Bondage Is Bad: Difference between revisions

More and more often, modern shows and movies allow a character (often a [[Brains and Bondage|smart one]]) to [[Casual Kink|be into BDSM]] and still be a [[Safe, Sane, and Consensual|decent character]]. However, the old prejudices are still common, and [[Double Standard|Double Standards]] apply: If it's a woman who is into the practice, she might be portrayed in a somewhat respectful (if didactic) fashion. If it's a man, however, he's usually ridiculed (if he's the one being tied up) or else is portrayed as a dangerous lunatic one step away from becoming a serial killer/rapist.

It should be noted that some media dress their villains up in "S&M gear" in order to make them [[Stripperific]] (because they're [[Evil Is Sexy|villains]], after all), and don't actually have them engage in BDSM-related activities. It should also be noted that [[Evil Is Sexy]] is often the reason why [[Bondage Is Bad]] comes into play in the first place: Compare with [[Romanticized Abuse]] and its subtropes [[Bastard Boyfriend]] and [[Bastard Girlfriend]]. According to [[Dan Savage]], this trope is mostly about letting mainstream people have their cake and eat it too: Getting turned on by kinky stuff while patting themselves on the back for being better than kinky people.

Depending on context, [[Bondage Is Bad]] is often a subtrope of [[Sex Is Evil]], [[Evil Is Sexy]], or both. When it follows the [[Evil Is Sexy]] path, it still often portrays BDSM as a mentally unhealthy perversion (just like [[Real Life]] psychiatry did until 1990), thus combining the two tropes into an angsty form of [[Sex Is Evil and I Am Horny]].

The "how", "why" and "if" of why this trope is played is highly dependent on ''when'' the work is made. In the eighties, BDSM was highly socially unpopular: Major feminist organizations hated it, while psychiatry still believed even [[Safe, Sane, and Consensual|SSC]] BDSM to be abnormal. These views have gradually been abandoned. Since 1990, psychiatry acknowledge that [[SSC]] BDSM<ref> note that when this trope is used, SSC is invariably NOT used</ref> is often done between mentally healthy individuals, and more and more organizations who have already stopped spreading prejudice are now instead starting to fight it. Thus, the trope becomes subverted more and more often, and when it's played straight it's often reinforced with hints of [[Putting on the Reich|nazism]] or whatever.

* Many villains in ''[[Violence Jack]]'' wear S&M gear as regular clothes and like to capture, tie up, and sexually torture any female character they can get their hands on. This is especially prevalent in the Harlem Bomber arc, where the villains have their own S&M dungeon to make captured girls into sex slaves. Plus, the woman who runs it, Rose, is a [[Whip It Good]] [[Psycho Lesbian]] dominatrix who rapes a girl's friend in front of her as a way to desensitize her to sex. The [[Big Bad]] of the series, Slum King, also has two quadruple amputee sex slaves that he keeps on leashes and treats like dogs.

* ''[[Air Gear]]'': Arthur is a [[Depraved Homosexual]] masochist who displays sexualized behavior towards his antagonist Agito. He also frequently releases heart marks whenever he's reveling in the feeling of pain.

* The [[Red Skull]]'s daughter, Sin and her boyfriend Crossbones are really into the extreme kind. To the point of getting off on torture.

* The Cenobites from the ''[[Hellraiser]]'' films. This was made during the height of the '80's disapproval of bondage, and writer/director Clive Barker is very interested in the transgressive.

* Doctor Hong from ''[[Island in The Sea of Time]]'' by S.M. Stirling. After Nantucket is transported into the Bronze Age she is just a doctor with an S&M fetish (admittedly one that has been declared ''persona non grata'' at every pain club on the East Coast) that becomes the chief physician of [[Big Bad|William Walker's]] renegade empire-building islanders. Once Walker has used his twentieth century know-how to obtain power for himself she begins to torture people for fun. She eventually claims to be an avatar of the goddess Hecate and begins a cult dedicated to mass torture as a form of sacrifice to the gods (although it also teaches useful medical knowledge). In addition to torture for religious and recreational purposes she also has some practical uses for her skills, such as castrating slaves to make them more docile.

* ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' played this quite straight in the first season episode "Stocks and Bondage". The [[Victim of the Week]] had it coming for being into BDSM. Her own mother just keep spitting on her grave (with the protagonists comforting her for the burden of having such a perverted daughter). And each individual who accepted her kinky side without moralizing over it turn out to be a horrible person. It seems they got some quote harsh feedback for that episode: In later episodes, that have nothing to do with BDSM, the Captain just keep reminding the protagonists that [[Safe, Sane, and Consensual|SSC]] BDSM isn't a bad thing, so they should be careful to not do an [[Abuse Mistake]].

** Also subverted sometimes, with the detectives or their captain making references to the existence of SSC (Safe, Sane & Consensual) BDSM play and the importance of not mistaking such play for abuse.

* The writers of ''[[Bones]]'' [[Author On Board|seem to have a thing about this]]. One episode declared that bondage and kink were for people who were unsatisfied and bored with "real" sex, with implications that the activity indicated emotional imbalance. In another, featuring pony play in the murder of the week, Booth gives an impassioned speech about how fetishism cannot lead to a fulfilling emotional experience. Both times, Bones (who is ''very'' sexually open-minded otherwise) agrees with him.

* [[Darkseid]], while possessing the body of [[Smallville/Characters/Apokiliptians|Gordon Godfrey]], feeds on the dark energy in the souls of dominatrix club goers in ''[[Smallville]]''.

* Bondage Queen is one of the possible Evil endings in the [[Raising Sim]] game, ''[[Princess Maker]] 2''. Achieving this one is heavily frowned upon, although it doesn't stop people from doing it, of course. It is in the same vein as [[Big Bad|Crime Boss]], [[High Class Call Girl|High Class Prostitute]], and [[Hot as Hell|Princess of Darkness]].

* In ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'', we have the nightclub ''Ragnarok'': where we have, among other things, BDSM, animal sacrifice, and other violent occult activities.

* ''[[Shiniez]]'' averts this completely.