Item — HN Reader

At first I thought this article would be linkbaity-gossip about a tech individual's private matters. However I think it raises a good point:

Generally our attitude toward different sexual preferences (previously labeled 'deviant') is that it is illegal and wrong to use them to hold back somebody's career. However fetishism thus far hasn't been approached the same way as homosexuality, nor has the debate even begun in any public fashion.

I think this debate will have to happen and it's very nuanced.

2 comments

Disclaimer : i am a dom/top/whatever you want to call it in my private life.

Even more interestingly, the majority of the fetish/BDSM community is heavily feminist and open minded. (There are always grey nuance and complex case but still) It is a community that is deeply rooted into consent and people that submit making a conscious and informed decision.

You tend to meet people that accept someone else opinion or lifestyle, that are team player and adapt to others, more than proselyts or zealots.

Interestingly, the legal implications are complex, and most of the time, in the US, would not support the lifestyle that much. Consensual non-consent or violence is a strange place legally.

But from the public information so far, it seems hard to believe that this was about proselytising or promoting anything.

Just a witch hunt. Which, to be honest, do not surprise me.

I am semi public about my personal involvement since 50 Shades, because i accept the problem i could get in exchange of informing people that need it (50 shades is hated in a lot of the community for good reasons) It is not easy and you get a lot of anxious/uneasy look.

To be clear: the claim here --- not that you'd know it from the article --- is that proselytizing was in fact an issue.

Well proselytising what ? Because once again, the fact he plays as a Gorean master does not mean he believes women to be subhuman.

This tends to be the problem with most of these things. But in any case we really lack information here.

Regardless what he believes, whether it is in line with the mainstream western values or not, it hurts the inclusion and tolerance to expel members based on that. One's taste, political views (regardless how extreme it is) should not be a subject of investigation in a professional community.

It wasn't an issue in Dries' article, either.

It's not illegal to use homosexuality to "hold back somebody's career" in most jurisdictions, though. Only just enough jurisdictions for multinational corporations to set policies about it.