Page 4
News
Street Roots • Jüne 12-18, 2015
The city
that wnips
BD SM practitioner Annamarie
Stockwell fills us in on one o f Portland's
latest titles — 'kinkiest city in America'
BY EMILY GREEN
Movies such as “Secretary” (2002) and
“Fifty Shades of Grey” (2015) have
transported BDSM from underground to
nnamarie Stockwell stands at the '
mainstream, although some critics within
front of a room packed with students
the BDSM community say sex scenes in
on Portland Community College’s
Sylvania Campus, swinging a single-tail “Fifty Shades” are more about rape and less
about BDSM. For those in the kink
whip.
community, consent is key. Anything other
She has the full attention of the class.
than
full consent is abuse, says Stockwell.
“I’m not a doctor,’’ she tells them, “but I
At age 34, she’s been immersed in
play one in a dungeon.”
Portland’s kink culture since shortly after
Earlier this year, Portland was dubbed
moving to the region 11 years ago. While
“kinkiest city in America.” The ranking was
the
local community has been growing as
based on the city’s total kink population, the
long as she can remember, as BDSM
number of kink-aware professionals listed in
becomes less taboo and more accessible,
the National Coalition ^or, .Sexual<Freedom’s
she says she’s seen a marked influx in
(NCSF) re source directory, and on * * < .
curious
kinksters surfacing for the first Tiffi^'
pornography purchase; data collected by the
at events in Portland.
study’s author, BDSM porn site Kink.com.
Newcomers have plenty to choose from.
While Portland scored low in the latter
There are at least three different kink
category, it still grabbed the number one
events almost every single day on the
spot with 4 percent of Portlanders logged
calendar Stockwell Updates, PDX Kink
onto Fetlife - a social media network for
Events.
There are whip practices, rope-tying
kinky people. And, according to Kink.com,
seminats, strap-on lessons and munches. A
Portland closely rivals much larger cities
munch is a casual gathering for people
such as San Francisco, New York and
interested in kink.
Chicago in the number of play parties,
While Portland’s kink community has a
workshops and other resources available to
packed events .calendar, Stockwell says many
kinksters.
people come into the community to learn
The definition of kink runs the gamut
what they need to learn about BDSM play,
including any bedroom activity beyond
and then recede back into their private
monogamous, missionary-position
bedrooms.
procreation. But in this context, it’s tied
“Having a community where you can
tightly to BDSM. Think bondage,
come meet other people who are doing this
dominance, sadism and masochism. There’s
stuff, I think, is really important because
role playing, fetishes, pleasure mixed with
you
get a more realistic expectation for what
pain and elaborate power exchanges where
exploring kink can look like,” she says.
there are tops and bottoms, ultimate control
People can walk away from reading or
and no control - although complete
watching erotic material with ideas about
submission is an illusion. A scene can be
power exchange relationships that just
paused at any time by any participant. The
aren’t feasible for most schedules and
most common safe word is “red.”
abilities.
For example, setting the
Kink can be as mild as a spanking or as
expectation that a master and slave dynamic
extreme as genital torture.
is something practiced 24 hours a day,
It’s all about exploring boundaries, both
seven days a week. “Nobody does that,” says
emotional and physical, says Stockwell.
Stockwell.
She’s a switch, which means - depending
For kink newbies, Stockwell says
on her mood - she can be a top or a bottom,
munches
can be a good place to start. She
a sadist or a masochist Some people solely
and her partner founded PDX Queer Munch,
identify as one or the other.
which meets at Radio Room the first
And leather. There’s a lot of leather.
Thursday of every month,, and Vancouver
The largest BDSM membership-based
Munch.
organization in the Portland-metro area,
“If you go to a munch, it’s not a bunch of
Portland Leather Alliance, has been around
crazy, wild, kinky-looking people,” she says.
since 1998. Along with educational events
“It’s mostly people sitting around talking
and fundraisers, PLA puts on Portland’s
largest annual BDSM event KinkFest, which about their pets - and also the fact that
maybe they had a really good caning last
brought more than 1,000 people to the
weekend.”
Portland Expo Center in February.
ST A FF W R ITE R
■
P H O T O BY NIK RAPIER
For introverts," there’s the PDX Kinky
Introverts Munch. In fact, Portland has a
munch or party for just about every
subgroup of kink culture imaginable.
“We have a group specifically for kinky
women, groups for gay men, there are
groups for bears,” says Stockwell. “We have
queer groups, we have straight groups, we
have groups that are specific to people who
are exploring master slave dynamics,
there’s rope - Portland is real big on rope.”
“There are a lot of events and workshops
and groups that meet just to learn how to
tie people up.”
And while she can’t tie a good knot to
save her life, Stockwell stands out as a
leader in Portland’s continuously growing
kink community. She hosts monthly
discussion panels on kink-related topics -
June’s topic is dominant-submissive
relationship trouble shooting - and she
teaches a variety of BDSM workshops from
the tamer Introduction to BDSM to
Endorphin-Based Needle Play 101.
Stockwell also gets to flaunt her inner
geek as a regular guest speaker at PCC and
Portland State University. She usually takes
over human sexuality classes for a day,
explaining polyamory, which she’s been
practicing with her partner for the past 10
years, or the origins and acronyms of
BDSM - there are a lot of acronyms.
She’s been a regular guest speaker in
PCC psychology professor Cynthia
Golledge’s classes for the past five years.
Golledge says she’s seen her students’
attitudes toward kink evolve over time.
“1 think it’s probably fair to say that in
the 10 years or so that I’ve been teaching
this, that not only do more people know a
little more about kink, or BDSM, but the
attitude is generally a little bit more
favorable,” she says. “There’s been a slight
shift toward more acceptance of the idea.”
Stockwell is also one of the coré founders
of Sex-Positive Education and Event Center,
or SPEEC, a donor-funded nonprofit that
sprung up after The Sindicate, Portland’s
largest dungeon, closed in November 2013.
The group is currently focused on finding a
space it can lease for large-scale BDSM play
parties and other events.
“Although it wás born out of BDSM and
the people on the board are from the
BDSM world, we really want it to be
accessible for any sex-positive group in
town, whether they’re kinky or otherwise,”
explains SPEEC’s board chair, Chris Olson.
SPEEC’s reached out to more than 50 other
“sex-positive” communities in the area for
support.
For those who prefer a more intimate
See KINK, page 5