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Closets! - 4/10/2005 7:36:56 AM   
temptation


Posts: 111
Joined: 2/20/2004
From: heaven
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well.. just about everyone has a closet, and i find myself still in mine when it comes to most of my friends and the BDSM lifestyle. From some of the posts and threads in this forum, it seems like i'm not alone,,, which is nice.

for me, it doesnt seem to be a direct fear of rejection, because I know that my friends will accept me no matter who/what I am..

its that i'm afraid their opinions of me will change,, and that it will eventually affect our relationship as friends.

i've never really dated from within my close circle of friends, and so in that respect it seems like hinting at, or letting my partner(s) know, has never really been a huge problem for me. i've actually found that the majority of straight shootin vanilla guys, enjoy alot of the kinkier things in bed. or at least dont mind.

but it sucks sometimes, to be sitting next to someone,, and have a huge secret that you cant tell them.

sigh.


anyways, anyone else keeping their kinky secret in the closet from someone in their life?
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RE: Closets! - 4/10/2005 8:00:59 AM   
ShiftedJewel


Posts: 2492
Joined: 12/2/2004
Status: offline
My husband and I started out trying to be at least a little discreet. He has been at the same job for 23 years and works directly below the president of the company so we thought it best. But over time we discovered that sometimes people are far more aware of things then we are aware of, and sometimes their "assumptions" are way off. To give you an idea, we went out one night with some of the people that work under my husband, a fantastic group of people, and his secretary had just enough liquid courage to finally ask straight out if we were "swingers"....... lmao So we explained it to her. She doesn't think any less of us, in fact she hints around on occasion trying to learn more about wiitwd. We are far less "closeted" now and open to explaining our choices to anyone that asks.... of course now they don't ask, we just get that raised eyebrow look on occasion and they laugh it off. We are well respected members of our tiny community and have many nilla friends here... ok so some of them don't understand the extra people living in our home, (we are poly) and some of them (particularly my hair dresser, since she does all of our hair, gotta give her credit, she never says a word when we take a subbie there and WE decide on her/his hair cut and color, or worse yet, they tell her they have to ask us if something is ok... bless her heart) are just itching to ask but just haven't found the words yet.

I think it was Kalil Gibran that once said "A friend is someone that knows all about you and still likes you" (or maybe that was in Apples of Gold). Either way, give credit where credit is due.

Jewel

_____________________________

Don't ask, trust me, you won't like the answer... no one ever does.

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RE: Closets! - 4/10/2005 9:17:35 AM   
krikket


Posts: 1183
Joined: 11/17/2004
From: Washington, DC Metro Area
Status: offline
i know exactly what my family would do and say, and to be honest i don't have the courage to face that, or put my partner through "that". i was apart from my family for years, and there aren't that many of us left, so i tend to keep my mouth shut. Besides, i figure what side of the blanket i'm on (so to speak) isn't any of their business any more than i want to know about their sex life or lifestyles. If asked i wouldn't lie, but i'd probably only tell the complete truth if i had no other choice, knowing it would end the tenitive relationship i do have with them.

_____________________________

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom."

by A. Nin



When your heart speaks take good notes.





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RE: Closets! - 4/10/2005 10:27:03 AM   
LadyAngelika


Posts: 8070
Joined: 7/4/2004
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quote:

well.. just about everyone has a closet, and i find myself still in mine when it comes to most of my friends and the BDSM lifestyle.


Damn. I thought this was a thread about cleaning out closets. I've tackled 2 out of 3 this week. I'm just taking a short break before hitting the last one ;) Spring cleaning!

As for "coming out of the kink closet", I've realised there is a difference between being closeted and being discreet. My friends and family don't need a detailed description of my sex life. I surely do not want one of theirs.

- LA

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Une main de fer dans un gant de velours ~ An iron hand in a velvet glove

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RE: Closets! - 4/10/2005 12:17:00 PM   
BobcatsLilMinx


Posts: 201
Joined: 4/8/2005
From: UK
Status: offline
Being 19, I discuss a lot with my girlfriends (and male friends for that matter), and for a while I was really afraid to mention my D/s preferences. I wasn't just hiding in the closet, I was hiding under a pile of coats in the furthest corner!! It felt bad, like there was this whole secret side of myself I couldn't be open about, the way they're open with me. When my best friend asked me though, if I knew where she could get some fluffy handcuffs from, I found I was able to use that as a starting point. So now all my friends know, and are quite cool with it. I found that just treating it casually, like it's the normalest thing in the world is the best. (What, you mean your boyfriend doesn't whip you when you displease him???) Hehe, j/k, not that extreme.... but making light of it. I found that if I don't make a big deal out of it, no one else does. And at the end of the day, I'm not ashamed of who I am, and I really do have a bit of a "this is me, whether you like it or not" policy in life. I don't push it in people's faces - like I say, I just treat it like its not big deal. And that works for me.

Just a few more words from the Minxy mind.....

(in reply to LadyAngelika)
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RE: Closets! - 4/10/2005 12:32:56 PM   
MistressTrin


Posts: 36
Joined: 3/5/2005
Status: offline
I've never discussed my lifestyle with anyone except my partners within that lifestyle. This is just my preference. My brother offered to make me a flogger and cuffs, though, so I'm guessing he has a clue somehow..hmmm...


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RE: Closets! - 4/10/2005 3:10:50 PM   
MasterLexitus


Posts: 8
Joined: 12/2/2004
Status: offline
quote:

its that i'm afraid their opinions of me will change,, and that it will eventually affect our relationship as friends.
.... but it sucks sometimes, to be sitting next to someone,, and have a huge secret that you cant tell them.


Here is my suggestion. Stop thinking about it as a "huge secret." Many people have sexual fantasies, kinks, and desires that are secret. Your friends probably do also. Start sharing part of it. Start with one thing ... maybe admit you enjoy being spanked ... and see where that goes.

You might be surprised at the things your friends are into. And if you share one thing and get a negative response, you can stop there. Then you can decide whether a friend that does not accept all of you is worth keeping.

____________________________________________________________________________

"Master Yourself First"


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RE: Closets! - 4/10/2005 6:44:36 PM   
HypatiaSwan


Posts: 24
Joined: 12/12/2004
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: temptation

anyways, anyone else keeping their kinky secret in the closet from someone in their life?


I am in various stages of coming out. I find it much more challenging to come out as a lesbian than to come out into leather. When you come out into leather or kink, sure, some people might reject you and others might think you're strange. Still others might raise their eyebrows and wink.

Coming out as a lesbian is much different. It's much more difficult because there is no smile and nod, no little wink. We aren't just 'kinky.' We aren't just doing something fun and erotic. We're sinners or we are out to prostelitize your children or we are attacking marriage, undermining values yadda yadda...

You talked about sitting there in the closet, wanting to share but not being able to share this secret. That is the way it is for gay and lesbian folks 24/7. One can hide whips and chains and one can still have a power dynamic right under the noses of people who don't pick up on it. But one can't very well hide being lesbian or gay with the people who know you. One can't hide a same sex partner and we.. wouldn't want to. One can't let the family meet the same sex partner without coming out (she's my roomate doesn't work well after a time...) and one can't even talk about 'what one did this weekend' at work without coming out.

Being in the closet is a horrible thing but coming out is an intensely personal experience. No one should be pressured to come out or to stay in. People have to deal with their closets themselves, with support from others if possible. But they should come out only if and when they feel they can and want to come out.

The problem with being in the closet, is exactly as you stated it. We cannot fully share ourselves and develop close relationships with others if we are hiding something big. It's like going through the world with a mask on. Everything you build is not real unless your friend knows the 'real' you. You live at a distance from the rest of humanity. I don't think people need to know the intimate details of our sex lives or leather lives. But it would at least be nice if we could let others know big things about us, general things, without fear of retribution.



_____________________________

"Once we meet and talk, we are brothers and sisters." - Okinawan Proverb

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RE: Closets! - 4/10/2005 6:54:45 PM   
KarbonCopy


Posts: 779
Status: offline
I generall keep quiet to those outside the lifestyle, some others but thats pretty much it. It seems like a waste of breath to try and explain it to them, unless they really want to know because they're interested in it.

That and people are jugmental and sometimes will never look at you the same afterwards

(in reply to HypatiaSwan)
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RE: Closets! - 4/10/2005 8:06:24 PM   
unbrokenhouseboy


Posts: 18
Joined: 3/23/2005
Status: offline
i can but guess this is where i am far far different than most people i know.
i have no closet and no skeletons to hide.

everyone that knows me knows i am into having a lifestyle mistress. and they know at one time i wished to change sex.
no one has ever judged me except one,,and she dropped a 20 year friendship over it..so i told her to bite me. it was okay i stood by her as a friend while she went to prison for fraud and theft but it wasnt okay i wanted to switch roles?....not!

i have no qualms who knows what in my life..coz i dont give a rat's .....

but yeah..
its just me here..i am just that open to people..
i like this topic and i love this site..
houseboy
thanks


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to choose between two evils, is still evil.

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RE: Closets! - 4/10/2005 11:49:35 PM   
ravenna


Posts: 121
Joined: 12/22/2004
Status: offline
A really interesting question, temptation! After reading this thread my master Michelangelo and i talked about this issue off and on all day, so please forgive me if i have a lot of words stored up to say here.

Basically, i am in the closet to some extent in respect to everyone in the whole world, even all my friends here at CollarMe -- except to my owners. They know every secret thing about me, except for all the secrets that none of us have discovered yet, and we try to find a new secret almost every night...

But in relation to some people in my life, for example nearly all of my rather large and pretty traditional Catholic family and all of my two owners' families (also Catholic), my life as a sex slave is buried so deep in the closet, it's actually wrapped in the cloak of invisibility concealed in the locked trunk inside the secret dungeon beneath the hidden trapdoor behind the armoire at the very back of the closet, and my owners have no plans to ever change this. If i suddenly announced to them that i wanted to come out to all our families, maybe throw myself a belated "collaring shower" and print pretty invitations and register for naughty gifts at Kinks 'R' Us, they would lock me up in my cage and call a psychiatrist, or maybe a welder to seal the door shut. My relationship with my mother, for example, would never be the same, even though i know i must have gotten much of what i am from her. She's a very strong and sexual woman, even at sixty-something, who is totally focused on serving my father and making sure his life is good before anything else, even though she always has to put up a royal fuss before he eventually gets his own way; she even puts him first before us kids (though she's a mother tiger about us too). But she would be absolutely horrified to hear me call myself (proudly) a sex slave who lives and breathes to serve my owners. There would be scenes, not good ones, and she might actually never speak to me again, and i love my mama too much, i couldn't bear that. My owners' mothers would also be, ahem, rather taken aback, and we would never ever hear the end of it; although there might be some knowing smiles on their dads' faces...

The fact that i belong to both of my guys is equally buried under the closet. The families all know the official version, that i was the serious college-plus girlfriend of Boyfriend (Owner) One, then i lived with Boyfriend (Owner) Two for several years, then disappeared for a couple of years with Boyfriend (Owner) Three and no one heard much from me, and now suddenly i'm happily back with Two and still great friends with One. My two owners' families love me and treat me like a princess, but they would be beyond shocked to know what i really am to their darling boys One and Two. My family, some of them at least, think i'm a slut, a tramp, a whore, a failure who threw away her "fabulous career" to be a live-in kept woman, and that's bad enough, but if they thought i was actually a sex slave they might call a priest for an exorcism. Or the cops. Or, worst of all, my dad.

On the other hand, a lot of my high school and college girlfriends know at least some of my secrets, though never all, and i'm still really close to several of them. i know their secrets too, so we keep each other's closets closed. Some of them are subs, some are very switchy, none are slaves, though one would like to be, and probably will be someday. Several of my owners' friends know at least something about what i am, if not all the salacious details; and a select handful of their friends, currently just one lovely couple, have had very direct firsthand experience of what my life is all about and what my owners use me for. And there are two members of my family who know some of my secrets: my Little Big Sis, my sister who's only a year older (i'm the youngest of six siblings, all much older except for her); she's a would-be submissive in a very vanilla but happy marriage, two great kids, she says she lives a slave's life vicariously through me. (But she wants more, and i don't know if it'll ever happen for her.) And then there's my niece Natalie (not her real name), who's fifteen now, her mom is one of my older sisters, the very conservative one; everyone in my family says Natalie looks and sounds just like her sexy Aunt Ravenna (though that's not what they call me). She and i broke all our barriers and shared our secrets a couple of months ago, with my owners' permission, and oh my God if the family only knew! She is just like me at fifteen and then some, she knows a hell of a lot more about it than i did at fifteen, and she and i have sworn a blood oath to keep each other's closets locked down tight. She calls me her "mentor," and i've promised some day to help her find a "tormentor" when she's ready. And she'll be ready soon, i found mine at nineteen...

But what makes this question a burning issue for my owners and me is that they are gradually dragging me out of the closet just a little, and i am thrilled and terrified all at once. On a physical level, they are imposing some modifications on my body which will be harder to conceal, and i (and they) will have to learn how to deal with this. My septum is now pierced, and i will get a ring installed to replace the retainer later this month. This will still be concealable for things like family events and going to the opera, but on a normal daily basis i will soon be very obviously a noseringed slavegirl. On a college campus this would probably pass without much comment, but in my life this will raise some questions wherever they take me. i wear a permanent ownership tattoo and body piercings and have for years, but most bikinis keep it all pretty private. i will soon wear at least two more tattoos, and i'm told they will be "generally concealable," but to a much lesser extent. (No, it's not up to me where these marks will be, i don't even know what they will look like yet.) i anticipate some embarrassing questions, say at the beach or other people's pools, or worse, embarrassing looks without questions. And sometime this year i will receive a permanent collar which will not be removable, at least not by me; i have several collars now, and they like to change them daily, but the new collar might be installed for life; their plans are not final yet. After having my enslavement be nearly invisible to the nosy vanilla world all these years, dealing with these marks will be -- words fail me. Challenging doesn't begin to cover it.

And all this is possible now because my owners' lives have changed since they owned me before, and their attitudes toward owning me have changed, and we're all a little order and, i don't know, wiser? Braver? Crazier? They have the experience now to take owning me both more seriously and more playfully. They have the freedom now to let me become more visibly in public what i always have been inside and in private, and this will stretch all of our comfort zones; mine most of all, of course. They can always simply smile and say, "Oh, the woman who looks like she might be a sex slave? Yes, she belongs to us. Beautiful, isn't she? Is she really what she appears to be? Well, let's find out: Darling, lift your skirt for us and tell these ladies and gentlemen what you really are..."

(in reply to unbrokenhouseboy)
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RE: Closets! - 4/11/2005 1:21:12 PM   
Sweeticing


Posts: 164
Joined: 12/30/2004
Status: offline
Its a slow process. I sometimes wonder how many people are into bdsm and never tell me. I have let it slowly come out in prob. 5 years. everyone accepts it so far most think of it as a hobbie and not a lifestyle. or just think im really kinky but i dont care. But I do know not everyone is open to new things they do not know about. So im often bringing reading stuff to my friends or hubby attenction. But even with all the acceptance you still miss being able to talk with someone who really enjoys what you like and have the same experences . Thats what is good with this site.

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quote:


"What one has not experienced, one will never understand in print."...


quote:

"Imagination is more important than knowledge" Albert Einstein..

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RE: Closets! - 4/11/2005 4:45:42 PM   
subcheryl


Posts: 280
Joined: 11/2/2004
Status: offline
coming out of the closet is difficult, esp. to those who had no idea such a thing exsisted. When I first started into the life and was doing all the reading and chatting, I kept it very hush hush, then when I Met Master and was considering coming to him, one of my twins laughingly said yea mom is going to a guy with whips and chains, and I just smiled and let it go and his eyes just about popped out of his head,LOL. But think they have an idea, but to explain it is hard. I have a younger sister who I shared the life desires with and she couldn't understand how I could let a man "hit" me,(this due to childhood issues for both of us) well since I have moved to live with Master she too has started to explore the lifestyle with a Master "mentor" and is taking slow baby steps into exploring it for herself, she is more scared at excepting this side of herself. some others of my family know of my "kink" but not the whole details and that is ok with me, I have not needed others approval for what I do in my life as long as I didn't hurt my boys, I felt it was not their buisness. So guess I am half out not completely, guess it is more selective and never do I push it, just answer questions as asked, and I think I have raised possibly 4 Doms/Masters as I watch them in their married lives and such, we'll see.

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RE: Closets! - 4/11/2005 9:44:34 PM   
BlkTallFullfig


Posts: 5585
Joined: 6/25/2004
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: temptation
but it sucks sometimes, to be sitting next to someone,, and have a huge secret that you cant tell them.
anyways, anyone else keeping their kinky secret in the closet from someone in their life?

Know what you mean about being unable to share... 1 or 2 coworkers would like to get together and go out sometimes, and share girl/boy stories, and I really can't share most of this with them.
My family (brothers and sisters) do know, but not to what degree... Can't really talk beyond my Dominance/submission thing, which they think is funny for the most part, not reality. M

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a.k.a. SexyBossyBBW
""Touching was, and still is, and will always be, the true revolution" Nikki Giovanni

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RE: Closets! - 4/13/2005 6:38:41 PM   
Sinergy


Posts: 9383
Joined: 4/26/2004
Status: offline

Hello,

I learned long ago that most people I meet dont deserve entrance to most of my
consciousness except on a very surface level.

I dont have any problem not sharing what I do with people at large, I have friends
to discuss it with instead.

I had a physical trainer once tell me I was difficult to work with because I was not
readable.

Maybe high-stakes poker is in my future.

Sinergy


_____________________________

"There is a fine line between clever and stupid"
David St. Hubbins "This Is Spinal Tap"

"Every so often you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You cant do that, it is gone, gone forever." J. Danforth Quayle


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RE: Closets! - 4/13/2005 10:25:18 PM   
MistressJadeMTL


Posts: 168
Joined: 12/18/2004
From: Montreal, Canada
Status: offline
quote:

I sometimes wonder how many people are into bdsm and never tell me.


I have found more and more in the past year that more people in my circle of friends have a 'dark side' that even they might not have been aware of...

Case in point, a few months back, I attended a SciFi/Fantasy convention here in Montreal. I had brought several riding crops that I had bought the night before to show my best friend (another Domme). Since I have very bad knees stemming from a hiking accident 10 years ago, I occasionally use an electric scooter when I am attending 2-3 day events such as these, in order to not over-stress my knees by being on my feet all day. So, here I was, riding my bright red scooter with a black backpack hanging off the back of my seat, with several riding crops and a cat-o-nine sticking out of it!

Well, whenever I stopped to talked to old friends (and new friends met that day) I often ended up taking out the riding crops to jokingly show people as they would ask about them... Hmmm, within minutes they are whacking their own hands & thighs, usually not gently either. Give them a bit longer and they are looking longingly at their friend's or neighbour's butt to see if they would let them try giving them a whack... and all this is the semi-crowded hallways of a hotel!

It truly amazed me how much of a dark side came out of most people -- I think a lot of it has to do with a lot of them never having actually handled a real riding crop, cat-o-nine or flogger. They've probably seen riding crops on TV a lot, with nasty bitchy females, or Pro-Dommes, or even those tacky stereotypical wartime Nazi officers (Ve haff ways of makin' yoo talk!) But once they had one in their hand, you could almost see a change in their eyes like "Ooooooh, so this is what it's like!"

Anyways, I found that a most interesting and entertaining experiment of sorts, although that is not what it started off as. Given the opportunity, I think I will keep an eye open for other opportunities to see how many others around me have a lean towards "the dark side", especially if they might not even be aware of it themselves!

PS: Those who expressed a significant interest were discreetly informed of the local Fetish Friday events and several of those have even attended them. Pretty cool outcome on the whole...




Attachment (1)

< Message edited by MistressJadeMTL -- 4/13/2005 10:28:43 PM >


_____________________________

~ Mistress Jade Dragon

HeadMistress - FemDomme Society of Canada: http://FemDommeSociety.ca
Montreal BDSM/Fetish Calendar of events: http://ClubFetish.ca/calendar
Blog - Adventures of a HeadMistress - http://femdommesociety.ca/HeadMistress_Jade

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RE: Closets! - 4/14/2005 6:08:25 PM   
Rayne58


Posts: 746
Joined: 2/22/2005
From: Sydney Australia
Status: offline
When I am back in New Zealand the closet door is firmly shut. My family don't know that I am bi, or that Master and I have a D/s relationship. I have a couple of female friends who know and I value their friendship very much, they were so supporting of me when I was going through my marriage breakup.

However here in Australia our friends all know and accept that we are the "DV8" couple and He is Master and I am His bi sub. I have recently had to fly back to NZ twice for family reasons and I have felt so stifled that I just could not wait to get back to our life here, even though I love my family dearly. My mother is so conservative....she was horrified that I wanted to go live with a man I met on the "devil internet" even though I'm a grown woman of 46

I may tell my children some day if the subject comes up....my son is almost 22 and my daughter is 17 and I think they would handle it ok. I am keeping it quiet from my ex husband though - my daughter lives with him and I am afraid he may stop her from visiting us if this comes out However next year she will be 18 and able to make her own decisions - Master and I have a little joke about the "junior Domme"

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