Of course, a lot of people do enjoy consensual degradation in real life!  It's just a different kind of sexuality.

But the BDSM in 50 Shades is not about real life BDSM practictioners or situations, and the characters are fantasy too.    In fact, it's quite offensive if you try to see it as being about BDSM relationships (I think the message is that that particular sexual orientation is wrong and needs to be "cured").  (And also doesn't even have a lot of SM - there's quite a lot of pretty vanilla sex with sensory play and so on, IIRC). 

Anyway, I think that's the case with some of the more extreme fan fiction that you might read - it's not about that actual thing (incest, or whatever), but about the fantasy of it.    It's funny that you remember that series too, Ukaunz!  There was also the Nancy Friday books around the same time, which were purely about women's fantasies, and some of them were pretty wild (bestiality, forced sex, etc.), but with presumably not necessarily any desire to act out, or approval of those acts in real life.   I do think it's important that people are able to see that distinction between fantasy and reality. 

Last edited by Liberty (June 19, 2016 10:25 am)

I know conversation moved on, but I just remembered this...

ewige wrote:

I'm all for stats but we're just a tiny (and skewed) sample. Besides, not all users are slashers. Not all users identify on the usual scale of sexuality or wish to provide all answers or to participate at all.

It would be great to start a poll on ao3 with fewer questions but a larger sample. 

 
...and wanted to share a link I just found
http://centrumlumina.tumblr.com/post/63208278796/ao3-census-masterpost

Last edited by Whisky (June 21, 2016 10:56 pm)