1. Big Bucks for Pain Sluts
2. Protective order denied under 'slavery contract'
3. Bondage Unmasked
4. City Pressures Suspected Swinger Club
5. High Infidelity
6. Group looks for approval
7. FSC Preliminary Injunction Ruling To Be Appealed
8. Greenburgh officer accused of solicting arrested dominatrix
9. Concerns About Sex Club in Fresno
10. Dominatrix: I was bound by rap
1. Big Bucks for Pain Sluts
2. Protective order denied under 'slavery contract'
3. Bondage Unmasked
4. City Pressures Suspected Swinger Club
5. High Infidelity
6. Group looks for approval
7. FSC Preliminary Injunction Ruling To Be Appealed
8. Greenburgh officer accused of solicting arrested dominatrix
9. Concerns About Sex Club in Fresno
10. Dominatrix: I was bound by rap
Big Bucks for Pain Sluts:
Inside the kinky world of professional submissives
by Rachel Kramer Bussel
The Village Voice (New York)
February 10, 2006
Over the course of her career, Joan Kelly (submarnie.net) has been strung up and splashed with freezing water, had her labia sewn shut, gotten caned, and taken countless bare-bottomed spankings – and has loved almost every minute of it. As "Marnie," the Los Angeles-based kinky gal works as an independent professional submissive. For $260 an hour (to start), you can hire her to lie across your lap and get whacked good and hard (her favorite) or, for several thousand dollars, go deeper into your dominant fantasies. She'll even come right to your hotel room, or you can use a local dungeon.
It's clear from Kelly's The Pleasure's All Mine: The Memoir of a Professional Submissive (Carroll & Graf, 2005) that this job's about much more than money. Her excitement is evident over the phone, as she reveals that she's been single until recently, getting her pain fix on the job. "When I started, I had that Pretty Woman fantasy, thinking I'd meet Mr. Kinky Right. If that had ever happened, I would've quit in a heartbeat," she confesses. "If I don't have someone in my personal life [to be kinky with], I'm physically compelled to do sessions. I've tried to quit a few times, but I couldn't – I have to have this in my life." Kelly's current paramour, whom she met online, is "getting kinkier by the minute," responding to her cues.
Local pro sub Submissive Ophelia (submissiveophelia.com), who claims she's "New York City's most hardcore masochist," also got into the work after a failed relationship. Her first boyfriend made her his captive, and after that, "I had a difficult time meeting men who enjoyed dominating me. My submissive urges kept growing, and I decided being a pro would get me more playtime and fulfill my desires."
Her favorite part of the job is the physical high, while the biggest drawback is tending to bruises several times a day after a heavy corporal scene. "I surprise myself at how far my pain tolerance has evolved. For example, I had a client sew my vaginal lips shut, and I didn't make a peep," Ophelia boasts via e-mail. "I had another client who took 18-gauge needles, heated them until they were red-hot, and used them to pierce the insides of my butt cheeks. I could hear my skin sizzling as the needles penetrated me."
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.villagevoice.com/people/0607,bussel,72157,24.html To respond, go to: http://www.villagevoice.com/aboutus/index.php?page=contact
Protective order denied under 'slavery contract'
by Brian Brueggemann
The Belleville News Democrat (Illinois, near St. Louis)
February 10, 2006
EDWARDSVILLE – A woman who entered into a "contract" to be a sex slave was not entitled to a protective order against her former "master," a Madison County judge ruled Thursday.
Madison County Associate Judge David Grounds ruled that although the agreement between the parties was not a legal contract because slavery is illegal, it did "set some parameters for the nature of the relationship."
Berta Jean Webb, 43, of Bethalto sought the protective order against Terry L. Meyer, 50, of Bethalto, whom Webb described during testimony as her former "master." The couple no longer have a relationship.
Webb and Meyer met a few years ago via the Internet. Webb moved in with Meyer a couple of years ago and lived with him until Jan. 11. That's when Webb claims things went too far. She testified the couple had an argument that ended with Meyer hitting her on the back of the head and knocking her unconscious.
Meyer's attorney, Don Groshong, cross-examined Webb and asked her to describe a document he handed her. "It is a consensual slavery contract," said Webb, who wore a black blouse, black skirt and black boots.
Yes, Webb said, she voluntarily signed it, and it gave Meyer the right to whip, spank, restrain and punish her. But Webb also said the behavior was supposed to be foreplay, and being hit on the head was not what she anticipated when she signed the contract.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/local/13837466.htm To respond, write to: the author at bbrueggemann@bnd.com or the editors at letters@bnd.com
Bondage Unmasked:
Nashville's BDSM community says it's being flogged for following its passions, but there's little evidence law enforcement is paying attention
by William Dean Hinton
The Nashville Scene February 9, 2006
When she was in her early 20s, Sheri began hanging out in swingers' groups to find her niche. From swingers' groups she graduated to orgies, then to the Nashville Dungeon Society, where she spanked a few women with a leather flogger she'd bought. When she was 23, her male roommate forced her to spend most of an evening at a swingers' party on her knees, getting up to visit the bathroom or get a drink only when she asked permission. The submissive turn-on for Sheri, who has a naturally dominant personality, was powerful. "He gave me a look that scared the shit out of me," she says. "For me to submit was a big thing. The feeling of someone taking control of me was just phenomenal."
Sheri, who asked that her last name not be published, also has satisfied her dominant-submissive urges through role-playing games like those based on John Norman's Gor novels, in which female sexuality is enhanced in an alternative world through the enslavement of women. Sheri's forte, though, seems to be the role of dominatrix.
Two years ago, Sheri hosted a weekly BDSM night at a swingers' club on Division Street. (BDSM stands for bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism. BDSM can involve physical or mental subjugation.) The club was designed as a typical bar, with a large main room pumping Enigma and other electronica music. Several smaller rooms contained equipment of the bondage trade: a St. Andrew's cross, throne, swing, spanking bench and wooden stockade. Sheri attracted a group of about 50 people, which, inside the enormous swingers' compound, made the crowd seem, well, puny. The bondage group met on Thursdays, which wasn't the most convenient night. And Sheri was planning to marry. So she shuttered her bondage night in November 2004.
She has since decided to try to relaunch her club, this time based on ideas she's gathering from dungeons in Europe. She's wondering, though, how much harassment she'll receive from local law enforcement and the feds, who seem to be more active in targeting adult-oriented businesses than they were even a few years ago. Nobody's been arrested in Nashville strictly on bondage charges – indeed, there doesn't appear to be a chargeable offense committed in dungeons across Middle Tennessee since most role-playing is conducted by consenting adults and doesn't generally involve penetration.
Kate Redmon, an Ohio attorney and member of the National Leather Association and National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, says some in the BDSM crowd have moved underground, though they probably had no reason to. Bondage queen Midori shut down her website because the feds are requiring webmasters to keep model information and releases on file. Redmon says very few bondage enthusiasts will ever be targeted, especially if they don't engage in sex while enacting bondage scenes. "Prosecutors really don't want to pursue these cases unless you're actually having sex or getting a blowjob or something," says Redmon, who classifies herself as a dominant female.
The Coalition for Sexual Freedom is helping to defend a Florida man, Christopher Wilson, accused of 300 counts of pornography for allowing graphic images to be uploaded to his website, nowthatsfuckedup.com. Some of the images include bondage. But even bondage fetishists would probably get a little queasy looking at these pictures. One showed a woman hung by the neck until she lost control of her bladder. Another showed a woman with her breasts nailed to a park bench.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Cover_Story/2006/02/09/zBondage_Unmasked/index.shtml To respond, go to: http://www.nashvillescene.com/Information/contact_us/index.php?people=1129&hid-submit=submitted
City Pressures Suspected Swinger Club:
Operation Accused of Zoning Violation;
Owner Gets Eviction Notice
by staff writer
WRTV-TV 6 (Indianaoplis)
February 9, 2006
An operation that is publicized on the Internet as a swinger club was warned by the city that it is violating zoning laws, prompting a leaseholder to send an eviction notice to the club's owner.
The city informed Top Side II in a letter that the club, located near the intersection of 54th Street and Winthrop Avenue, permits conduct not allowed within 500 feet of a residential district.
The city said the club must seek a zoning variance, seek a rezoning of its property, or stop its activities within eight days. Fines and a lawsuit could follow if the warning isn't heeded, the city said.
Following the city's lead, the real estate company that holds the lease on the Top Side II property sent the club's owner an eviction notice, 6News' Jack Rinehart reported.
A Web site describes Top Side II as one of the "oldest swing clubs in the Midwest." The club, in a building that is more than 8,000 square feet and has two levels, features a "Mirror Room," a "Sex Chair Room," and a "Swing" room, Rinehart reported.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.theindychannel.com/news/6888359/detail.html To respond, go to: http://www.theindychannel.com/call6/112069/detail.html
High Infidelity:
Why monogamy is soooo passe
by Meredith Lindemon
The Philadelphia City Paper
February 9, 2006
Married people can't seem to keep it in their pants these days. People are swinging, swapping, plain-old cheating and letting their spouses bone anyone, willy-nilly. Has "forsaking all others" become some trite cliche you mumble right before you head to the reception to get loaded? Is monogamy dead? Since the Bush administration is obsessed with the sanctity of marriage, we figured we'd look into the state of some unions right here in Philly. And what better time than the annual gag-inducing, hearts-and-flowers clusterfuck we know as Valentine's Day? We decided we wanted to know who was screwing who, how they went about it and why. Funnily enough, there's plenty of reasons to hand your wife the keys and say, "See you in the morning, honey. Do you have enough Trojans?"
Victor is a 44-year-old white Republican middle manager for the local branch of a national communications corporation. He has a "gorgeous" 29-year-old wife he pimpsunbeknownst to herover the Internet, mostly to well-hung Arab guys.
"My wife likes Arabic men. Don't ask me why, she just does," explains Victor. Some of the guys she goes home with are men that he has sent her way, not all of them Arabic. The fact that his wife sleeps around is cool with himthey have an open marriage; Victor just wants to help out. And since he says he wanted to marry her when she was 19, he figured he'd allow her to "go out and sow her wild oats."
A few months ago, he set up a profile describing her on an adult Web site. When he gets responses he tells inquirers he's actually her husband and picks guys to send out to meet her at whatever club she goes to.
"If they seem to match up with my wife," Victor says, "I guide them in her direction." He acts as her middleman, orchestrating some of her liaisons, although she gets laid plenty on her own. "I tell them exactly what to say or do to get my wife's undivided attention. It's like hitting a home run every time.
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To read this entire aricle, go to: http://citypaper.net/articles/2006-02-09/naked.shtml To respond, go to: http://citypaper.net/contact/#editor
Group looks for approval:
Safety of bondage an issue
by Alia Orra
The Independent Collegian (University of Toledo)
February 9, 2006
Between the tying up and the sadomasochism, UT administrators are voicing concerns over the possible "safety issues" a campus bondage group could pose.
Sean Shannon, a graduate student majoring in English, recently submitted a constitution for a potential bondage, discipline and sadomasochism organization to be called UT Un/Gagged.
Its aim is to support the safe practice of consensual sex that involves pain, binding, dominance and submission.
The group has run into a roadblock, though, on the desk of Student Life Vice President Kaye Patten Wallace
"In reviewing it, I had some concerns about it," Patten Wallace said. "I think there's a real fine line between education and practice. I'm concerned about safety issues and the university's liability."
The potential group, which has yet to attract the official 10 members required under the criteria, has nonetheless caught the attention of UT administrators who worry its activities may not comply with the law or the school's mission.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://media.www.independentcollegian.com/media/paper678/news/2006/02/09/News/Group.Looks.For.Approval-1606098.shtml?sourcedomain=ww w.independentcollegian.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com To respond, write to: uteditors@hotmail.com or go to: http://www.independentcollegian.com/home/lettertotheeditor/
FSC Preliminary Injunction Ruling To Be Appealed
by Mark Kernes
AVN
February 8, 2006
DENVER – The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) claimed victory when U.S. District Court judge Walker D. Miller issued a preliminary injunction against certain portions of the new regulations under 18 U.S.C. '2257, the recordkeeping and labeling law. Injuncted were the "secondary producer" concept as applied to both video production and website creation, and certain exceptionally onerous recordkeeping requirements for live webcam sites.
But although it was definitely a victory, the injunction gave FSC far less than it had asked for – so the adult industry trade organization is appealing the order.
"We filed a notice of appeal," said Jennifer Kinsley, whose partner H. Louis Sirkin is lead counsel in the lawsuit, "but the only component we're appealing is the judge's decision on the facial constitutionality of the statute, so the remainder of the decision is intact."
"We want to get the First Amendment issue squarely before the Tenth Circuit," added Michael Gross, who argued the "secondary producer" aspect of FSC's motion before Judge Miller last August 2. "The court gave us some favorable rulings on, of course, the secondary producer issue and the chatroom issue and other issues, but at this point, we're just looking at appealing the First Amendment issues with regard to content-based regulation and the level of scrutiny. The judge accepted [the rulings of] two previous courts, the Sixth Circuit and the D.C. Circuit, that it's properly intermediate level scrutiny, but we still firmly believe that it should be evaluated as content-based strict scrutiny. I think some judge in one case said, 'Only in the world of lawyers and judges would this law be called content-neutral, but that's what the Supreme Court calls it, so I guess I have to say it is too.'"
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.avn.com/articles/258791.html
Greenburgh officer accused of solicting arrested dominatrix
by Jonathan Bandler
The Journal News (New York)
February 7, 2006
GREENBURGH Authorities have a security videotape that shows a Greenburgh police officer meeting a dominatrix the day after she was arrested by his colleagues on marijuana charges, her lawyer said yesterday.
The 31-year-old woman, known as angelabella on a Web site offering her services for sadomasochistic fetishes, said that the police taunted her when they learned her occupation and that she agreed to a tryst with the officer after it was suggested the criminal charges would disappear if she did.
Her lawyer, Tony Castro, said he was told a security video shows the two meeting but not engaging in any sexual behavior, which she contends occurred elsewhere.
Last week, Police Chief John Kapica suspended the officer without pay and reassigned his fellow officers in the street crime unit to other patrol posts. Police Internal Affairs and the Public Integrity Bureau of the Westchester County District Attorney's Office are investigating the matter. Kapica said police have seen evidence purporting to confirm that the woman and the officer met after her arrest. Police were also reviewing tapes from their headquarters.
The woman was arrested Jan. 21 in the parking lot of the Greenburgh Multiplex cinemas. She was charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs, a misdemeanor, and marijuana possession, a violation. She said she was sexually ridiculed after police found sex toys in her car and learned what she did for a living.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060207/NEWS02/602070319/1018 To respond, write to: the author at jbandler@thejournalnews.com or the editors at letters@thejournalnews.com
Concerns About Sex Club in Fresno
by staff writer
KFSN-TV ABC30 (Fresno, CA)
February 6, 2006
An Action News investigation revealed a sex club operating in Fresno that is drawing members from as far away as the Bay Area and San Diego. The club's owners say the exclusive club is growing in popularity, with 1,100 members to date. They estimate in the Central Valley there are 3,000 to 4,000 swingers within a 100 mile radius, from all walks of life.
Club Paradise owners had big plans for the social club that included adding a new feature in a patio area to make parties even more inviting.
"Spas would be nice. I like dipping in the hot tub," said Steve, owner of Club Paradise.
Club owners told a couple Action News sent in for a membership orientation that they will soon be putting in spas, or turkish baths.
However, after the owner was notified of the Action News investigation, he has since backed off that plan, "I would say probably not, because my counsel says no. But it's something well have to look into in more depth."
Some Fresno City Council members are uneasy about the idea of a sex club in the city. Even though as it stands, the club may be operating legally.
"There may be a loophole within our city laws that allow this to occur. And if that is so, then we need to look at reversing those and closing those loopholes," said Fresno City Council member Henry T. Perea. "Otherwise, more of these clubs like these are going to pop up all over the city and we can't allow that to happen."
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To read this entire article, go to: http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=local&id=3885769 To respond, go to: http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=stationinfo&id=3398819
Dominatrix: I was bound by rap;
Says charges against her prevented switch to legitimate career
by Elizabeth W. Crowley
The Patriot Ledger (Boston)
February 6, 2006
The dominatrix acquitted of manslaughter charges says she has experienced a different kind of bondage since the bizarre case came to light more than five years ago.
Barbara McLaughlin-Asher says she would have been out of the "fetish business" by now if not for her long battle to defend herself against charges that she did nothing to help when a client died while strapped to a rack in her makeshift "dungeon" in Quincy.
"My life has been held hostage by this scary story," the 56-year-old woman said yesterday.
The Patriot Ledger called McLaughlin-Asher Thursday after a jury in Norfolk Superior Court cleared her earlier in the week of charges of manslaughter and illegal disposal of a body. She returned the call yesterday and did an interview by telephone.
McLaughlin-Asher said the damage from the case and trial is irreversible.
"My reputation, my social life, the only life I had was destroyed by this," she said.
McLaughlin-Asher, who lives in Rhode Island, grew up in Norwood and graduated from Norwood High School where classmates described her in the yearbook as a "model of courtesy."
No one knows what led her to the life of a dominatrix where she advertised her sadomasochistic skills on the Internet and went by the name Mistress Lauren M. Were it not for her legal troubles, McLaughlin-Asher said she wouldn't be involved with the fetish business.
"I would have been in a different business by now," she said. "I had plans."
McLaughlin-Asher declined to elaborate on her working life now or what her plans were to get out of the sex trade. Immediately after the verdict was read last Monday, McLaughlin-Asher's lawyer filed a motion asking the court to return the black leather masks and other bondage gear that prosecutors had used as exhibits in the trial. Asked if she needed the equipment for new clients, McLaughlin-Asher said: "No comment."
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To respond, write to: editpage@ledger.com