Bondage in Takoma Park!
Lecture and demonstration on bondage and sadism proves popular on YouTube
Source: Thesentinel.com.
USA – While sitting through City Council meetings might be described as torture, in the City of Takoma Park, that description has taken on a new meaning.
Last November, in the same room Takoma Park City Council meetings take place, sociologist and Gallaudet University associate professor Julie Fennell presented a detailed lecture about bondage, domination, sadism and masochism (BDSM), which included live demonstrations of rope bondage.
The lecture and demonstration were also taped and are on the city’s YouTube site. The extended version of Fennell’s lecture and demonstration, lasting more than two hours, is the third-most popular video hosted by Takoma Park City TV, with more than 5,000 views as of Monday. An interview with author Rachel Renee Russell and her humorous children’s book series Dork Diaries (20,793 views) places first and has been on the YouTube site for about a year. A video called “Great Big Book Club,” a discussion of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” (14,511 views) comes in second and has been on the YouTube site for about two years.
“(There’s a) long , really rich history that’s really obvious when you delve into things and realize how many people in the Takoma Park area are involved in the kink scene,” Fennell said.
Takoma Park paid a total of $350 for the lecture and for the production of the video, according to the community development coordinator and TV production manager.
Rosalind Grigsby, City development coordinator for Takoma Park, said the City paid Fennell $100 to lecture at the Takoma Park Community Center.
“(I’m) disappointed that we were using taxpayer resources for a program like that,” said Council member Terry Seamens (Ward 4), who said he was unaware of the lecture before a reporter brought it to his attention.
Takoma Park TV Production Manager Alvaro Calabia said the cost of producing the program was the hourly pay of city employees, a total of about $250. He said funding from City taxes covered the cost.
Calabia said the program last aired on Takoma Park Televison Aug. 18 at 10 p.m., as well as May 12 at 10:35 p.m. and June 10 at 10:45 p.m. He said the program aired on television 21 times.
The video in both a short and extended version has been available on YouTube since February.
The Takoma Park Arts and Humanities Commission selected Fennell as part of their lecture series after she applied and, according to members of the commission, they appreciated her academic standing.
Fennell said she applied to lecture for the city because it was an opportunity she had never seen before: to present an academic lecture to a general audience.
Only people 17 and older could attend Fennell’s lecture in person, but the video is available online without restriction.
In the six months the BDSM lecture has been on the YouTube channel, people viewed it 5,062 times as of Monday.
In addition to the lecture, Fennell also introduced two people on the videotape she called “kinksters” who demonstrated sophisticated rope bondage.
She requested audience members donate $10 to the performers as people in the field of BDSM don’t tend to make much money.
The second demonstration of rope bondage featured Fennell and another man, Brandon Neil. Outside her role as a professor, Fennell practices in being a “rope bottom” or the person who is tied up in BDSM.
Alvaro Calabia, Takoma Park City TV production manager, said he hesitated at first to produce the lecture and demonstration.
“It changed my perspective,” Calabia said. “I didn’t know much about it; whatever little I knew I would (have guessed) it was pornographic but… (I learned) it’s another type of performance art.”
Fennell said she saw her lecture in Takoma Park as a form of debriefing subjects after observing people in the D.C. area in her sociology research and sharing her findings with them.
“(The) bondage performances that people did (who) were completely clothed – I really don’t see a difference between clothed bondage performance or frankly a lot of Olympic sports, (such as) ice skating (or ballroom dancing),” Fennell said.
She said multiple partner dances accepted by society as appropriate are “erotically charged.”
“Artistic bondage, it’s just not that different (from a Tango), especially when people keep their clothes on,” Fennell said.
Susan Strasser, chairman of Takoma Park Arts and Humanities Commission, said commission members try to select a variety of lecture topics to avoid them clustering around one or two categories. She said commission members thought it would interest the community.
“We all were raising our eyebrows a little bit at the time we were (reviewing the BDSM lecture proposal),” Strasser said. “There’s scholarship on all types of things.”
The commission, partly funded by We are Takoma, paid Fennell for her lecture, according to city staff.
Strasser said some may consider BDSM an unusual topic for the We are Takoma lecture series, but then compared it with a musical topic the series also covered.
“Jazz in Japan is just as much out there,”
Reaction from other city officials to the lecture and video were varied.
City Council member Rizzy Qureshi (Ward 3) said an image of a flyer for the event sticks in his memory but he couldn’t explain why. He declined to comment because he had not seen the video.
City Manager Suzanne Ludlow said she remembered when someone was scheduled to lecture about BDSM last year.
“We have had some things before that have been particularly sensitive that, dealt with that people were recovering after incest, those kinds of things,” Ludlow said.
She said some forms of art may not be appropriate for children, but that that did not have to stop the city from making some of it available to audiences 17 and older.
“Takoma Park has consistently tried to think about art in a variety of ways,” said Ludlow. “And art’s not always ‘G-rated,’ but I think we’ve tried to have a broad diversity from kid-oriented things that adults might not care for to other topics that only some types of people might be interested in.”
Seamens said he wanted to talk to the council about the possibility of changing how the commission selects lecturer topics or regulating what can air on the city’s TV channel.
“I’d be interested to talk with my colleagues on the council and see whether we want to make any changes,” said Seamens. “Either guidelines for the commission or guidelines for the city television (channel).”
The city manager said she supported the commission’s decisions in general. Ludlow said BDSM is a part of Takoma Park’s identity, though it is not the only part. She supports the choices the commission members make.
“Overall they do a wonderful job,” Ludlow said. “They have brought all kinds of perspective… humanities presentations. It’s wonderful that it all happens right here.”
Council members Tim Male (Ward 2) and Fred Schultz (Ward 6) each said “No comment,” and did not watch the video. Council members Jarret Smith (Ward 5) did not return phone calls or an email before deadline.
Council member Peter Kovar (Ward 1) said he did not remember being informed of the lecture, but that he as a new council member may not have been on all the email lists to be informed of upcoming events. He declined to comment because he had not finished watching the video before deadline.
Takoma Park Mayor Kate Stewart said the lecture seemed to be academic in nature and she mentioned that the lecturer was a professor discussing her research.
“The content had mature themes and the city staff took appropriate steps regarding when the program would be aired,” Stewart said.
Stewart said no residents contacted city staff or city council members with complaints about the lecture or the video being shown on TV so she did not have any strong concerns.
See larger photo: www.thesentinel.com.
See video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/FDrK73FPhhk
