This post is a little outside my usual material, as it features a scene description with a female submissive and at least one male dominant. However, I found it a thought provoking read and I’m guessing others may feel the same way.
The scene in question is a lengthy interrogation, featuring several dominants and submissives, and incorporating a lot of the techniques the US military have used. For example, stress positions, loud noise, sensory deprivation, breath control and, the really controversial one, water boarding. Emma Jane, one of the female submissives interrogated, wrote a detailed description of it on her blog. It’s an intense read.
This is the second time in the last few days that I’ve linked to what I would call an extreme activity. The previous post on scat and toilet play generated some interesting comments and can be read here. Both of these activities fall well outside the conventional BDSM play that takes place every day in bedrooms and pro-domme dungeons. But speaking from a personal perspective, I actually have a much easier job understanding the appeal of the scat play than I do this interrogation scene. I may not want to be a human toilet, but I get the buttons it pushes in terms of worship, service, intimacy and a kind of personalized objectification (if that’s not a contradiction in terms). This kind of interrogation seems to go way beyond that typical power exchange, and into a brutal stripping away of power. I always feel that even in very cruel sadistic play, the dominant has some sort of emotional connection with the submissive. It might be a twisted complex connection, but it’s still there. This scene appears to try and do everything possible to remove that, which makes it really difficult for me to get into and understand their headspace.
This isn’t to say I don’t understand the appeal of interrogation scenes. I can certainly imagine role playing an exciting scene with sadistic secret policewomen in their underground torture cellar (to pick a random example from my fevered imagination). Some old fashioned electrodes on the testicles or needles under the fingernails seems so much more personal and understandable.
I also struggle a little with the idea of doing water boarding scenes. Not from a safety or play perspective, but from their current political context. It makes me sick to think that the US military has tortured prisoners, and it somehow seems wrong to adopt their latest techniques for our ‘entertainment’. I realize this isn’t an entirely rational viewpoint, but closeness in time and space to awfulness does seem to matter. Role playing a Vietnam POW torture scene today might be weird, but I don’t think anyone would be too upset. It would have been a lot more troubling to do in back in the 60’s when American POW’s were actively suffering.
Anyway, while I might not personally be queuing up for an afternoon in the woods with this group of dominants, I do admire the courage and dedication it take to go through with this type of play. Not to mention the level of trust needed, and the skill required to pull it off properly. My thanks to Emma Jane for the fascinating write-up.