The associations of the word pain are mostly strongly negative; it’s the opposite of pleasure, and pain is normally to be avoided. But there are contexts in which pain is embraced, for its psychological values — as in BDSM practices. For instance, in man-man sex, as noted in an AZBlogX posting of mine (of 2/25/13) on “Fetish/kink porn”:
An overarching theme [as in the gay porn flick Hoodies] is Taking It: experiencing, and enjoying, pain, humiliation, and abuse … An exhibition of parodoxical masculinity, showing how much of a man you are by showing how much you can take from other men. But also Submission, an abandonment of will to another man, recognizing him as superior to you.
Pain, suitably limited, also stimulates the release of hormones that can be experienced as intense pleasure. In addition, the Way of Pain in BDSM is highly ritualized, designed to work for both participants, which opens BDSM to being understood as a kind of ceremony or therapy.
That brings me to Leo Forte (treated in an 7/28/13 AZBlogX posting here), a star on the gay BDSM circuit who sometimes bills himself as “The Prince of Pain”, because of his appetite for torment (and other forms of kink).
Here’s the handsome Forte looking intense:
And here he is in an interview about his porn work:
Recently, you had a very intense flogging scene with Tony Buff for Fetish Force. Can you tell us about that experience?
A big portion of what we do is SEX MAGIC. We use the practices of BDSM, like flogging, to help each other process issues of the mind and the self. For that scene I came to Tony not as a performer but as a member of the Leather family. I was having a difficult time in my personal life, and we used the flogging to help me process the issues on my plate. The pain I felt let me go deep inside my mind and allow[ed] me to break down what was bothering me. I felt such a great release after I broke, and over all clarity. What makes the work of ours so much more intense is that it is REAL. We are not models in leather, we are fetish players that also model.
(A still from the Forte-Buff flogging scene is #6 in my AZBlogX posting on Forte.)
July 29, 2013 at 6:52 am |
There’s an exit off Route 6 on Cape Cod with a sign pointing to Pleasant Point and Paine Hollow.