Bondage Blog

Back in early September when I first posted happily about Kink.com’s new public bondage site, I speculated (wrongly) that Public Disgrace was being shot in San Francisco. Although some shoots are indeed being done there, it turns out that most shooting will be done in more permissive European cities. On September 24, The SF Bay Guardian reported (as part of a larger piece about Kink.com) the following:

WiredPussy.com creator Princess Donna is launching her new pet product, PublicDisgrace.com, next month. The site will feature blatant public bondage, punishment, erotic humiliation, and explicit sex between models and, potentially, passersby.

The veteran domme is filming most scenes in Europe, where attitudes (and therefore laws) about sex are more lax. In fact, while shooting a scene on a public street in Berlin, the crew was stopped by a couple of motorcycle cops who said only, “If you cause an accident, you’ll be liable,” before going on their way. In the shoot, a half-naked girl is tied to a park bench, made to carry a dog bowl while on a leash, fondled by her female master, and fucked by a man.

“It’s the adrenaline rush of potentially getting caught,” says Acworth, explaining the site’s appeal and recipe for success.

In the comments on this Bondage Blog post and at many other places, people have been wondering how they get away with the public filming, and how they avoid offending innocent bystanders. Peter Acworth, the creative genius and head honcho at Kink.com, has responded to some of those questions in several places, but the most concise compilation is probably at Behind Kink:

[This is from the following URL, which later broke when Kink.com substantially reorganized its websites and blew away all of the old content from Behind Kink: http://news.behindkink.com/blog/default/2008/10/03/Public-Sex-Bondage-Site-PublicDisgrace-com-Goes-Live]

The most important point is that we have crews of people on walkie-talkies who are on the constant lookout for minors. The site is shot in such a way that nudity can be covered very quickly.

You will notice that any extreme activity, such as penetrative sex, always happens in relative seclusion so that the crew has the time to stop the activity if necessary. Activities that take place in a situation which is impossible to completely control (such as in front of moving traffic or a boat on a river) either happen at a very long distance, or the activity is toned down and will include less nudity.

Some scenes look impossible to control and people do seem concerned with how we are shooting this, but the fact is that they are not in a position to be able to tell which of the participants are actual bystanders and which are paid extras. For obvious reasons, I don’t want to go into details here. However, please let me reassure you that all individuals who exchange fluids have been tested and our producer has gathered paperwork which verifies the age of all performers.

More generally, if we were offending people, this site would be impossible to shoot. The fact is that we make many people’s day, and complaints are very rare indeed. Many people are curious to see the play in an obviously consensual context (i.e. in front of a video crew), and this results in dialog and a lot of interest and joy from those who choose to watch. I.e. there are also positive repercussions from our activities.

This site would indeed be impossible to shoot without causing offense in most parts of the US, and this is just because of the American view of sex in general. However, please let me reiterate how different life is in the areas of continental Europe we are shooting. For instance, virtually all beaches in continental Europe embrace nudity to some extent or another (in full view of minors); nudity, and in some cases actual pornography, plays on public TV stations during daylight hours in many countries.

The city our producer is next planning on shooting has only one law on the subject: “no lewd act in front of a minor” and we intend to obey that law. I think its potentially hard for many Americans to imagine it being legal to be nude on any beach, or indeed to have sex in a public place as long as it is shielded from minors.

Lastly, just to help put this in context, people see things they don’t completely consent to all the time. For instance, if you go to 6th street in San Francisco, you can regularly see homeless people shooting up, pissing, or shitting on the sidewalk. Many people (including minors) are habitually exposed to drug use and violence on the streets in some neighborhoods in many American cities. Such is the American gun culture, it is hard to avoid being exposed to violence on American TV or movies, much of which is aimed at an audience which includes minors.

Don’t get me wrong — I am certainly no in favor of censorship! I’m just making the point that different communities find different things offensive. This is not because we’re fundamentally any different, I think its just a question of socialization and conditioning.

Thanks to everyone who expressed concerns about this, and I hope some of the notes in this letter have helped allay some concerns.

Respectfully yours.

Peter Acworth
Founder/CEO, kink.com

From my viewpoint, Peter’s just explaining the obvious. Kink.com picks tolerant jurisdictions, they use scouts to protect the shoot and control the level and extent of public interaction, and they sometimes use extras to create the illusion that the barrier between the shoot and “the public” is leakier than it actually is. Obviously the illusion is a runaway success, if people are concerned about the lack of a barrier!

I am not, ultimately, moved by the argument that there’s a visual consent issue. Some folks are worried that “people shouldn’t have to see” the nudity and bondage that actually does get exposed to public view, and that the bystanders “haven’t consented” to seeing this. I think talking about consent with respect to visual stimulus is very nearly nonsense, even in the abstract; in most cases, it’s possible to avert one’s eyes and go on about one’s business.

And that’s in the abstract. In the specific context of our advertising-driven commercial world, most of the global economy is structured around intrusive, even abusive, non-consensual visual stimulus in the form of advertising. It’s taken for granted that there’s no need to obtain consent from any of us before we are bombarded, for every minute of our waking day, with powerful visual messages, right there in the street, from every billboard and bus stop wall. If the notion of consent had any meaning in the context of what we are “allowed” to see, we’d live in a very different world. But it doesn’t. As a society, as a commercial culture, we have conclusively determined that we don’t need consent from people before exposing them to things they might prefer not to see in public.

Update: Peter backtracked. His October 3, 2008 statement, quoted by me above on October 13, was no longer in evidence at that Behind Kink URL by the time of this December 9 screenshot, having been removed in favor of this October 21 statement:

Hi Everyone,

Recently, we have received feedback from various sources regarding our new site PublicDisgrace.com. We have been listening carefully to this discussion and value every comment we’ve received, regardless of its point of view. The feedback we have received has helped spark a necessary internal debate, which in turn has helped us reevaluate and augment our shooting rules so that future shoots produced for PublicDisgrace clearly uphold Kink.com’s values.

We have decided to revise existing material. Future shoots will be shot in full compliance with our modified shooting rules. Additionally, we are changing our pre-production workflow to more fully facilitate inquiry and evaluation during the early development stages of new projects.

Our commitment to deliver ethical and authentic kinky adult entertainment stands, and we are grateful for your participation in our mission to demystify and celebrate alternative sexualities.

We remain, as always, responsive to your feedback and welcome further discussion on this or any other matter.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Acworth
Founder and CEO, Kink.com