Apparently, this crime occurred almost 14 years ago but the justice system has finally caught him.
Rapist jailed for attacking dominatrix
When I first saw the headline, I wondered if it was some thug who had posed as a submissive. That would be pretty weird and scary. Maintaining the physical safety of the prodomme, who naturally sees a lot of unknown entities, and who will be eliciting sometimes powerful and irrational responses from said entities, is of no small concern to all of us in the kink communities. They may have all the whips and toys, but professional dominatrices are vulnerable to male violence, if only because they are alone in a private setting with a sexually aroused stranger who is likely to be taller, heavier and stronger. Indeed, what's amazing is how few such crimes we ever hear about. May it stay that way always.
This fellow was NO client. Just a robber and thug who broke into her flat and then raped her. Still a horror, of course, but perhaps not quite as worrisome as the idea of criminals pretending to be consensual SM partners and targeting prodommes. (Which would make for a good SM mystery/thriller plot but a nightmare reality for sex-workers.)
And, naturally, media coverage had to highlight that she was a dominatrix and make mention of her PVC and playspace though clearly none of the above had anything to do with this crime. The details of what she does for a living and what she was wearing only clouds the issue in the vanilla public's perception. It suggests that this was "another SM crime" when it really had zero to do with SM. We don't go around reporting "rape victim was in Victoria's Secret nighty" or "rape victim had really large breasts," because that would subtly suggest that the victim was somehow asking for it. So why is the SM angle important enough to report? Because...it turns vanillas on while re-enforcing the stereotype of SM as sordid and violent?
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