The BDSM lifestyle event returns for another year to New Orleans.
DomCon NOLA is described as “the premiere professional and lifestyle BDSM convention” – though how much competition there is for the title remains a mystery to be investigated – and the event returns to the French Quarter of New Orleans in just over a week.
It’s perhaps telling of something – though I’m not quite sure what, but whatever it is feels positive – that BDSM professionals can now have what is effectively an industry convention, albeit one where the public can also attend. A bit like a car show, perhaps, where dominants – male, female and all points in between – can (ahem) thrash out the issues of the day while also selling their services and personalities to potential customers. It all seems rather civilised and a world away from the ludicrous horror stories of those who cynically equate sex work with trafficking and BDSM with assault in order to push their own sex-phobic, moralising agendas.
Like many a lifestyle event, there are workshops, classes and panels, though as you might expect, these have livelier themes than you’ll find at most events – to quote the press release, they include “Mental Health for Industry Professionals by Becca Cleary, JD and Mastress Leigh Oshiro, Legal Considerations for ProDommes by Aaron, Electro Play by Jabber, BDSM and Power Exchange through Hair Cutting and Head Shaving by Domina Delila Savage, Kink Relationship Dynamics by SafferMaster and Lady Petra and workshops on wax play, impact play (spanking, caning, flogging), corsets, mummification and a lot of rope classes”. All, you might reasonably think, subjects that require an expert touch and probably not the sort of thing that you can easily get expert guidance in normally, so this seems a worthy event for anyone looking to take their first steps into a new career or expand their existing one. More to the point, it’s probably a blessed relief from the constant demonisation to mix with your peers.
It’s also the sort of thing that will, at best, be treated like an amusing freak show by the mainstream press and at worst be presented as a gathering of the damaged and the damagers – so everyone should all support these events and counter the criticisms, even if this is not your personal scene. Remember – what the moralisers say about BDSM, they’ll say about every other pleasure, sexual or not.
The event takes place at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel between October 27th and 30th. Online registration closes on the 25th, so if this takes your fancy, hop to it.
(Photos from DomCom 2021 courtesy of http://www.sjstudio1.com)
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