Spanking Column In The Village Voice
Author Rachel Kramer Bussel wrote a spanking column for The Village Voice last week, and since Spanking Blog got a mention and a link, it seems only fair that I return the favor. The column’s somewhat in the nature of a standard “explaining spanking to the vanillas” article, without a great deal that will seem fresh to readers of this blog. However, it is kink-sympathetic and fairly accurate, which is pretty good for mainstream press treatment.
(Yes, I know; by calling the Village Voice “mainstream press” I’m shocking the generation older than me. But hey, if you chop down trees and smear ink on them, that’s mainstream these days.)
I saw this linked to on another website and thought it was great apart from Katie Spades dismissing submissives as “doormats”. That’s not what I call “kink-friendly.
No, it sure isn’t, is it?
It’s an example of something I’ve ranted against in the past; namely, the tendency of kinky people to be dismissive or contemptuous of other kinky people whose kinks are different. Frankly, it baffles me. As old Ben Franklin said, we must all hang together or we shall most assuredly hang separately.
Of course, having said that, we should probably remember that people are often misquoted in the newspaper. Even more often, the juiciest thing they said is quoted, while the explanatory disclaimers that soften their opinion are “too boring” and don’t survive the editorial cut.
Yes…however the article was linked by Ms Spades herself, and I exect if she’d been misquoted she’d have been sure to point it out. In fact in my reply to her post I acknowledged that this might ahve been the case. I’d think it’s more a case of ignorance than dismissiveness and I can’t think why she felt the need to comment on Ds when it wasn’t the subject of the article and she clearly knows nothing whatsoever about it. You’re right in that we should all hang together, as a submissive I would never dream of deriding spankophiles, we’re all kinky and should respect and tolerate each other.
“…and she clearly knows nothing whatsoever about it.” Libertina, please don’t attack other people in the Spanking Blog comments. Normally I would delete your comment, but the rest was constructive. But please bear in mind that we don’t allow direct personal attacks here, especially against people who are not here to defend themselves. I’m not impressed with the remark Ms. Spades made, but that’s no reason to engage in hyperbole about her level of knowledge or understanding. I don’t know her, you apparently don’t know her, hyperbolic claims about her level of ignorance are thus in the realm of insult, and unwelcome here.
Apparently it has to be said: This is my blog, and I’m the one who gets to decide what’s a personal attack and what isn’t, in my blog comments. Attempting to argue the point gets your comment deleted.
Hi,
I was actually misquoted in the article and not all of what I wrote was published so thank you SpankBoss for not allowing the offensive comments to continue but if anyone would like to see the entire article and what I wrote exactly as I said a lot more than was quoted, I would hardly call myself ignorant and dismissive.
Katie
Hey Everyone,
I want to chime in on Katie’s remarks. She never called any of you doormats, so please stop attacking her. In addition, she never called submissives doormats as she herself is one! The whole point behind that quote was to show that while she does get spanked for discipline and is submissive to me to a degree, she does not do everything I say and she does voice her opinions. It is a common misconception that submissives are doormats and Katie was trying to show that isn’t the case. She wrote a lot about that in the interview but the village voice simply summed it up by saying “jake owns her ass but doesn’t control it” or something like that and a few other lines.
I apologize some of you felt that she was attacking you, but why not talk to her about it instead of attacking her in a public forum without getting the facts? Imagine how you would feel if you were browsing the internet and found a group of people were baselessly attacking you for something without anyone giving you the courtesy of a response or even letting you know?
Jake
I’m sorry but I’m going to have to jump in here now. Katie said the same thing in her interview with Padme so has she been misquoted twice now?
Also, Jake, I did ask Katie about this and at that time she stood by her view that some submissives are “doormats.” I won’t quote her as that was a personal email and I don’t want to violate her privacy but after reading your comments, I had to say something.