BDSM as business: An interview with the owners of a dungeon
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Sunday, October 21, 2007
Torture proliferates American headlines today: whether its use is defensible in certain contexts and the morality of the practice. Wikinews reporter David Shankbone was curious about torture in American popular culture. This is the first of a two part series examining the BDSM business. This interview focuses on the owners of a dungeon, what they charge, what the clients are like and how they handle their needs.
When Shankbone rings the bell of “HC & Co.” he has no idea what to expect. A BDSM (Bondage Discipline Sadism Masochism) dungeon is a legal enterprise in New York City, and there are more than a few businesses that cater to a clientèle that wants an enema, a spanking, to be dressed like a baby or to wear women’s clothing. Shankbone went to find out what these businesses are like, who runs them, who works at them, and who frequents them. He spent three hours one night in what is considered one of the more upscale establishments in Manhattan, Rebecca’s Hidden Chamber, where according to The Village Voice, “you can take your girlfriend or wife, and have them treated with respect—unless they hope to be treated with something other than respect!”
When Shankbone arrived on the sixth floor of a midtown office building, the elevator opened up to a hallway where a smiling Rebecca greeted him. She is a beautiful forty-ish Long Island mother of three who is dressed in smart black pants and a black turtleneck that reaches up to her blond-streaked hair pulled back in a bushy ponytail. “Are you David Shankbone? We’re so excited to meet you!” she says, and leads him down the hall to a living room area with a sofa, a television playing an action-thriller, an open supply cabinet stocked with enema kits, and her husband Bill sitting at the computer trying to find where the re-release of Blade Runner is playing at the local theater. “I don’t like that movie,” says Rebecca.
Perhaps the most poignant moment came at the end of the night when Shankbone was waiting to be escorted out (to avoid running into a client). Rebecca came into the room and sat on the sofa. “You know, a lot of people out there would like to see me burn for what I do,” she says. Rebecca is a woman who has faced challenges in her life, and dealt with them the best she could given her circumstances. She sees herself as providing a service to people who have needs, no matter how debauched the outside world deems them. They sat talking mutual challenges they have faced and politics (she’s supporting Hillary); Rebecca reflected upon the irony that many of the people who supported the torture at Abu Ghraib would want her closed down. It was in this conversation that Shankbone saw that humanity can be found anywhere, including in places that appear on the surface to cater to the inhumanity some people in our society feel towards themselves, or others.
“The best way to describe it,” says Bill, “is if you had a kink, and you had a wife and you had two kids, and every time you had sex with your wife it just didn’t hit the nail on the head. What would you do about it? How would you handle it? You might go through life feeling unfulfilled. Or you might say, ‘No, my kink is I really need to dress in women’s clothing.’ We’re that outlet. We’re not the evil devil out here, plucking people off the street, keeping them chained up for days on end.”
Below is David Shankbone’s interview with Bill & Rebecca, owners of Rebecca’s Hidden Chamber, a BDSM dungeon.
Contents
- 1 Meet Bill & Rebecca, owners of a BDSM dungeon
- 1.1 Their home life
- 2 Operating the business
- 2.1 The costs
- 2.2 Hiring employees
- 2.3 The prices
- 3 The clients
- 3.1 What happens when a client walks through the door
- 3.2 Motivations of the clients
- 3.3 Typical requests
- 3.4 What is not typical
- 4 The environment
- 4.1 Is an S&M dungeon dangerous?
- 4.2 On S&M burnout
- 5 Criticism of BDSM
- 6 Related news
- 7 External links
- 8 Sources
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By Cory Bowman
An estate planning specialist claims responsibility in assisting clients with their plans for personal assets. Often referred to as ‘the science of money management,’ estate planning involves quantifying various financial options to plan and determine the size and duration of investments. These investments and plans will account for the future finances of the clients’ heirs. Estate planners must work to make sure that both the client and his successors are left financially stable and secure. Both financial management and strategic thinking come into play during this endeavor.
The estate planning process involves four major steps. First, the estate planning specialist works with his or her client to determine how much the client’s estate is worth. Estates can include everything from real estate to bank and investment accounts to automobiles and furniture. Anything owned by the client is incorporated into their estate plan. After the monetary amount is calculated, the next step is to choose who will be the heirs of the estate and what assets they will each receive. Third, the specialist and client will work together to determine the cash needs of both the estate and the calculated tax. From there, the specialist will select and implement learned techniques to achieve the determined goals for the estate plan.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65JTz5C5ZWk[/youtube]
When it comes to setting goals, the overall determined outcome is to provide the client with a sufficient amount of return on their investments. A financial management degree will provide the estate planning specialist with the skill set needed to achieve the set goals. In estate planning, specifically, there are five standard goals. The first is to make sure the client, as well as their family, is provided for financially. The second goal of planning is to accurately determine who will be entitled to the assets of the estate plan. Next, the guardianship of children who are still minors must be decided in case the client and his or her spouse pass away. The fourth checkpoint is to avoid probate, which is the legal process by which an asset’s title is transferred. If it cannot be avoided, then it must be used strategically to steer clear from negative financial upset. The fifth and final goal for the specialist would be to either decrease or completely eliminate estate taxes.
After drafting the clients will and agreeing on the estate plan, the next step for the estate planning specialist is to decide which investments to include in the client’s financial portfolio. Completion of a financial management degree will allow the specialist to make the appropriate choices for the client portfolio. There are many options available to the client: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities, insurance, and social security, just to name a few. The amount of return from these investments will allow the client’s family and other heirs to be financially secure when the client passes away. Since these investment performances are so important for the future, the selection of specific options is a job in itself and should be continually monitored to ensure positive profit. Successful estate planning and investment portfolios will leave the client feeling safe and sound about their family’s financial futures.
About the Author: Cory Bowman is Director of Ops at the Institute of Business Finance. IBF has helped thousands of members of the financial services industry attain designations. For more information about IBF,
estate planning specialist
,
financial management degree
, visit http://www.icfs.com
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March
16
Law center helps defend open source
Law center helps defend open source
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Wednesday, February 2, 2005
Eben Moglen, Columbia University Law Professor, will head the newSoftware Freedom Law Center (SFLC). An initial 4 million dollars has been provided by Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) to fund the project.
The law center will provide free legal service for open source projects and developers. In 2004 OSDL established a separate $10 million Linux Legal Defense Fund providing legal support for Linus Torvalds, Linux kernel creator and end user companies subjected to Linux-related litigation by the SCO Group. The new law center will not be affiliated with the OSDL.
“This is about taking care of the goose that laid the golden egg and not letting wolves come in the middle of the night and steal it away,” Moglen said during a press conference. “This is a legal firm not involved so much in litigating and defending as it will be for counseling and advising and nurturing non-profits and to prevent millions of dollars in litigation.”
Moglen will serve as chairman and director-counsel of the non-profit organization. Also on board as directors are: Lawrence Lessig, law professor at Stanford Law School; Daniel Weitzner, director of the World Wide Web Consortium‘s technology and society activities; and Diane Peters, general counsel at the OSDL. Daniel Ravicher, executive director of the Public Patent Foundation, will help manage as legal director.
Moglen, one of the world.s leading experts on copyright law as applied to software, will run the new Law Center from its headquarters in New York City. The Law Center will initially have two full-time intellectual property attorneys on staff and expects to expand to four attorneys later this year. Initial clients for the Law Center include the Free Software Foundation and the Samba Project.
Other services provided by the SFLC include: asset stewardship, to avoid intellectual property claim conflict; license review and compatibility analysis; legal consulting and lawyer training.
