Do you sit in the dark staring at a screen, sometimes no more than a few inches wide, watching porn, reading kinky literature, or staring at erotic photographs online? Is your partner the only person you talk to about BDSM?
There is a big, bright BDSM community out there, waiting for you to come out of the shadows, join the conversation, and add your voice and your experience to the colorful fabric of an open, expressive, and (sometimes) loud group of people who think and feel much the same way you do. Believe it or not, us kinksters will benefit by your presence, whether you go online or head out to a munch or a kinky social. But even better and more important, you will reap your own rewards by joining, as well.
Even if your partner is willing to get as kinky as you can both imagine, it can feel isolating to be the only kinkster you know. You may even wonder if you’re the strange one, deviants, or unstable (you’re not.) Hiding outside the vanilla mainstream of your life is a vibrant community of kinksters, each experiencing BDSM in their own unique way, that’s waiting to welcome you.
When you reach out and learn, once and for all, that no, you’re not the only kinkster in town, you begin to feel less like an outsider looking in. You have people you can talk to about the strange feelings you have, the issues you face in a power exchange dynamic, and the things you love to do that you thought you could never mention. You quickly realize you are not alone.
Sit a few kinksters down in a room, even in the most vanilla setting, and the conversation will eventually turn to kinks, fetishes, and what we like to do. Yes, even in hushed tones so the elderly couple at the next table or the server refilling your water won’t overhear. After figuring out the things you have in common, you’ll start hearing about kinks, fetishes, and methods you never considered before.
The same is true online. In an active group, one question can yield a few hundred responses. Eventually someone will mention a way to do that kink (flogging, bondage, etc.) that you never considered before. It’s information to file away in your brain until the next time you play. The BDSM community offers a wealth of information you may never have considered on your own.
When a kinky relationship ends, it’s easy to feel that the world as you know it has ended. If it was a full power exchange relationship, both sides can feel lost and hopeless. Kinksters in the BDSM community can be an amazing source of support as you grieve the end of that relationship and find a way to move forward.
That same community can also be there when you’re trying to figure out if another kinkster is a safe player. The people you meet and trust are advisors and friends and can tell you if someone has a good or bad reputation. And if you find yourself in a questionable situation or your consent was violated, you have a group to reach out to for help and healing.
When you've finally found that special kinkster who 'gets' you...
Being a kinkster doesn’t mean you give up your vanilla friends. We all have a decidedly non-kinky life to live and experience. But most of us kinksters have no desire to share that part of our life for fear of judgement, disgust, or recrimination from people we care about.
Joining your local BDSM community and forming friendships with some of the people you meet gives you someone to vent to, to ask questions, and to share juicy details of a scene or a new sexual experience that your non-kinky friends might not understand. The kinkster friends you make in your BDSM community give you an outlet we don’t always know we need until we find ourselves having wine with friends who would never understand why we call our partner, “Daddy” or why we love to be called “slut.” Your kinky friends will totally get it.
If you’ve hesitated about joining online groups or going to a local event, let go of any fear or nervousness you have about it. Swallow down your uncertainty and go for it. The first person you meet might not become your best friend, but hopefully they’ll help you find your place in the BDSM community. The people who meet you will benefit from what you share, but you will receive so much more in return.
Feel like you've found your home in BDSM and kink? Drop a comment below or start a thread in the forum - the best place to get noticed and meet new kinksters!
Images by asw909 & joped via Flickr Creative Commons licence.
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