X-From-Line: nobody Mon Jan 26 11:08:49 1998
Newsgroups: soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm
Subject: Re: Culture:  The Difference between Hedonism and WIITWD
References: <34c8ab68.1253472@news.mindspring.com>
From: Paul Crowley <paul@hedonism.demon.co.uk>
Date: 26 Jan 1998 11:08:49 +0000
Message-ID: <87zpkjxzjy.fsf@hedonism.demon.co.uk>
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gpharr@mindspring.com (Eugene H. Pharr, Jr.) writes:
> Seek to be what it is that you are.  Avoid being a Hedonist.

Can't do both, sorry.

I identify as a hedonist (check the sitename) because I cherish and
value pleasure as a worthy goal in itself, in a society which
expresses its pleasure-negative bias not only in banning and
condemning various forms of harmless pleasure but also in denigrating
pleasure itself, as if doing a thing "just for fun" or just because it
turns you on is a second-rate reason in itself.  I think the desire to
draw a distinction btween "real" BDSMmers and "mere" pleasure-seekers
is a reflection of that pleasure-negative pressure, in the same way
that when respectable, middle-class gay men in monogamous couples are
rude about drag queens and backroom sex (for "letting the side down"
and "giving us a bad name") it is a reflection of homophobia.

Besides which, hell, being fed peeled grapes is fun.
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