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[james_davis_nicoll]

The Intercollegiate Review seems very special, as this John C. Wright essay on Heinlein and the scourge of political correctness demonstrates. Note that when Wright says

Orson Scott Card publicly expressed the mildest imaginable opposition to having judges overrule popular votes defining marriage in the traditional way.

he is probaly referring to this essay, in which OSC opines

Because when government is the enemy of marriage, then the people who are actually creating successful marriages have no choice but to change governments, by whatever means is made possible or necessary.

Comments

[felila.livejournal.com]

I read a few chapters of Orphans of Chaos. Was mildly intrigued, until I reached the episode in which one of the female characters puts on French maid's uniform, is spanked by a dominant male figure, and LIKES IT. Bleagggh. If such tidbits await me in his novels, I will never never never read them.

Not that I disapprove of BDSM, but when it's a sexist stereotype ... no.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

There are a fair number of women who like being spanked by a dominant male figure, wearing a French maid outfit, or both. With or without being submissive in general life.

[felila.livejournal.com]

Submission I can understand. Spanking I can understand. A French maid's outfit is demode and ridiculous.

Also, in the context of a plot in which she's sneaking about doing something, and is caught and spanked (as I vaguely recall), the incident is icky. Now if she were visiting a dominatrix and had a kink for maid uniforms, that would be more comprehensible. Though the maid's uniform ... sorry, but that's just so 1920s. I would expect a modern submissive to get off on dressing up as Sailor Moon, or something like that :)

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

...wow, really? You think people's kinks stays within narrow fashions like that?

On fetlife there's about 400 people into varieties of "french maid". 23,000 into maid uniforms in general. 27,000 into cosplay. Under 200 listing 'sailor moon'. 317,000 into spanking.

I note you say "visiting a dominatrix." Is that more acceptable than having a male dominant? Hate to break it to you, but the BDSM/kink world is full of "sexist stereotypes." And subversions of the same. And people off at right angles. Pretty much anything you can imagine and then some, really.

Now, I'm not defending the particular scene, which I haven't and will probably never read. I'm not a big fan of porn invading my regular fiction, myself. If she's forced to "discover her inner submission and femininity" or something, that could be pretty squicky. But a woman liking maledom, spanking, and maid service play? That's not even worth an eyebrow raise.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

For people who give a damn about literature, yes, it's worth an eyebrow raise. Real-world kinks and fetishes and preferences are one thing, the kinds of tropes and stereotypes an author chooses to put in their work is quite another. In writing fiction, there are a limitless amount of choices for an author when conveying a character, idea, plot, etc. To choose something as old-fashioned, tired and Looney Tunes as "French maid who likes to be spanked" says a whole hell of a lot about the author, and absolutely nothing about real-life people who have that as a kink.

[felila.livejournal.com]

I couldn't think of the word for a male dominatrix. I don't see why someone shouldn't engage with someone else or elses of any flavor of gender. I've done BDSM, but in the context of a couple, never as part of a subculture. All I know about the broader context is what I've run into online or in books.

Do you think I'm a narrow-minded person who is squicked by BDSM? I'm not squicked by BDSM per se, in person or in what I read. I quite like Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths series. I was upset by that particular scene in Wright's novel, a scene that reeked of male entitlement and leering enjoyment.