The Washington Post
by
Thanks to a revealing Facebook post by former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi, kink, specifically BDSM (bondage, domination, sadism and masochism) is in the spotlight.
The CBC fired Ghomeshi, 47, on Sunday after it received information the network said “precludes” it from retaining the popular host of its “Q” radio show.
Ghomeshi’s post was meant to preempt the publication of an investigation by the Toronto Star, which shared the allegations of three women who maintain they were sexually assaulted by Ghomeshi, and one who alleges he sexually harassed her at work.
Kink figures heavily into this story. Ghomeshi maintains the CBC fired him because it wanted to distance itself from elements of his private, consensual sex life the network found unsavory.
“I’ve been fired from the CBC because of the risk of my private sex life being made public as a result of a campaign of false allegations pursued by a jilted ex girlfriend and a freelance writer,” Ghomeshi wrote in the same post in which he informed his fans he was suing the CBC for $50 million for wrongful termination. “Sexual preferences are a human right.”
But members of the kink community, such as Andrea Zanin, have been reluctant to back Ghomeshi. Some voiced concerns the former host is using kink and the public’s general ignorance of the subject as a shield for criminal behavior. This is not necessarily a story about whether a Canadian broadcaster has the right to dismiss its most high-profile talent over the details of his sex life — which Howard Levitt of the Financial Post maintained it does. Rather, they said, this is a story about consent.
Zanin is a PhD candidate at York University, where she’s pursuing a degree in gender, feminist and women’s studies. She blogs at Sex Geek and bills herself a “pervert.” On Monday, Ms. Magazine republished her blog post on Ghomeshi and the allegations against him. Zanin deftly picks apart the idea Ghomeshi was targeted by the CBC or by the women who talked to the Star for being kinky: …