WAMU
By: Kristen Sorensen
I’m not quite sure how to say this, so I’ll just come right out with it: Washingtonians are kinky.
Based on a 2014 report, more than 11,000 residents in D.C., Maryland and Virginia participate in BDSM. Based on population size, this makes Washington, D.C., the kinkiest place in the nation.
California based pornography giant Kink.com recently published an article rating the 10 kinkiest cities in the U.S. It listed D.C. as number five based on porn consumption habits. I spoke with Mike Stabile, Kink.com’s communication director. He explained that Kink’s article used data on users of Kink.com combined with data from FetLife.
So is D.C. the capital of kink? And if so, what does that say about us? …
A changed stance
For years, the American Psychiatric Association categorized people who participated in BDSM as mentally ill.
“It really had a chilling effect on everyone who was kinky,” says Susan Wright, the founder of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. “It really kept us isolated. It keeps people from coming out because there is such a stigma.”
She created the coalition in 1997 to advocate for consenting adults with sexual interests outside the mainstream. And after more than a decade, her hard work paid off. In 2010, the psychiatric association changed its stance.
“They came right out and said kinky people are perfectly mentally healthy.”
In the D.C. region, there are more than 10,000 people who practice BDSM, according to a study last year examining social network use. So why is it so popular in the nation’s capital?
“I think that politics is about power and how you wield that power and in a lot of ways so is kinky sex. Its about the power exchange,” Wright says. “So its really no wonder to me that people in D.C. are into BDSM.”
For many, she says, the BDSM lifestyle is more like a sexual orientation than a choice: “People’s sexual desires are as individual as a fingerprint.”
Updated June 3, 2015