A little bit on kink in fandom/geekdom

[bironic]

son_of_darkness, who is a great go-to guy for things kinky & thinky, has an interesting topic up for discussion today. He writes:

Most of the geeky people I meet are kinky, but not a lot of the kinky people I meet are geeky. [...] I wanted to ask if any of you had noticed something similar, and if so, why do you think there seems to be such a correlation between being a geek and being kinky?

I replied: I know I found a lot of consolation in geeky settings because I didn't feel I fit in to mainstream culture -- which included, in large part, things that turned me on. There's a huge overlap for me between wanting to explore the subtext of movies/TV/books/etc. and wanting to explore the kink lurking in things like villains and vampires and intergalactic space exploration and what have you.

Fannishness and kinkiness have always been intertwined for me. I told cryptictac once that the most important, life-changing thing about fandom for me has been to meet people, from home and from the other side of the world, who share a fierce love of the same things I do, that I was told when I was younger -- by my parents, by my best friend, by teachers, by culture -- were strange, deviant, not okay. I never had confidence in myself like I've had since finding fandom. For one thing, I can read wonderful, amazing, hot, kinky fic whenever I want, and share my own when I want, and we have this community that celebrates it.

There is so much more to say, some day. But I thought some of you might want to share your thoughts and experiences, here or there. I know I want to hear them.

Comments

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

the most important, life-changing thing about fandom for me has been to meet people, from home and from the other side of the world, who share a fierce love of the same things I do, that I was told when I was younger -- by my parents, by my best friend, by teachers, by culture -- were strange, deviant, not okay.

I so completely know what you mean.

&hearts!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

If only I could make an HTML heart big enough to encompass everything I feel for fandom. It sucks so much time out of my life, time that often would be better spent on other things, but that's because it fills such an emotional need for me, and I wouldn't give it up for anything.