Newsgroups: alt.personals.bondage
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 00:34:24 -0500 
From: Michael Raymond Feely <mf2x+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: are you all perverts?
Distribution: usa

>I am a new computer user and have been checking out the programs these  

    But you have, of course, read news.announce.newusers, and the
ettique guides, yes?

>past few daus.  Out of curriosity I thought I would read the personals.   

    you were reading the group "alt.personals.bondage" the ".bondage" at
the end is supposed to be a hint about the proclivities of the folks who
can be found there. 

>To my surprise it was full of requests for female slaves willing to  
>perform perverted acts.
>Seeing as how I am female I was a bit offended.

    No, it's actually about a fifty-fifty mix of people looking for
female "slaves" and men looking to "perform perverted acts" for dominant
women. The fact that you somehow managed to miss about half the content
of the group says a lot for the way you seem to be reading through your
own prejudices. (As an entirely aside note - I can also think of at
least two people who I am entirely certain are very female who have
posted ads here - in both cases looking for tops to "perform perverted
acts" for/with.)
    Seeing as how I am someone who has been into bondage and SM  I am
quite offended by your letter - it is accusative in tone and
simultaneously betrays a deep ignorance. Whether you choose to beleive
it or not (and I'm acting more on defensive reflex than because I give a
damn about you personally.) there are a lot of people out here who enjoy
bondage and SM and are quite sane.

>Also, why are there only men posting?

    Because on the net, men outnumber women by something like an order
of magnitude. Given that hets also outnumber non-hets by almost an order
of magnitude, this should suggest to you that the largest group of
people around this net is single men. (Especially in light of the fact
that netusers are frequently young people.) Since the single men
outnumber the single women, they wind up being the ones doing the
"looking" and writing the personals.
   Though as I say, women do occasionaly post in apb. Though I doubt
you'd notice.

>I am not a practicing feminist, I simply believe that all humans should be  
>treated fairly, equally, and left unjudged.

    If you're so big on leaving people unjudged, then why, praytell, are
you barging in here and telling us how "offensive" it is that this group
is full of people looking for "perverted acts"? What pathetic hypocrisy.
    And I'll give you another hint. The women I have met through the
scene (ie the ones who are into bondage and SM, either as dominants or
submissives) have, on the average, been more intelligent, more
independent-spirited, more self aware, and more self confident than the
average sample of all the women I know. 
    And certainly they've been posessed of a more coherent stance on
personality and sexuality than this tripe you just fed us. Maybe you do
think bondage has nothing to do with fairness and equality. But that's
because you're ignorant, not because that's actually the case.





=======------======------======------
Michael   -  rational romantic mystic cynical idealist
"You're not the chaos in my life, I have children." - lah-c
CMU did make me this way, but they'll never admit it.	
Michael Feely, Box 4602, 5115 Margaret Morrison, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
* mf2x+@andrew.cmu.edu ** Anon - anonymus+381@godiva.nectar.cs.cmu.edu *
Newsgroups: alt.personals.bondage