Juicy Bits | Dimepiece | BDSM | Flogging in Sudan

Kathryna Hancock | Sydney Roper | Dimepiece Spring 2011 Anne of Carversville

Like incoming House Speaker John Boehner, we cry in public, too and especially over the flogging of women in public. A key editorial theme in 2010 is the negative intersection of religion and women’s rights. 

We were surprised to see a hip LA brand like Dimepiece take up this topic for their 2011 brand image campaign.

It is our intention to speak with a clear voice on many topics in 2011. After all, the Old Ladies Rebellion has begun.

Anne turned her ‘Sensually Yours’ column over to Dr. Carla Johnson last evening. Dr. Johnson raised a ‘sexy question’ topic that we have no answer for.

BDSM a topic that has always troubled Anne. Playful power games can be fun in bed. Degradation and physical abuse is another topic.

Flogging and BDSM | Can Someone Explain the Difference? Anne of Carversville

Update on Khartoum Arrests Over Flogging Video

CNN reports that the 46 women and six men arrested in Khartoum yesterday have been charged for unlawful assembly and released. The organization called “No to Women’s Oppression Coalition” has been active in Sudan, campaigning against the flogging of women and other human rights issues.

The Sudan Tribune says that many of the women in yesterday’s protest were beaten up badly and sent to the hospital. The headline reads: Khartoum continues to declare war against the women of Sudan.

Millions of people around the world were horrified over last week’s flogging video. Anne of Carversville received files of the footage with requests for help in broadcasting the incident.

CNN reports that the flogging took place in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city across the river, at the Kajabab Police Station, which is in a poor neighborhood notorious for brothels and the illegal sale of the local moonshine ‘aragi’.

Details of the woman’s offenses have no been released. Anne’s friends took action, in particular, because the girl was poor.

The flogging is initially to her back, in keeping with the Sharia code, or Islamic law, governing flogging, but when she turns to ask for mercy, the whipping continues to the front part of her body, including her face, hands and legs.

A shocked passerby can be heard exclaiming, “There is no authority but God’s” after witnessing the woman’s punishment. One of the officers responds: “This is a fundamental principle. Let him whip her.” via CNN

More on current flogging case in Sudan

Anne’s extensive writing on Lubna Hussein case.

Comments

[Rose]

The difference is this; Women who partake of BDSM activities (and we are talking a lot more than flogging), whether they do so publicly within the BDSM community, or with their partner in privacy, give express consent. They are not being flogged, against their will, as corporal punishment for breaking a "holy law", nor are they being publicly humiliated and abused as a means of furthering the systemic oppression of women by example, i.e.: If you don't behave, this will happen to you.

Women who embrace the BDSM lifestyle do so for a vast array of reasons, and they choose to engage in it to varying degrees. The constant, however, is that participants from all points on the BDSM spectrum, from submissive slave to hardcore Dom, do so on their own terms. They negotiate the parameters of their play sessions, often in minute detail, including their physical boundaries and emotional triggers, and almost always incorporating a safe word, in case the session gets too intense. They are anything but helpless, even when bound. BDSM women have, and embrace, autonomy over their own bodies, unlike the genuinely helpless victims of non-consensual assault and abuse.

While it may sometimes be difficult for someone outside the BDSM community to understand why anyone would choose to suffer and be humiliated, no matter how safe the scenario, it is important to be respectful of a woman's choice to use her body as she desires, and for many women, no desire is stronger than to surrender her body to another. A strong component of the allure of BDSM is the trust and intimacy implied in that surrender; during a play session, a good Dom can take his/her sub into their darkest fantasies and fears, all while keeping them perfectly safe. Obviously, no such trust exists for the victims of a conservative religious police state.

[Anne]

Thanks for your insightful commentary Rose. I find it to be an intellectual argument that is far more complex -- the free will argument. Millions of Saudi women don't want to take off their burqas either. I would feel significantly better about the BDSM community if there was any equality in terms of who is dominant and who is submissive.

I spent a long, powerful, erotic afternoon with a dominant male -- one of my more memorable lunch dates. As a very smart and high IQ woman, I found the encounter to be a mental gymnastics romp. It is indisputable that in my case, he was superb at taking control of my mind -- and yes, I let him for those 3 hrs. I left him and walked down the Manhattan streets on a total endorphin high. What he did was scandalous in a small way, but I admit that the encounter was really provocative. And yet, I left him with a To Do list that told him more and more about what he needed to know to control me further. His view of living wasn't one that inspired me in the least. And I was stunned to find a major, very painful bruise on my body, which shocked me when we didn't have sex, just tea in a Manhattan cafe. I felt branded by a bruise so deep, it lasted almost three weeks.

Personally, I believe there's way more mind control in dedicated BDSM than the community wants to admit. All your talk of consent makes me smile, because I feel it's incredibly easy to lose your mind to this lifestyle. Note, I'm not speaking of BDSM lite sex games, which can be a turn-on. But I don't buy the standard freedom discussion about the 80-90% of women who assume the submissive role. Note, I also liked The Secretary. My criticism is that the BDSM community is really reluctant to discuss the psychological nuances and intentions of their behavior. Free will becomes a lofty concept when you so willingly assume the submissive mentality and submit to the harsher corporeal punishment side of BDSM. With my brief experience -- and in a second scenario where someone I was dating went dominant on me with abusive language being the big dominant guy (I threw him out of my house) -- well, I prefer a deeper conversation about the real connections between BDSM and flogging women in Sudan. Of course the American woman is freer than the Sudanese one. As for the man playing the dominant role -- the psychology is the same in my analysis. Let's not make the masters into Mr BDSM Nice Guy, OK? Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Anne