Midori "Gets" Fifty Shades of Grey

First publised on 2/1/2013

I've become so used to BDSM folks dissing 50 Shades of Grey because it does not portray a perfect, idealized BDSM relationship (and honestly, gets a lot of stuff wrong) that I was extremely pleased to discover a positive quote from one of the leading lights of the bondage community, rope bondage expert Midori, who has already made an appearance on Politically Sexy.com. Midori said:

Xtra: Would you say EL James’s novel Fifty Shades of Grey has had an influence on the world of bondage?
Midori: Sure it has. It’s given the general culture permission to explore a wider range of sexual expression. It’s about opening a dialogue.

Source: Xtra Canada's Gay and Lesbian News. Midori gets it! Fifty Shades of Grey, whatever its flaws as a work of art, has allowed people in mainstream culture to explore BDSM without getting the "EEEEWS" and the "double ickies!" all over themselves. For this alone it is great benefit to BDSM culture. But everybody's gotta protect their own special vision of what BDSM is or can be, so a lot of BDSM folks have taken the short & easy road to dissing "Fifty Shades of Grey" as a way of showing their superiority. Sure, we get it, you know stuff. But still ... so short-sighted! So dumb! The folks like Midori who actually do have their act together know better.

Fifty Shades of Grey Seedlings

First published on 1/24/2013

Kink.com is not the only bondage-related thing that is getting mainstreamed of late. "Soft" bondage, whatever that is, is also taking off according to a report in Entertainmentwise.com, which is not exactly a fetish site, as you'll note.

The article, basically a fluff piece, interviews James Deen (known well from Kink.com) who is fast becoming the go-to guy as bondage's most well-known star and a manufacturer of a line of sex aids/toys called Liberator (There may be some sexism going on here, there have been MANY well-known and successful women who have promoted and advanced sexual bondage over the years ... Midori, Lorelei Imboch, Chanta Rose, the list is very long indeed, yet James Deen is the go-to source for the press. Well at least they are going to someone who actually does bondage.)

The Liberator people obligingly ascribe the upward boost in sales of their products to an increase of awareness of "soft" bondage and interest in it, created by "50 Shades of Grey." And they're probably right. I'm seeing other articles in which bondage is being matter-of-factly described as a culture phenomenon rather than some bizarre fetish, like this one on celebrity bondage looks from Hollywoodife.com, which asks which actress looks best in leather "bondage" fashion.

What I see happening is that the effects of Fifty Shades of Grey are beginning to appear in our culture. Fifty million seeds have been planted, their effects are invisible as they grow in our collective unconscious, now we see the first tiny shoots poking above the unconscious into mainstream media. Gonna be interesting to watch and see what grows, and how it grows.