Keeping away from the Jones's

billybofh's profile . billybofh's homepage

Posted by billybofh on Wed 30 Jan 02, 11:02 PM to billybofh's blog.

I was thinking, earlier - before I had as much wine as I've had now, about how people who were BDSM orientated lived in years gone by. I was thinking about the 50's in particular, which got me thinking about Modernity and the idea of "keeping up with the Jones's" - that is, if the next door neighbours can go to Spain on holiday - *we* can go to Spain too, etc etc.

Now that we (mostly) live in a Post-Modern world we are more likely to want to be "keeping away from the Jones's" - if the next door neighbours have gone to Spain, then that's the last place in the world *we* want to go...

So, I got to thinking, does that have any bearing on me (or "us")?

I'm sure we've all encountered the little cliques, the in-crowds, the self-referentials and the orbiting crowd. Are they forming into cliques becuase they are keeping away from the Jones's (the _other_ cliques) or are they examples of little pockets of Modernity within BDSM, buzzing beehives of behavioural norms?

And aside from that - is the desire for the dress that no one else has, the Dominant or submissive act which no-one else has performed, itself a Post-Modern act?

Do we all desire the freedom to foreground our own means of construction by dressing or behaving in "r/l" as we do in "scene"?

Is the D/s relationship the fetish communities equivelent of the 50's nuclear family? (but then, is the idea of 2.4 subbies really that attractive?

So, are we mostly a Modernist community, or are we a Post-Modern community? Or have I just had too many glasses of wine?

I know which one I'm betting on.....

Billy(bofh)

Edited Wed 30 Jan 02, 11:07 PM by billybofh