RE: .warmth in the dark. (Full Version)

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hizgeorgiapeach -> RE: .warmth in the dark. (7/3/2006 5:51:34 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: sophia37

I feel "darkeness" and "light" are literary concepts which have worked their way into our society.


Yes and no.  The literary concepts of "light" and "dark" being eqatable to "good" and "evil" come from man's ancient prehistory.
 
The darkness was a scarey time.  Preditory animals who were just as dangerous - and better equipped by nature - roamed the dark hours.  You couldn't see what it was that was making that Sound in the near distance to identify it as friend or foe.  If you left the scant safety of your shelter and it's fire (light source) you ran a very real risk of never coming back - because you could easily be Eatten.  It was the Unknown, and Unknowable - mystery, shrouded from clear vision, potentially deadly.  It was a natural outgrowth for things in the Dark to become associated with Evil - things that caused sudden death, mangling, and maiming.
 
To a large extent, it has only been in the past couple of decades that BDSM has come out of the closet.  We kept what we did Hidden.  And through the millenia, that which has been Hidden has become associated with Evil - because mankind has never stepped past that original fear of the darkness and those things that could kill him that thrived in the dark.



SmokeyM -> RE: .warmth in the dark. (7/3/2006 6:00:35 PM)

IMHO, I think the 'dark side' is just like being in the closet. Or what is behind closed doors. For none other to know or see besides the parties involved.
 
~Smokey



fyrekittyn -> RE: .warmth in the dark. (7/3/2006 6:05:07 PM)

Personally, I consider my pain-loving side my dark side. I embrace it and revel in the feelings it can bring. Simply because of how society works, I cannot share that side with everybody. I don't consider it evil, or negative. Simply another aspect of myself.



Vendaval -> RE: .warmth in the dark. (7/3/2006 6:17:47 PM)

Western Civilization tends to paint the world in extremes;
black and white, dark and light, wrong and right.
 
Many ancient cultures understood the cycle of life and the balance
between polarities, day/night, light/darkness, life/death.
 
Polarities create a dynamic energy and bring new ideas into being.
 
Our lives start in the darkness of our mother's womb, but when
we emerge into the world we need sunlight to grow strong
and healthly.
 
Leather/Kinky sex is strongly associated with darkness because these
behaviors remain hidden, closeted and part of the subconscious urges
of many people. 
 
Those of us Leather Folk who dare to live openly, are the shadows that walk among the living.
 
Vendaval
 
 
 



brightspot -> RE: .warmth in the dark. (7/3/2006 10:36:40 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: darkinshadows

Whenever I peruse the profiles, or speak to some people within wiitwd, something often comes up that I notice.
Darkness.
 
Now me, I am .dark. - It's my nick because of my hair.  But people automatitically assume that it's 'dark' because of the BDSM.
Why is 'darkness' associated with 'bad things' - or in turn BDSM?
Theres a thread already running, that is entitled 'The Dark Side' that has negative connotations.  Why is that title chosen?  When discussing BDSM with others, its remarkable how many people mention the 'darker' aspects of their life as bondage, whippings, bloodplay or even domination and submission... etc.
 
Whats so 'Dark' about BDSM?
Whats so negative about 'Dark'?
 
Peace and Rapture



{Reply to OP}
 
I don't understand it, maybe it has to do with horror movies, or true stories that make the darkness seem evil like for example Jack the Ripper and here in the USA a serial killer nicked The Night Stalker. I think that the majority of horiffic crimes, rapes, murders take place at night. When at war the major bomb attacks are carried out at night. Also that you can not see in total darkness so it is unpredictible as to what is around you.
 
I personally think the Dark gets a bad rap, I too find comfort in the dark it is to me like something that envelopes me as opposed to a shocking bright sunny day putting up my defences i.e. sunglasses, sunblock, etc.
I would much rather be out at night star gazing than be out in the day sunbathing.
I find a peace at night when most around me are asleep  for some reason I find that very soothing. King of like as a mother when my short person was in bed sound asleep[;)].
 
Don't know if that had anything to do with what you were looking for but those are the thoughts your post brought up for me.
 
*Brightspot

edited spelling error[&:]



amayos -> RE: .warmth in the dark. (7/3/2006 11:38:09 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: darkinshadows

Whenever I peruse the profiles, or speak to some people within wiitwd, something often comes up that I notice. Darkness.

Now me, I am .dark. - It's my nick because of my hair.  But people automatitically assume that it's 'dark' because of the BDSM.Why is 'darkness' associated with 'bad things' - or in turn BDSM? Theres a thread already running, that is entitled 'The Dark Side' that has negative connotations.  Why is that title chosen?  When discussing BDSM with others, its remarkable how many people mention the 'darker' aspects of their life as bondage, whippings, bloodplay or even domination and submission... etc. Whats so 'Dark' about BDSM? Whats so negative about 'Dark'?


Dark,

An excellent question; the inevitable resulting answers could be chewed upon for a great while in philosophical discourse. I have often thought about what we as humans are predisposed to regarding our fears and predjudices—what is natural to our animal selves and what is learned from the society that breeds us. I am of the belief that under the right cultural and societal coincidences, nearly any predjudice—no matter how outrageous—can be taught to become an accepted "law" of the Universe. The countless numbers of lives willfully snuffed out by theistic violence proves this to some degree.

Why is BDSM, among other practices, associated with "darkness" and evil? I suspect this has much to do with the cumulative generational influence of established civil and religious precepts. As pure as we come in to the world, we are worked upon immediately in even the most subtle ways to see the sanctioned constellation by which we are to measure our opinions and values. Some values are in step with natural law, others are made of sand—they trip and confuse the human being in its odyssey to the path of truth. Few can step away from the prejudices imposed upon them by their social environment. Those few who manage tend to not view humanity and the world in that bi-level motif of good vs. evil, light and darkness. They discover there is very little that is truly good or evil, that most of it is human interpretation.



Slipstreme -> RE: .warmth in the dark. (7/4/2006 12:03:06 AM)

quote:

Whats so 'Dark' about BDSM?
Whats so negative about 'Dark'?
 
Darkness in S&M. Pain. Something we are taught from the beginning is there to protect us, should be avoided at all costs. Something we are taught, we should never want to do to others because it is unwanted, unneeded and dangerous. We are taught that to inflict pain is to be creul and callous, not loving and delightful. Sometimes the desires pushing sadism and masochism sit deeper than we want to admit. Images of blood and creulty, even those infllicted upon ourselves sometimes desend into the mind. Our eyes are consumed with red, the heartbeat, the fear, the pain, the lust, ever driving onwards to the brink of that which can give us pleasure, and for some, if left unchecked, and uncontrolled would end in disaster, for oneself or ones victim. The world sees not the unique relationship and needs between sadist and masochist. They do not see or understand pain as pleasure, and see the sadist as a criminal and masochist as an unwilling pawn in the sadist's game.
 
Darkness in B&D, and D/s. Freedom in chains?! Bound and gagged, "lowered" to a subserviant level. These are things society teaches us to detest. Freedom, free will, the ability to do as you wish, and to be unencumbered by the needs or wants of another, that is what is considered natural for us. The desire to control, to crush the desires of another, to mould a creature to bend to ones every whim, the need to control at least some aspects of another being, whose life was once considered free, is seen as unnatural, perverse, undesireable by society's standards. To control another, we are taught, is futile, selfish, harmful, cruel and uncaring. The world sees the slave or submissive as a victim, not as the beautiful creature, put here on this Earth, to serve as they desire to serve.
 
Darkness in "Dark" Society had been taught to strive towards the light, what is considered, "Good and right." Morality has no place in itself to accept the darkness. 
But Darkness is alluring. It seeks to ensnare those lured by its delights. Those things strange and perverse, seen as unnatural. Metal, blackness, Fire, pain. Those things seen inherently dangerous draw us in, as society warns back, unaware, or unwilling to learn just how much freedom, love, escape and ecstasy is found in the Dark.
 
So we strive for the darkness. We embrace it. We love it. We are enslaved by it, by our own choice to delve into it arms open. It loves us in turn, showing us worlds some people may never understand or accept. There is romance in the dark waters. Will you take the swim into a world you cannot see? For many the answer is no, so they stick to the light, to what is "good" and what is "right".
 
Simply put society's bonds see it as darkness, although in reality, it isn't much more than varying shades of gray, and we, in that darkness accept and delight in what that darkness brings.
 
............................
Sorry for the metaphorical answer. I'm in a creative mood. :P 



Aneirin -> RE: .warmth in the dark. (7/4/2006 10:35:14 AM)

Slipstreme,a creative answer,answers me well.



juliaoceania -> RE: .warmth in the dark. (7/4/2006 10:55:21 AM)

There are many binary opposites that people judge as being "worse" or "better" than others. They define one another, they are not measured in degrees. Some examples would be hot/cold, wet/dry, or my favorite... submissive dominant... None of these things are intrinsically better or more than the other, they just define each other. Look at dark/light... one is  not better than the other, they define each other. When something is illuminated and shown it is usually done in the "light". These words come to stand for other binary oppositions like good/evil, but they are not the same at all. They can also stand for conscious/unconscious...

I think that people who make a single word like "darkness" to be intrinsically bad lack a basic fundamental understanding of how language works... it is all the context in which the word is used that makes it have a value one way or another... Just my thoughts!



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