Bondage Blog

We all know that the newspapers can’t write about BDSM without sneering — it’s their way of reassuring themselves that they don’t endorse any of the scary kink they are describing. And what else do print reporters like to sneer about? Why, the internet, of course — a fear reaction, since the internet is currently eating print publications and spitting out the bones like so much garbage. And what else? They love to sneer about television, that lowbrow upstart that stole the first half of the newspapers’ readership way back in the 1950s.

Which makes for a perfect storm of low-key sneering, when an Irish newspaper gets a chance to write about a TV show about BDSM and internet porn:

Meanwhile in RTE1’s Webs of Desire, Anna Nolan concluded her investigation of the internet’s sexual possibilities by revealing that “the web is a perfect medium for all sorts of contact” and that, in this regard “Irish people are no different from others”. Useful to get that learnt.

In furtherance of her noble probing on our behalf, she went along to a fetishist club and talked to a man who gave her the lowdown on BDSM, which is bondage discipline sado- masochism to you and me. He seemed a nice chap, though it was hard to concentrate on what he was saying because Anna had dressed for the occasion by donning a PVC minidress and fishnet tights. Very fetching she looked, too, if a heterosexual is permitted to say that about a lesbian ex-nun.

The BDSM chappie explained to Anna about dungeon masters who monitor the sessions to make sure that everyone’s alright and that “nothing gets out of hand” — a bit like a parish priest patrolling a dance floor in the old days, I suppose.

Then Anna interviewed a man whose face was hidden from us and who was described in an on-screen caption as “Individual Addicted to Porn.” This individual assured her that “the internet and pornography are made for each other”. The things you discover from RTE documentaries!