My rant to Phoenix Society on "SSC"

Nice rant golden :) I just want to address 2 points. First is the idea that the Old Gaurd was military based... a lot of it was also based on the gay men's "leather"- IE biker scene too... the colors system, the idea of earning one's leathers, all comes from the motorcycle clubs.The other is this comment:>BDSM is not only a matter of SSC; it's a matther of SSCF (Safe, Sane, Consensual and Fun).This is going to me going into my SSC rant. I do suspension bondage, extreme breath play, flesh hooks, and scat play. These things are not safe. I am kinky, omnisexual and have a plethora of play partners and also work in porn- by many definitions I am by my lifestyle thus not sane. As for consentuality... the line is SO blurry it hurts. FUN? Oh, yeah, fun is good. But the number of folks in the scene who do NOT do "fun" is staggering, and the number of times I or my friends have been politely or rudely asked to leave dungeons for laughing is staggering.So, is SSC (or even SSCF) has issues, why do folks use it? Legalities folks.If I say I adhere to being Safe, Sane, and Consentual, and my partner happens to leave this mortal plane due to complications in our "fun", i can say "whoops we were just having fun" and I get hit with manslaughter by the courts as a Top for killing my bottom. If, however, I say "no Mr. Policeman, I knew that breath play was this risky and did it anyway, I knew I was not being safe", I get can get hit with Murder 2. Fun fun fun huh?The other reason is public appearances. If "we" as a community hold hard onto the SSC mantra, we can get folks from the ACLU willing to work for our rights, get folks in the vanilla community to go "they are not so different from us", hope that our kids won't be taken away because we are safe- we are the smiley happy face of BDSM.The new "mantra" going around is RACK, Risk Aware Consentual Kink. The idea is that I am aware of what my risks are, but i play consentually within agreed risk levels and types of play. It's a more reasonable way to define how many of us play- but it screws us over royally with the authorities if anything goes wrong.I am the soft fuzzy face of SM, I get college kids to tie each other up, I get established relationship folks to walk on the wild side, I encourage folks to be sexually adventurous... in classes, workshops, performances, articles, and soon a book... but is SSC the mantra that we should be chanting if it's not true. It's a nice myth, but should it be a myth that is supported? i'm not sure...Oh, and thanks for getting me back on the list :)-Bridgett Harringtonhttp://www.ropelover.com