January 2005
A friend of mine, a rope top who is called Mac Heath, recently told me that he felt we were living in a kind of golden age of rope bondage. He sited the emergence of rope groups across the nation, the advent of Shibaricon, the photographic work that's coming out of Japan, and even the work I'm doing here with this site. He says "In the future, they'll look back on what we've done here and compare it to Paris in the 20s." It's truly a grand vision -- and I like grand visions. The idea of being compared to the community of the greatest creative minds of the early 20th century is thrilling and daunting and it does give me pause when I think of all the people I know in the rope world and see all that we're doing or attempting to do -- witness Midori's beautybound.com, James Mogul's Nawashibari.com, hand-made hemp rope from Monk (twistedmonk.com), Bridgett Harrington's ropelover.com and Websites and publications from many others...
Not that I think what I'm doing on this site will be of any interest to folks even 10 years down the line, let alone 50, but it's great to think about the community we're starting to build now. There are indeed more and more groups concentrating on bondage in its many aspects as their primary play. I even co-moderate a couple of rope bondage-oriented Yahoo groups (one aimed specifically at rope bottoms -- imagine that!). BDSM groups are incorporating educational events and bondage is beginning to become more prominent among them. We now have Shibaricon as an on-going event and that will change the landscape of rope culture for a long time to come. We're at an exciting time, if not a golden age, for lovers of rope bondage.
Which brings me to the crux of my comments: safety and awareness. If you're attending events and are interested in rope bondage, be aware that the art carries just as many risks as anything else we do in SM, sometimes more because a lot of times we're doing it off the ground! A lot of people look at what we do and say "Oh, that's not so hard" or "That looks like something I could do at home." You may indeed be able to do so but you'd better be careful and take it slow because one slip and you've got torn rotator cuffs, deep rope burns, pinched or deadened nerves or worse. Midori has a prediction that in a few years we'll begin seeing a lot of serious injuries due to the increasing popularity of suspension bondage and a woefully unprepared community attempting it. I think she's right. Her advice is to attend workshops and classes at events, become familiar with the safety issues and techniques of bondage in general and suspension in particular before you try this at home, kids. Believe it or not, many of us are trained professionals and we still have accidents and screw ups. Contact someone who's been at it for a while if you have questions or want to learn from them; most rope lovers are eager to share -- myself included.
That's not to say that you should be discouraged from pursuing your love of bondage. Go! Pursue! Have fun! But be aware and careful.
Namaste,
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