Gary Roberts On Forced Sex
The following is from a print interview Ernest Greene did with BDSM artist Gary Roberts (click here for Roberts art on Bondage Blog) in the second issue of Taboo Illustrated:
Humanity is at least a hundred thousand years on this Earth, probably much more. I view forced sex as a completely natural occurrence. I’m sorry to tell assorted feminists and guilt-ridden “sensitive guys” this, but civilization as we know it is a minute tick of the clock in historical terms, maybe 13,000 years at most. Before then, and quite often since, men have been busily full-tilt murdering, hacking, warring, conquering and, yes, capturing and raping their way across this planet with glee and reckless abandon. For most of human existence on this planet, a man made his reputation through the force of his own will and hand. And powerful men have always collected women, whether by attraction or sheer force. This so-called civilization we proudly hold up and cheer is a temporary aberration. A fluke. I don’t glorify sexual violence. I don’t advocate mounting up to go off and pillage the countryside. I simply tell an uncomfortable truth that recent thinking would rather deny.
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Men and women will always have a conflicted relationship. You can’t breed it out. You won’t condition it out. It’s genetic. However, consenting adults can choose to act out these desires and instincts in safe sex-play, which is hugely gratifying for both parties. I encourage this completely. Let the beast out to romp. Satisfy those most ancient urges and instincts. It’s best we take responsibility for this behavior, because all the laws passed by Congress won’t stop it, and repression only breeds madness and revolt. Repress these instincts and you end up with Ted Bundy or Jeff Dahmer.
I think women understand this better than men. I hear the same things from all my female fans. Women have powerful rape fantasies. Why do you think romance novels are so hot? Look at the cover illustrations:powerful, handsome men holding their conquests bent backwards in submission, bodices torn. Female readers know these men will rip those dresses off and have their way. I just don’t waste time drawing the dress.
Image credit: Black Van 4: Home Invasion from Dofantasy.
Elsewhere on Bondage Blog:
Even as a straight submissive woman who enjoys scenes involving forced sex, I have a problem with this. I don’t believe that either the desire to submit or to dominate are gendered impulses. I’m also uncomfortable that this writer seems to believe that a.) rape is a natural human impulse and b.) enjoyment of BDSM is a modern outlet for that drive.
At the risk of getting too personal, I’ve been raped, and I’ve been a participant in scenes involving something resembling rape. There is no similarity whatsoever. I have no problem with whatever consensual activity people choose to indulge in, but to suggest that my and my partner’s enjoyment of scenes involving forced sex stem from my subconscious attraction to “powerful,” rapey neanderthals and his subconscious desire to rape indicates a major misunderstanding of rape, BDSM, and human psychology, and does a disservice to men and women alike.
I’ve enjoyed this blog for the past seven or eight years and it surprises me that this is a viewpoint you felt it worthwhile to share.
Hey, MK. Always nice to hear from a long-term reader.
The Dofantasy comics are very controversial because of how rape-resembling they are. I’m perpetually fascinated by the difference between art and photography, and by the odd and inexplicable ways we map all sorts of ethics and morality onto bits of ink-and-pixels on paper and screen. People have serious conversations (or screaming fights, or, chillingly, court proceedings) about whether a character in a cartoon (some drawn and colored lines) is under some talismanic age, or whether that character “consented”, or whether that character has a certain racial (or ethnic, or religious) identity, and many more unknowable but emotionally-charged questions of that sort.
In all such conversations, the voice of the artist is … interesting. I’m always very interested in hearing what erotic artists think about the art they create and about the topics of artistic interest to them. Even when their views are profoundly wrong-headed, they remain of interest (to me).
Does that mean I agree with or endorse those views? Almost never! And certainly not here — I was careful to present what Roberts said without editorial comment of any kind.
I don’t agree with everything in your comment any more than I agree with everything (or indeed, much of anything) in Robert’s remarks. I’m closer to you than to him, though I would certainly have points of difference with you, too, if we were to sit down and thrash things out. But I liked reading what he had to say because it helped me understand where his art (some of which I quite like, especially when I can stop myself from looking at the ridiculous content of the accompanying speech bubbles) is coming from. And I naturally presumed that some of my readers would be interested in seeing it too.
Good discussion, wish there were more on this great site.
I want to comment on this posting, but can’t get my brain to work as well until I get a good nights sleep.
MK thanks for saying what you did, good to hear from people who take time to think about something before they post it.
Rope Guy as always, thanks for the interesting site. Some of the images are too rough for me, but I’m glad you’re spanning the globe to do what you do.
One thing I wish I could talk to you both about here or in email, is what do you think makes a good bondage story, and where do you find them on the net?
There are so may photo and video sites, few that I know of of writing sites. I plan to write e books on bondage adventures, and would like to talk over what works and what doesn’t in writing. I’d be glad to hear from people, if not maybe more discussion on here of what is good about certain things and what isn’t
Don’t like the way he words it, but yes, humans are an evil race. Take what they want and to hell with the rest.
Today “civilisation” keeps a check on our behaviour, we strive to be civilised, and most of us manage it. But underneath we are still humans, underneath we are still animals.
Roberts’s theory is common and seems to make common sense, but it isn’t born out by any evidence. We see very little evidence of this murding, hacking, warring, and raping among other primates, and we really don’t know what happened much before 10 thousand years ago. We only have assumptions.
And how is it that the dominatrix makes so much money whipping male butts? Sensitive guys paying for guilt? Impulses acquired during that “minute tick?” Or maybe the dominatrix represents the xx-factor which has actually kept the species alive by keeping in check that very impulse to war, rape, and hack? Maybe it’s male submission that was selected for in evolution?
Evolution is a very complex process, and our impulses are a complex cocktail blended together and shaped differently according to trigger factors we encounter throughout life. The search for the “natural state” really is justification rather than rational explanation, and quite frankly I think that Roberts takes his art too far into the dark side.
Men will rip their dresses off and have their way.
Roberts is talking about Romance novel covers, but I’d think woman really like the covers of hot men holding them is because they have the fantasy of having a strong looking partner who’ll save them be with them all their lives. And they like to see great looking people and hope they can hook up with them.
I look at sites like Captain Kidnap and Damsel theater and can see those pictures as part of a storyline
I could be involved with. I come here to see interesting looking bondage sets, but lots of things go to far for my taste. But everyone I know who’d think even the idea I check this site out is way to far out there. Thank goodness for the internet, and thanks for the work you do to keep your site going. And it’s good to see discussions on here.
There was a Showtime series, “Masters of Modern Horror,” with one of the shows by Joe Dante that was about something causing men to go out and kill all the women of the world. Some sort of brain infection from another world. It may have bee called “Turn of the Screw.”
Can’t imagine any series where the men of the world had a brain infection that causes them to abduct and rape all the women of the world, or at least those who looked like FM Concept models
I would never want to see a series of rape attacks, yet look forward to the return of “”The Walking Dead” on AMC. And it’s only zombies. So there’s sexual violence and action violence and I read the stories where there is violent action involving the kidnapping of a woman, and action in their escape or rescue. You can have women or men suffer so as to show how nasty the bad people are, but I can never enjoy a story where the good people don’t make a comeback in the end. And there’s all sort pictures and stories to view here, thank goodness. But that’s the kind of stuff I tune in for.
Some day I’ll buy a DOF comic and find out if I like them, I sure like some of the storylines they come up with and most of the artwork I’ve seen. Could you spoil the ending of some of them and tell me is there rescue involved? Not any particular story, just any you may have read.
Woody, I haven’t looked at them all, but typically no — you won’t find many rescue plots in these comics. I can think of several where rescue is an interim sub-plot, but usually that ends badly; either a re-capture or an “out-of-the-frying-pan, into-the-fire” development.
Well I like “out of the frying pan into the fire” type stories, it’s always a big part of crime fiction. And in bondage tales it’s smart to have escape and re-capture, adds to the story. So some day after I buy forty other books I want, and some items I really need, I will get stuff from DOF, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy them.
If you find any bondage novels some where please lets us know. Years ago I talked to the guy who wrote the Geoff Merrick novels, interesting guy, great on movies. Those books were like the DOF comics, I think I saw where he’d written for them recently. Most online stuff I’ve found poorly written,or fetish in a way I’m not interested in. I’m hoping the E-books will bring out better written bondage action adventures. There’s a writer, J.R.Francisco, don’t know who he or she is, but they’re getting close to what I’d like to read.
Any how, thanks for the great site, and let me go and check out the latest Friday Links.
I remember the Geoff Merrick novels fondly! They were always rare and hard to find, though. Somewhere in deep storage (a unit many hundreds of miles from where I now am) I have six or seven of them that I bought on eBay in the early days before they hired Meg Whitman away from Disney and got all prudish.