Day 11: What are your views on the ethics of kink?In answering this question, I clicked on the link and was taken to Rayne's post on Eden Cafe. It helped to clarify exactly what this question entails. I'd recommend checking it out.
The ethics of kink, in my mind, are largely tied into two principles; consent and acceptance.
The basic principle that separates kinky relationships from the inhuman acts of despotic leaders and the vilified kinksters in popular media is consent. For instance, the American government was, and may still be, in hot water with human rights groups over the treatment of prisoners, specifically waterboarding. Well, I waterboard jenpet; I love it, she loves it. The act is the same, the intent is even the same, torture. The only difference is that when I do it to her, it is a consensual act between two consenting adults. Amnesty International need not involve themselves.
The other side of that coin, because I view them to be tied together, is acceptance. This has as much to do with the community at large as it does the individual relationship. We are all looking for some level of acceptance. Finding a partner that accepts your interests, you kinks is the bane of many vanilla based relationships. Within the community, and FetLife is an excellent example, we list our kinks, our wants, our experiences. We look for recognition and acceptance through comments, friend requests, wall to wall messages, etc. Along with acceptance, or more appropriately from acceptance, we look for those who share our interests and come together in groups on the subject were we comment, debate, etc.
That said, I'm going to focus on my views of the ethics regarding individual relationships.
