Is BDSM “Bad”?
Why are there so many stories of abuse?
Is BDSM abuse?
You might be forgiven for thinking so given how it is treated in the media these days. Despite no longer being portrayed as both criminal and a perversion, the real-life examples of its practice that make it into the public sphere and thus consciousness often involve criminal cases of abuse.
The increasing normalization of BDSM in popular culture still seems to involve gross misrepresentations of consent and depict the people involved with BDSM as being somehow psychologically ill or unhealthy. Whether it’s the notorious “Fifty Shades of Grey” movies that show a man being kinky as a symptom of his emotional dysfunction or the various kink-shaming scenarios that are inserted into popular TV shows over the years to shock and awe the public. What comes to mind is Count Odo in Season Three of the Vikings TV show flogging a French noblewoman from the court. Though she appears to be willing to have an affair, she doesn’t seem to quite realize what she’s getting into and they don’t show her enjoying it.
Even TV shows like “Bonding” on Netflix that try to humanize and portray BDSM as “normal” and OK, still manage to do disservices to the alternative lifestyle scene and ultimately shame submissive males by portraying them as ridiculous and using them to provide comic relief, not to…
