Pervs and Prejudice

...little late to start concerning yourself with what is and isn’t perverted. I’m not saying that BDSM is perverted—it isn’t in my opinion—but the kind of people who obsess about the supposed perversity of other people’s sex lives regard BDSM as hella perverted, as the kids were only too recently saying. All you need to concern yourself with, FLAP, is consent—obtaining consent before anything goes down, maintaining a state of consent once things get going. So are you a consenting adult, FLAP? Is your partner a consenting adult? Yes and yes? Then you’re free to do whatever the hell you want in the sack—and that includes pretending that one of you isn’t a consenting adult. Adults can safely and ethically explore through fantasy and role-play things that we wouldn’t (because they’re wrong) or couldn’t (because they’re impossible) do in reality. A nice girl who would never dream of ever actually owning a human being can pretend to own a sex slave without having to forfeit her “nice girl” status; a decent guy who would never commit the crime of rape can pretend to rape a partner with rape fantasies without having to forfeit his “decent guy” status. The same goes for age play, FLAP. As for telling the boyfriend about it without sounding perverted: Sorry, FLAP, can’t help you there. It’s going to sound perverted—and sick and wrong—because the scenario you want to explore is all kinds of sick and wrong. Just own it when you tell him about it: “I know this is crazy and fucked up, but these stories really turn me on.” My best friend is a good-looking, professional young man with a conservative sensibility and traditional values. Recently, one of his married coworkers (a bright and sexy young lady) has been pursuing him. I’ve met her personally, and she’s a very cool girl. Confident, socially graceful, and fun. She is currently in the process of legally separating from her husband, who over the last year or so has completely cut her off sexually. My roommate wants no part of a sexual relationship with her while she’s married. Even if she does separate, he is worried about being a rebound. I’ve told him to wait until she’s separated, but then to go for it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? And she’s a cool person who will be scooped up by some lucky guy if he doesn’t move now. Dude In Seattle Let me see if I follow: If this woman were unmarried and unattached, DIS, your friend with the “traditional values” wouldn’t have any problem fucking her? A point of order: When did premarital sex become a “traditional value”? I don’t care if your buddy fucks this woman or not. (He should; lots of rebounds turn into wonderful and lasting relationships.) I’m just curious how we got to the point where anything goes—premarital sex, oral and anal sodomy, multiple marriages (hey there, Karl Rove!)—for heterosexuals and nothing is a violation of “traditional values” so long as the fornicators are straight. An unmarried straight man with shit on his dick and three different women’s pubes in his mouth can claim to have a “conservative sensibility and traditional values”—how’d that happen? As for your friend, DIS, I’ve known a few guys who went on and on about how attracted they were to a woman and how much they wanted to fuck all of her orifices and eat her pussy until she turned inside out but they couldn’t have hot, premarital, heterosexual sex due to some technicality that violated their traditional values. All of those guys eventually came out. Just sayin’. Could you wax philosophical for a paragraph or two, Dan, about a column from a few weeks ago? I want to know what makes Sexually Frustrated Fetishist’s preference to involve feet in sex morally preferable to his partner’s preference not to do so? Why is her insistence on her preference “selfish” while his insistence merely reflects his “sexual fulfillment”? More generally, what’s the reason for your tendency to side with the person who wants to do x, even to the point of encouraging infidelity, over the person who doesn’t want to do x, when the more intuitive answer might be “Gee, maybe you guys just aren’t sexually compatible?” Skeptical Erotic Compromises I don’t always side with the kinksters, SEC. I’ve sided with women who didn’t want to cuckold their husbands and with straight guys who didn’t want to have same-sex contact during a threesome. I encourage people to be good, giving, and game (GGG), which only requires us, as I’ve explained, to consider our partner’s reasonable sexual requests. I’ve never suggested that any and all sexual requests must be fulfilled. I’ll wax now: The odds that any one of us will wind up with a partner whose sexual interests align perfectly with our own are essentially zero. Since no two people are a perfect fit sexually, SEC, both partners must engage in a good-faith give-and-take to craft a mutually satisfying sexual repertoire that doesn’t leave either person feeling resentful or badly used. Does everyone get everything they want? Nope. But each of us has a right to put our needs out there and a concurrent responsibility to meet our partner’s needs if at all possible. And each of us should have the sense to pull the plug when the sexual disconnect is too great. As to what makes SFF’s request reasonable and his girlfriend’s refusal unreasonable, SEC, it comes down to just what is being asked of the nonkinky partner. All SFF is asking is for his girlfriend to kick off her shoes and allow him to treat her feet the way another man might treat his girlfriend’s breasts. It’s not too much to ask, and an unselfish lover wouldn’t regard it as too much to give. HEY, EVERYBODY: I’m hosting a special performance of Xanadu at the Paramount Theatre on January 20. It’s a fundraiser for Equal Rights Washington. Benefit tickets include seating on the main floor and admission to a special afterparty at Chapel with cast members following the performance. Trouble Dicso’s H.M.A. will be DJing, and there will be appetizers and a no-host bar. Tickets are $99, and every cent goes to ERW. To purchase tickets, go to thestranger .com/XanaduTix. Xanadu is a great (and sexy) musical, ERW is a great organization—please join me at the show! [email protected]