It’s amazing how effectively one person can alter a subculture.
Added 2024-10-06 12:19:22 +0000 UTCWhen I created this profile back in 2014, being a good sub meant melting into a subservient puddle of jelly at the sight of a dom in a black T-shirt. Good subs were masters of pain. They always obeyed, usually while kneeling. If you weren’t an Uber Masochist who spoke in S/slashy S/speak, you were obviously a switch in disguise <ptuey>. Switches were the Fetlife equivalent of litter runts, so we used to talk an awful lot about topping from the bottom.
We’ve come a long way since 50 Shades infiltrated this community. These days most of the locals will tell you to follow your own map. Find a D-type who fits your ideals about power exchange. Be a brat. Over-use your safe word. Poke a sadist. Whatever blows your jute back. Consent is your only master here.
Of course, we still have One Twue Wayists around. They’ll always be out there somewhere, but we don’t let them define our dynamics as much as we used to. Maybe it was Generation Y that did it. Maybe it was the series of arrests that removed a few toxins from the scene. Maybe it was just something in the water.
Whatever it was, we’re not in Oz anymore, Dorothy, and Kansas is a lot prettier anyway.
Back in 2015, I watched a group of bratty subs perform a K&P coup d’etat to call out a didactic “master” who defined submission for all of us. We have our share of problems to deal with, but we don’t have to perform coups like that any more. It’s amazing how effectively one person can alter a subculture. If you have a platform, you have sway, and that’s not always a good thing.
The Australian police removed two of our most toxic platforms, and suddenly overriding attitudes towards D/s started to change. Before that, one particular Fetlebrity master accused brats and switches of changing the colour of these waters.
And he was right. They did colour the waters. Now, they look like a rainbow. How is that a bad thing?
