ThorNYC treated our fair city this evening to a screening of clips from Hollywood films portraying s/m. Luckily, BC and I got to the Yerba Buena Center a little bit before show time, so we were able to finally meet our presenter in the flesh, and expand our vision of Thor beyond the 1″x1″ depiction that we’ve been communicating with in this here corner of cyberspace. What is it with sadists? You’re all so cute and sweet. I suppose that’s part of the point of Thor’s presentation, that the mainstream generally hasn’t depicted s/m’ers in a very realistic or complex way. The roles and behavior associated with s/m make it a subject ripe for parody or exploitation. The dynamics are so close to theater. I thought of Russo’s The Celluloid Closet and about how anything out of the majority’s sphere of experience is treated as something dangerous or funny. You either laugh or scream, but rarely are given an opportunity to understand it. One of the more interesting s/m themed scenes from a recent (non mainstream) film was in Mike Leigh’s Naked, where the supposed landlord takes control of the house in his little undies and has sex with one of the roommates. Their respective dominant and submissive natures come together in a spontaneous and extreme sexual encounter. She is badly shaken by the encounter but burbles that it was the most intense experience of her life. The treatment hovers between the absurd and frightening, but the exploration of a different side of her sexuality is eagerly embraced and enjoyed. Philip joined us for the show, and for dinner afterward, as ever attired suitably in black. BC and I wore black and blue, our own event-inspired fashion metaphor.
Tales of Post-Twinkie Ennui