tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75383723912747738962012-02-16T09:29:21.037-08:00Some Shared ThoughtsMugsy Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00773820700949780572noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7538372391274773896.post-27263209234883589012008-07-26T09:25:00.000-07:002008-07-26T09:45:18.594-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >D-SALC<br />Dominant-Submissive Alternative Lifestyle Choice</span><br /></div><br /><br />The terms “sadomasochism” and "BDSM" have a number of shortcomings.<br /><br />First, they're inaccurate. The S&amp;M-BDSM tent is remarkably wide today, encompassing many more activities than those terms define.<br /><br />Second, they fail to capture essential participatory considerations, such as being safe, sane, consensual and risk aware.<br /><br />Third, both terms have developed extremely negative connotations in the public eye, due largely to reckless media portrayals and a great deal of inaccurate public information.<br /><br />Fourth, they lump us together with criminals, confusing the psychopath who’s engaged in abhorrent, sadistically criminal activities with those who engage in an enjoyable pastime.<br /><br /><br />Given our community’s increasing public presence, with numbers signaling a healthy degree of political viability to elected officials, the potential for legislative inroads has never been greater.<br /><br />Yet terminologies can present serious legislative challenges. “Sadomasochism” and “BDSM” both elicit negative public reactions, and the likelihood of a legislator sponsoring or supporting a bill containing those terms – with all their negative baggage – seems slim, if not altogether nonexistent.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">An Alternative: D-SALC<br />Dominant-Submissive Alternative Lifestyle Choice<br /></div><br />D-SALC is an imperfect terminology, but it avoids the negative undertones of both “sadomasochism” and “BDSM,” while having a number of very positive aspects.<br /><br />In an era when alternative lifestyles are gaining a great deal of social acceptance, it defines our own way of life as being one such alternative.<br /><br />Also, inherent within the term is the notion that the lifestyle is a choice – a long-term decision, rather than a random, capricious action on someone’s part. Though notions of safe, sane, consensual and risk aware aren’t articulated within the term, there’s clearly an implication of considered, rational thought, something missing from previous terminologies.<br /><br />Is there a bit of politics built into the term? Of course there is. The idea behind the expression is to help gain legislative rights, not to win The Best Definition of the Year Award.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7538372391274773896-2726320923488358901?l=mugsymadison.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Mugsy Madisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00773820700949780572noreply@blogger.com2