S and M Shops Look To Hit Back

Between the poor economy, prostitution raids and beaten clients who are deadbeats, local dommes are taking a beating! Some say business has been beaten down up to 70%. Many places along New York’s notorious “Dungeon Alley” in midtown have scaled back their sessions. Fear pervades the industry now and ("I've been a bad boy.") johns are too nervous to make appointments. Will things improve? One dominatrix says, “The uncertainty is torturing us.” To fight back and protect their interests, many are now looking to form a political-action committee and union. Unlike escort agencies and prostitutes, many in the BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism) business believe their business is legit. The law is unclear. “DomPAC” will soon lobby lawmakers to exclude BDSM practices from prostitution. (Could prostitutes legally become sex surrogates?) Dommes hope this may lead to legal unions, 401(k)s, insurance plans and unemployment benefits. One wonders if Sonny and Cher’s hit “The Beat Goes On” will still be a hit with the "S and M’rs" in 2009.

S And M Spanked In No-Fun City

Bad girls. Bad girls. Beep, beep. A Tribeca S and M "pleasure palace" was busted after a dominatrix offered sex to an undercover cop. The Manhattan club, Rapture NYC was closed with the owner and pain management domme now charged with prostitution. Whether the charge is true or not, a jury may decide. A sign in the establishment states, “We do not engage in any form of prostitution whatsoever, so don’t even ask!” Other signs are posted stating that sex isn’t permitted. Who knows what really went on behind their closed doors? Let's get real, people. It's 2008. What one defines these days as "prostitution," another might define as "pleasure for payment' with both partners regarding the sex as a "business arrangement" or "mutually consensual." Was this act so despicably different from a "date" where the male or female willingly engages in sex after money was spent on them? Who are the victims in either situation? Activities at this club were going on behind closed doors. This is not to defend hookers selling their wares on city streets. Actions of that sort have a far greater negative impact than an S and M club or even a house of prostitution. Perhaps it’s time to re-examine privacy rights and the definition of what constitutes criminal behavior in our society. Maybe we should consider that if a woman has a right to abortion in America, she should also have the right to use her body as she chooses, for her own reasons. Once again, the stipulation being that our New York society and neighbors shouldn't suffer as a result.