps more sensible crowd are being pushed to the outer corners. We can’t fight that, I doubt we can change it and if we don’t want to join in, then we must accept that pure BDSM clubs will get more and more diluted.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ChatteParfaitt

FR:

I put such a different spin of this sort of thing, because I think it's great. Remember, I came up when being homosexual was *illegal* so for me having kink so mainstream is a wonderful thing.

Now, do I think that gear is for light weights? Of course. But we were all light weights once, and we need to remember that.

I'm trying in my old age to accept everyone -- to learn compassion for everyone.

Okay, okay, let's be honest here. *ALMOST* everyone.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ResidentSadist

Mind you now, this ain't no hype. This is official "real" "true" BDSM gear approved approved by none other than the author of 50 Shades of Grey. Yup, E L James has a line of BDSM gear. So burn all that fake shit you have in your dungeons and duffel bags. Throw away your Mike Murphy, Joe Strain, Adam Winrich, Peter Jack, Simon Martin and Rhett Kelley single tails. Burn your Snake Pit Leather Works, Heartwood and SoftDesire floggers. Bury your Stormy Leather leathers and Skin Two latex rubber wear. Step away from the medical gear, fire play and electricity. Get off your throne, come out of your cage and get down from your cross to go get you some real gear.

Yuppers, now you can "Play like GREY" using the "Fifty Shades of Grey Official Pleasure Collection" that is "Approved by EL James" and "Turn fantasies into reality...."

Fifty Shades of Grey All Mine Deluxe Blindfold

Fifty Shades of Grey Hard Limits Universal Restraint Kit

Fifty Shades of Grey Please Sir Flogger

Fifty Shades of Grey Soft Limits Deluxe Restraint Wrist Tie

Fifty Shades of Grey Submit to Me First Time Bondage Kit

Fifty Shades of Grey Sweet Sting Riding Crop

Fifty Shades of Grey Tease Feather Tickler

Fifty Shades of Grey Twitchy Palm Spanking Paddle

Fifty Shades The Pinch Nipple Clamps


There are also 3 kinds of Fifty Shades of Grey Sex Kits and etc ranging from $105 - $128.

---

I didn't put this in the Bondage Gear and Apparel forum (or give links) because the interesting thing for me isn't that you couldn't actually hurt anyone with that stuff unless you poked them in the eye with it (at least he won't have to worry about injury lawsuits). What is interesting to me is the effect all this fluff gear is going to have on the vanilla world now that they can "play like Grey". What happens after they use this slap & tickle gear? Will they think they just became official E L James certified BDSMers and part of the leather community now that they "play like Grey?" What happens if they step out into the real BDSM world and see edge play, protocol, humiliation and the gay leather crowd?

Will the horny housewife and her married and cheating Dom venture out in to the leather world to go "play like Grey" and get slapped in the face by a pair of leathermen doing anal edge play or saline scrotum inflation? Imagine if they see a real masochist with a catheter on a cross that gets all bloody when the edgy Top picks up a knife and starts cutting? How about a private party and they peek into the backroom to see a Domme sitting on the human toilet throne with her poop eating slave's head under the seat . . . then she shits all over her toilet slave? Needles, sutures, medical staplers, dunking, fire play, waterboarding, extreme electro torture . . . imagine all that romantic 50 Shades stuff in their head with only a slap and tickle gear exposure when suddenly they come face to face with an extreme torture scene, a crucifixion where the pain is so intense, the subject involuntarily shits themselves while falling limp, crying and puking.

I've been to a lot of parties in my life. Even the mildest ones can get pretty extreme compared to slap & tickle. Don't get me wrong, I love slap & tickle. I do it a lot, giving my slave an erotic spanking almost daily. But I am more than very familiar and comfortable with edge play too. I just can't imagine if this "50 Shades" gear will have an impact on the millions of fans. Will they use it and start thinking they are part of the scene now that they "play like Grey"? Will it inspire them to take the next step and venture deeper into the leather community to start joining clubs and attending dungeon parties?

Before you pass them the saline and vacuum aspirator . . . what do you think, are they doomed, are we or what?

quote:

ORIGINAL: JeffBC

I'm one of those vanilla people making awful inroads to your private club and I refuse to accept responsibility for the old-timer's inability to manage their own shit.

My own thought to your dilemma. As BDSM expands it's no longer an "alt community" and accordingly this inclusiveness thing needs to be reconsidered. You can have big ol' inclusive parties and much more private ones for people more focused on the stuff you see as core. I should think that advantages of shucking the "alt" status far, far outweigh the disadvantages.

quote:

ORIGINAL: TNDommeK

Well in a few weeks/months when newbs come on here asking for advice bc of hurting their partner, we will know why.

quote:

ORIGINAL: sheisreeds
Where I go, you would not be one of those vanilla people. D/s is respected as much as BDSM.

quote:

Eventually the alt status will go away, but chances are with a lot of caveats. Some aspects of BDSM, and D/s will likely always be taboo. It will likely be considered fairly normal to spank, tie someone up, etc, but edge play will likely still be edgy, and yet more exposed.

quote:

We are in rocky territory.

quote:

ORIGINAL: RedMagic1

I saw a profile of a woman on another site. She said she was submissive and looking for Christian Grey. I wrote her saying that Grey was a submissive service top. About a week later, I was beating her ass in a hotel room. Over dinner, she told me that I was the only man who had read her profile and really made her think when I wrote her, and that got her interested.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ResidentSadist

I have talked with leather community leaders about this who stood on both sides of the fence. The pro arguments dismiss 50 Shades and the influx of John Q Public by citing previous books and movies that caused waves of newbees like Story of O, Secretary and others. My counterpoint is that those were different because they only caused a small influx. We could absorb them and "each one teach one." Whereas with 50 Shades of Grey we are dreadfully outnumber by its fan base. If interest keeps growing and they keep coming, if they deside to water us down and make us SSC, socially acceptable and politically correct, we will be overrun, out-manned and relatively helpless to stop them . . . they will absorb us. I have never had anyone disagree with that observation and many changed their view point about the importance of the 50 Shades fan base concerning our future.

quote:

ORIGINAL: MariaB


Those who make a name for themselves within the BDSM circles can be hugely egotistical and because the scene was a much smaller place not that long ago, there's a lot of big egos out their that people just can't let go of.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HoldinOn

Thinking these items are going to marketed to the "Kiss and Tell" or "Naughty and Nice" shoppers. Not those headed down to Mr. and Madam S in San Francisco. It's rather difficult to think you are hard core when you are buying your sex toys at a place that sells boobie cake molds and penis lollipops.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HoneyBears

quote:

ORIGINAL: RedMagic1

I saw a profile of a woman on another site. She said she was submissive and looking for Christian Grey. I wrote her saying that Grey was a submissive service top. About a week later, I was beating her ass in a hotel room. Over dinner, she told me that I was the only man who had read her profile and really made her think when I wrote her, and that got her interested.

You spent just one week getting to know a strange woman you met on line before hooking up with her on what was probably your intro meeting date?
Damn, you must be easy. It was the "submissive service top" part that reeled her in, wasn't it?

quote:

ORIGINAL: JeffBC

OMFG! OK, now suddenly I'm having a strong urge to find my way to Lupercalia this year and greet KnightOfMysts warmly... all decked out in my "play like grey" gear.

Damn we are poverty stricken nowadays but that just might be funny enough to be worth prioritizing.

(in reply to JeffBC)

quote:

ORIGINAL: TNDommeK

Just wait til the movie comes out!

quote:

ORIGINAL: ChatteParfaitt


I agree the influx came with the internet. But 50 Shades did bring kink into the mainstream like nothing else It's now cool to be kinky.