The bondage community hopes Max Mosley’s lawsuit will stop them being seen as perverts on the fringe of society
Jamie Doward
Sunday July 13, 2008
The Observer
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Max Mosley, the son of the fascist leader Sir Oswald, father of two, husband to Jean of 48 years and Formula 1 eminence grise, has a new role: unlikely poster boy for Britain’s BDSM community.
For the uninitiated, BDSM stands for ‘Bondage, Discipline and Sadomasochism’, a clumsy umbrella term for a vast range of sexual practices usually dismissed under the generic label ‘kinky’.
Its enthusiasts complain they are stigmatised by society to the point that some of their activities, while consensual, can see them sent to prison. Worse, according to many on the scene, is the way their activities, which usually feature the use of restraints, whips and role-play involving positions of power, are chronically misunderstood by wider society. Armchair psychologists dismiss BDSM as an unnatural, unhealthy desire for humiliation, while much of the general public regard its practitioners as perverts.
But the high-profile reporting of Mosley’s participation in a sadomasochistic orgy with five prostitutes in a Chelsea flat, with, according to the News of the World, a Nazi theme, has given the BDSM community the chance to come out of its dungeons.
‘This trial is a good thing,’ said Deborah Hyde, spokeswoman for Backlash, which campaigns for BDSM rights. ‘We’re finally getting the chance to talk to the media, who have ignored us for years. In Max Mosley we’ve got a man who says: “This is who I am.” He’s got expensive lawyers who can fight his case, but many others end up being dragged through the family courts or in front of their employers. In Mosley, we have someone who is fighting our corner.’
It’s probably fair to say that Mosley, 67, was not intent on championing a sexual subculture when he launched his invasion of privacy action over the paper’s publication in April of his predilection for S&M.
Nor is it likely that the multimillionaire president of the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile, Formula 1’s governing body, intended to start a national debate about what the French have for centuries dismissed as ‘the English disease’. But Mosley’s high-profile case, apart from providing one of the most titillating legal actions in recent history, may one day be seen as a watershed in the history of Britain’s sexual mores, say those in the BDSM community.
‘BDSM is increasingly recognised as a sexuality, like homosexuality,’ said Hyde. ‘Yet, despite this, it is illegal to practise certain S&M activities.’ Indeed, many people may not know that they are breaking the law in their own bedrooms.
Technically, it is illegal for a person to engage in S&M activities that leave a lasting mark on someone else’s body - as in the case of Mosley whose buttocks bled after being caned by one of the women involved in the orgy, a prostitute who went by the exotic monicker ‘Mistress Switch’. This - the raw and, arguably, illegal state of Mosley’s buttocks following his thrashing - is one reason the News of the World is attempting to justify its story as being in the public interest, but lawyers admit the definition of what constitutes a lasting mark is open to interpretation.
‘If you drag your fingernails down someone’s back and draw blood, you are breaking the law,’ said John Lovatt, a solicitor who advises the Spanner Trust, a group set up to defend the rights of sadomasochists. ‘If you leave a mark on someone, it’s really anyone’s guess.’
There have been at least four prosecutions of S&M practitioners in the UK since 1990, the most high-profile being the Spanner Case - which spawned the Spanner trust - when five men were jailed for giving each other consensual beatings, lacerations and genital abrasions. The case caused a furore and prompted calls for a change in the law.
The ‘hardcore’ element of the BDSM scene is practised only by a tiny minority, according to its supporters. ‘The S&M element of the scene is much more about getting an endorphin high,’ said Hyde. ‘People get high from giving and receiving pain.’ They also deny the popular belief that the world of S&M is split into two camps: ’subs’ (submissives) and ‘doms’ (dominators). ‘You find all sorts,’ Hyde said. ‘Many people enjoy both.’
Certainly Mosley does, or at least did. When not being whipped by prostitutes, some of whom were wearing German military outfits, he enjoyed spanking them with leather straps while barking orders in German, a language, he claims, felt suitably ‘bossy’ for the role. After an epic five-hour session Mosley and the prostitutes relaxed with a cup of tea.
The internet has played its part in promoting what was once a very underground scene. Inevitably, retail has followed the cultural shift and aspects of the BDSM scene have migrated to the High Street. Ann Summers, the chain of high-street sex shops, says its Bondage Starter Kits are one of its most popular products, selling in their hundreds every week. ‘They are a great way of introducing the starter to the softer aspect of bondage,’ according to a spokeswoman for the chain. At the start of the year, Ann Summers extended its popular cuffs range with fur ankle cuffs and under-bed restraints. An Ann Summers dominatrix kit, due out in September, includes a whip, blindfold and cuffs.
The growing desire to engage in aspects of BDSM is part of a wider trend, according to those at the vanguard. ‘People are exploring more,’ said Tuppy Owens, chair of the Sexual Freedom Coalition. ‘Women aren’t prepared to put up with a crap sex life any longer and men are exploring their inner self more.’
Owens believes the emergence of BDSM is the result of a society’s increasingly nuanced approach to sex. ‘It’s a very sophisticated form of sex play because it involves complete trust in other people,’ she said.
Owens claims the bondage scene became popular in the early 1990s as women developed a greater sense of confidence. ‘Women could get dressed up in really sexy corsets and leather and be in control,’ Owens said. ‘They could be goddesses and men would fall at their feet.’ Today, Owens claims, no town is without some form of BDSM club.
But, as with all sexual predilections, some can end up being damaged by their desires. For a small segment of the population, S&M has ceased to be about empowerment or even pleasure. The Portman Clinic, a specialist psychotherapy unit that treats people with sexual problems, regularly sees those for whom S&M has become a worrying addiction.
The patients, many of whom have suffered emotional difficulties in childhood due to parental deprivation, misunderstanding or repeated experiences of emotional humiliation, have often become alarmed about how their S&M acts have ended up consuming them.
‘The people we tend to see are those for whom the practices are a problem either because they sense they are taking over their lives or because it comes to a point when these activities frighten them,’ said Carlos Fishman, a consultant at the clinic. ‘Those who engage in sadomasochistic activities want, in an unconscious and silent way, to control and dominate the other, so as to manage feelings of intense anxiety. People who engage in sadomasochistic acts can’t tolerate mental pain. They replace mental pain with physical pain and in so doing feel triumphant over emotional suffering. They find it difficult to tolerate sadness, hurt, rejection, and other ordinary painful human feelings, and rid themselves of them by inflicting them, so to speak, on the body of the “other”.’
Those who seek help from the Portman Clinic are told there is no easy cure. ‘We tell our patients it takes years rather than months,’ Fishman said.
Mosley makes no apologies. ‘I’ve been doing [S&M] for 45 years and there’s never been the slightest hint of that coming out,’ he said last week. ‘If it hadn’t been for bribery and illegal acts, this wouldn’t have come out.’
Different strokes: Bondage toys and moves
Abrasion Any form of sensation play involving stroking or brushing the skin with rough, textured objects such as sandpaper.
Ball gag A gag consisting of a ball, usually rubber, which is attached to a strap. The ball is placed in the mouth and the strap is placed around the head to hold it in place.
Catherine’s wheel A large, upright wheel, usually made of wood, to which a person may be bound and then rotated to any position.
Electrical play Any of a variety of different practices involving the use of electrical current or electricity to stimulate a person.
Frog tie A specific form of bondage in which one person kneels and their ankles are bound to the thighs.
Pony play An activity in which the submissive takes on the role of a pony; for example, by walking on all fours, sometimes wearing a bridle.
Top One who administers some form of stimulation, but does not have psychological control or power over that person.
Zip strip: An arrangement of clothes pegs along a length of cord or twine, which can be clipped on the body and then yanked off one by one or all at once.
