Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Reality of Commerce

I just read a post elsewhere where a rigger said he wanted to work with other riggers on a project but he didn't want the kind that were "just in it for the $$$"!

I have to ask, when it comes to bondage (bondage, not porn) is anyone who does ir in it for just the money? The answer is probably no, but what we have here, are people who feel that those who do make a (very) good living from BDSM are not truely "into it" because of the money they earn. Ridiculous. These are the words of people who do not understand the reality of commerce in life, so here are some of my super opinionated thoughts!

1. Just because your product does not turn a profit does not make it art. It could still be completely unartistic pornography but because it makes no money it is either badly marketed, distrivbuted or is just bad porn...or all 3!

2. Just because you create art should not mean, and does not mean you should not be able to make a living from it. There is this "struggling artist" fantasy that suggests if you make money from your art you have sold out. I disagree. People who create art (and by art I do not mean bad porn that does not sell) deserve to be able to make a living from it so they can continue to create. Doing some paid graphic design work on the side, or aggresively marketing your product is not *selling out*, it is making it possible to make a living doing what you love.

3. Since when did someone making money from whatever it is they do in BDSM (photography, porn, education, etc) become so taboo. People who buy these products (the books, classes, site memberships, photos, etc) clearly want them to be available and the people who have created them have worked hard to do so.

4. But finally, I do not believe it is porn fans, book readers, etc that have a problem with the fact the some people who ARE INTO BDSM make a good living from it, it is those who do not.

In conclusion, I want to say, I make a modest living from my BDSM activities. I work 80 hours a week running Twisted Factory, which is the 2nd largest BDSM porn company in the world but after all of the models, affiliates, staff, etc have been paid there isn't that much left. Yes, I run this company for the money. No doubt about that, but I also created it in the first place because I wanted to make a living from doing what I love. If I were a nurse, I would still get tied up for sex. If my husband was something else entirely (as opposed to a webmaster at Kink) he would still want to flog me, etc.

1 Comments:

Blogger ArabianShark said...

Obviously I wouldn't dare to contradict any of your points, especially since I either have no first hand view over some of them or flat out agree to others, but certainly you'd agree that some riggers (and certainly some models) do what they do for the money. Isn't it possible that the rigger you mentioned could just be weeding out those who do not share your passion?

9:07 AM  

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