@NaomiElizabeth so…most kink is not about shame. Kink, in general, is best understood as a form of adult play, including sexual play, but not limited to it. Some forms of play will involve finding a way to play or find catharsis around a taboo or shameful thing, and there can definitely be ways that plays into a kink. But that’s only some.

For example, flogging and impact play is a lot more about the sensations themselves, the stress cycle response, and dynamics of tension and release. For me personally, it is sensually pleasing and is a form of release and catharsis, but not inherently sexual. On the other hand, scratching, claws, and biting are just directly sensually and sexually pleasing for me and my body. There’s no real other association with it, there’s no dynamic of shame or taboo, it is just the direct sensual stimulus that also stimulates the erotic networks in my brain.

Power dynamics are another area of play where it’s less about shame and more about giving up a sense of control or taking a sense of control. It’s playing with something we have to manage every day as adults, and either taking more than we are usually allowed or letting go and letting someone else lead. These are aspects of it at least.

I just share all this because I think a lot of people who aren’t in kink community have misperceptions about what it is and why it is. Some things can be specifically tied to a trauma or sham or something like that, but a lot more of it is about play, exploration, and sensuality.

And these are things the fascists fear and try to suppress, because it threatens or troubles a hegemonic and monolithic way of life the want to inhabit. They take their anxiety and stress around uncertainty and impose it on others, rather than maybe playing with it and finding catharsis instead. That’s where I’m coming from in the original toot mostly.