Collared

Chapter 5

Today was the closing interview of the BDSM segment. Crystal's son was set to be interviewed. That was why I was up early and in the station, finalising and proofing the questions. I usually didn't listen in on the segments, unless there was a problem. Instead, I usually spent that time going over ratings, planning future ideas and doing recruitment of both listeners and staff. 

But these last weeks had been different. I'd listened to both Sam and Danny talk about being submissives. They'd both done so flawlessly that Crystals' son, who I still only knew as J, emailed me to compliment, saying they'd spoken eloquently. 

And they had. Sam had spoken so passionately, reminds me why she was my best friend. Her words, praising the lifestyle as a release from the pressures of every day society, had almost made me want to go to a club that very night. But not quite. Regardless, I'd been so proud of her. She'd spoken about how backwards it is that feminism is so against the lifestyle. It wasn't about women being beaten into submission by men. It was about sexual release and a freely given power exchange.  That was a far cry from a man abusing his power, size and station over a woman. She'd compared the way feminists shame submissives to the way society shamed woman as whole, the entire backwards situation of it. Women were simultaneously sex objects but constantly told to cover up. 

The basis of feminism was choice. A woman should be free to choose what she wanted to do. If she wanted to be a stay at home mom but still believed in a woman's equality of worth to a man's, she was a feminist. If a woman didn't want kids and instead wanted to shatter glass ceilings, close the gender pay gap between women of all races and the white men at the top, she was a feminist too. If she wanted to simultaneously do both, she was a feminist. 

It wasn't fair for a feminist to shame another woman for her choices. 

I'd nearly cried happy tears at her speech. I'd never felt more understood. That was why Sam as my best friend and my person. 

But was it fair to call her that when I was still harboring such a secret from her? 

Danny's segment had been less eloquent, he'd been nervous, but had still spoken about the minority of gay men in the lifestyle, both as dominants and submissives. He's spoken about how he'd come out to us and that it had been easier for him coming out as gay than it had as coming out as a submissive. He'd spoken about how he'd found his true place as a submissive, that even just being a gay man he'd still only ever felt like half of his true self, but he'd found his whole self in being a submissive, in giving his power to someone he loved and trusted. 

That had lead to a conversation about contracts and if someone who was capable of whipping another person for pleasure was actually capable of feeling and giving love. It was a ridiculous notion. Of course love could be involved. It didn't have to be, but as Danny so quickly pointed out, love wasn't always involved in vanilla sexual relationships either, the hookup culture and friends with benefits culture proved that. 

Then he'd pointed out that the one thing that was always involved in a BDSM scene that wasn't present in a vanilla sexual encounter was mutual respect. 

Privately, I'd argue that he was wrong. My relationship with Eric had proved that making generalisations such as always was never a good idea. But the reality was that he was mostly right. The conversations leading up to a scene always discussed expectations. Was it a one time hookup, leading to a contract? It was a far cry from a drunken hookup post bar or party. 

It was the first time I'd ever seen Stone without anything witty to say. 

At eight o'clock, I made my way to the viewing room, waiting for J to call in. Crystal had made herself scarce, having no desire to listen to what her son had to say about his lifestyle.