S&M workshop brings out the gimps

JULIA TIERNAN/YH As Mistress Mir knows, love means you never have to say you're bleeding.

The large wooden table at the front of the room is obscured by a panoply of floggers, whips, cats-o-nine-tails, chains, canes, and instruments whose function is a mystery. To the right, Mistress Mir, a professional dominatrix, is fastening an eyeless leather hood to the head of an audience volunteer who's already sporting a straitjacket. Slightly to the left, Keltie Ferris, CC '99, is clad in the uniform of an East German customs officer, although the boots she wears aren't quite accurate--a fact that annoys "D.," the owner of the uniform. D. loaned the uniform to Keltie earlier; now, she stands behind the table and lists various methods of bondage. She draws a red plastic gag to her mouth, simultaneously evoking images of the Flintstones and Robert Mapplethorpe. "Isn't it cute?" she giggles.

Welcome to the S/M 101 panel and workshop, sponsored by the Yale LGBT Co-op. The first major event of Pride Week, it managed to draw a crowd of about 50 to WLH 119 on Mon., Mar. 29. Directed by Mistress Mir and D., New Haven community members and S/M practitioners, the panel promised to educate its audience about the concerns and basic methods of sadomasochism, bondage, and domination. Both D. and Mistress Mir were trained in the Old Guard style, a traditional standard of learning the culture and mannerisms of sadomasochism. According to D., following World War II a number of gay men settled in San Francisco and became interested in leather and motorcycles. The culture they developed formed the sadomasochistic hierarchies of today, which include "leather families" that practice sadomasochistic activities while adopting a theatrical relationship intended to mimic the relationships of an actual family.

D. and Mistress Mir spent the bulk of the 90-minute panel defining the practices their hobby encompasses and displaying the tools they use, making the workshop educational and accessible to audience members with little previous knowledge of the culture and practices of S/M. Placing constant emphasis on the keywords "safe," "sane," and "consensual," D. and Mir pointedly dispelled the stereotypes and aversions S/M typically generates.

Even when the pair seemed obsessive, they were also witty. Mir estimated that the private dungeon of machinery and facilities she owns is worth $65,000, laughingly understating that S/M is "not a cheap hobby." D.'s frustration with Keltie's boots was the frustration of an informed perfectionist. Meeting perfectly charismatic, intelligent people who practice S/M does much to humanize a culture that seems harsh, alien, or cruel to mainstream America.

However, while the workshop succeeded in obliterating preconceived notions of S/M as symptomtic of cruelty or mental illness, it did little to reveal what actually attracts people to participate in sadomasochism, bondage, and domination. Because a single whip costs in the neighborhood of $200, S/M can become a major investment. Both Mir and D. acknowledged that S/M is costly but did little to clarify why it is worthwhile. If the thrill of S/M is merely its status as a subversive activity, there are a multitude of cheaper ways to be seditious.

Maybe that isn't the point, though. It's easy to dismiss S/M as a stranger's fetish or an irrational attraction to theatrics. That still doesn't explain the culture's expansiveness, or the dedication of people like D. and Mir. "It's very psychological," D. assured. Then perhaps S/M's allure is based in its constant insinuation of power and sex, which appeal to everyone on some level. As for the cost of the hobby, a few hundred dollars for a few floggers isn't prohibitively expensive. People spend more than that on, say, a swimming pool. And wouldn't the average American rather have sex than go swimming?

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