The Nerd-Lords Of BDSM
Mistress Matisse has an interesting, and I think spot-on, column in the The Stranger about why nerd culture and BDSM are such a comfortable overlapping fit:
Plenty of non-nerds like BDSM—in private. But they’re unwilling to make the cultural leap into a stigmatized social group. I’ve seen non-nerds who I knew were as kinky as Caligula walk into a BDSM party, look around, think “Oh no, these people are way too weird,” and leave. But when the grown-up nerd goes to his first BDSM social gathering, what does he see? People wearing unusual costumes, calling themselves made-up names and titles, having conversations rife with obscure jargon. Why, it’s just like a Star Trek convention! So the nerd takes it in stride. He and his friends have been called weird for years, so that doesn’t bother him. He understands that just because someone has a fetish you don’t share—be it feet or X-Men action figures—that doesn’t mean he couldn’t potentially be a friend or lover.
