2008 Woodie Awards
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The Scene
Doin' it: 'WAM' bam, thank you, ma'am: fetishes
By Pierce Hardcastle on 10/25/07
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Now, believe it or not, I read the Daily Jolt forum sometimes. Although it's usually just a place for students to be racist, sexist or homophobic anonymously, there is occasionally something interesting. Recently, some Jolters were discussing last night's event and were shocked the Methodists could support it. Others rushed to the defense of the hosts, but generally there was confusion about what BDSM actually is. Someone suggested I tackle it in my next column, so in lieu of having no questions to answer again, this week, I'm writing about the often maligned, but perhaps secretly fond, attitude toward BDSM.
Just like everyone is a little bit queer, everyone has a little bit of kink in them. Think I'm wrong? Imagine yourself masturbating or having sex. Do you ever want it a little bit harder, faster or sloppier? Not proof enough for you? Have you ever enjoyed watching someone being ejaculated on or peed on in porn? Those are similar to Wet and Messy fetishism, otherwise known as WAM.
Fetishes are generally the attribution of sexual qualities to things, such as feet. But there really are a number of outlandish fetishes that you would not easily believe, such as "sploshing," which can sometimes mean sitting on cakes. Another high-preparation WAM fetish involves having pie fights before sex.
The fact is that people need different things to get excited. Many straight guys like to slide their dicks back and forth between the breasts of a woman. It feels great, but think about how objectively weird that is. Now, is having sex after throwing pies at each other any weirder?
It's easy to regard these activities as freakish, but the truth is that most of the time, fetishes are just about desires that are totally safe and healthy. Sometimes you hear about things going wrong, like it did for Rev. Gary Aldridge in June. The dead Baptist minister was found hog-tied, wearing two wetsuits, a face mask, diving gloves, rubberized underwear and a rubber hood. Rest assured, accidents like this are anomalies.
BDSM and plain old S&M, as described in the workshop title, are along the same lines. Now don't get me wrong, there are different dynamics at work here, but there's nothing sinister about it. Legally, psychologically and even religiously, there's nothing bad about domination, in most cases. There's even christiansandbdsm.com, a Web site devoted to reconciling BDSM and Christ (check it out, Jolters).
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