MVK Newsletter
April 2009
Introduction
Message from the Board
MVK wants you!
We're looking for talented, motivated people to fill key positions in Metro Vancouver Kink and contribute to your community.
If any of these positions interest you, please email volunteer@metrovancouverkink.com
Secretary
This key person would be on the official board and in charge of key administrative tasks including: scheduling meetings, setting agendas, taking minutes and making sure our organization runs smoothly.
Director at Large
This board member would sit on the board and have a voice in leading the organization, attending board meetings and deciding policy.
Education coordinator
Community-accessible, informative, and entertaining workshops and seminars are a big part of our mandate. We're looking for a person to help plan and coordinate educational presenters for our monthly events. The ideal candidate would be a self-starter who has experience and good standing in the local and regional BDSM communities.
Vancouver Pride 2009
Metro Vancouver Kink's participation in the 2008 Vancouver Pride Parade was a major public awareness campaign and an essential part of establishing our presence in the Vancouver kink and queer culture. We made our involvement memorable with a human-pony-drawn cart, a decorated van carrying a live Kodo drummer, and more than a dozen marchers in fetish gear all alongside contingents from our allies VASM and Bride of Pride. We gave out hundreds of bead necklaces with MVK tags and showed our name and logo to tens of thousands of people. After the parade, we repaired to our booth at the Pride Festival and distributed even more literature alongside our partner group VASM.
This resulted in a significant increase in people visiting our website and joining our mailing list, making MVK a major player in this city.
We plan on even more participation in 2009. We're looking for marchers to show up in their fetishwear and costumes, for artwork and vehicles to be part of our display, for sponsors to buy advertising space, and for other kink and queer groups to partner with. If any of this interests you, please email pride@metrovancouverkink.com .
Privacy Policy
Being kinky doesn't quite carry the stigma it used to have, but there are still many people who are justifiably concerned about keeping their identities private when they participate in the public BDSM community.They may be reluctant to sign up for mailing lists, to join organizations or contribute as much as they like for fear of exposure.
To this end, MVK will develop an official privacy policy that will clearly explain what information it will gather, who will have access to that information, how it will be used and how it will be protected from improper use. This will be presented alongside our new membership policy, currently in development.
Events
MVK board meeting
Open meeting of the MVK board of directors.
Time: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 6:30pm-8:30pm
Location: Firehall library, 1455 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC
April 2009 workshop and play party
MVK presents our monthly workshop and play party on April 4th, 2009
All events at the Capri Hall, 3925 Fraser St. and E. 23rd, Vancouver, BC (wheelchair accessible)
Evening Workshop: D/s 101 Beyond the Body and into the Mind
7:30pm-9:00pm
Admission is sliding scale $10-20
Presented by Kona.
D/s 101- Beyond the Body and into the Mind. A presentation and discussion session focusing on the theory of relationship dynamics in the Leather/BDSM world.
Building a solid foundation of understanding between two or more people is the key to making choices that benefit everyone involved. Without it, saying “let’s play ball” may have participants thinking that "playing ball" is playing soccer, rugby, football, softball, baseball or something else entirely. There's some kind of ball, and the participants are going to play a game, but nothing else is in synch! This session hopes to teach participants how to communicate what game they want to play.
This session will scratch the surface of D/s by:
- providing a framework for placing D/s on the spectrum of play
- contemplating definitions, meaning and roles
- exploring a five-part model for referencing past, present and future interactions
Participants should come willing to stretch their brains, and with the intention of enriching their Leather/BDSM connections.
BDSM play party
9:00pm-1:00am
Admission: $20, or $35-$45 with afternoon or evening workshop
Featuring Bodywork by Donation, Vendors and Red Light Room.
Robert, a message therapist in training, will be available 9-12 for Swedish body work by donation. Help him gain practical experience on his way to his registration!
Parking:
Ample parking is available on the surrounding streets. Please respect parking regulations, dress discreetly in public and keep noise down in respect for local residents.
Carpooling:
For Facebook users, install the Facebook Carpooling application from http://www.zimride.com/. You will be able to arrange rides with other attendees, once you have the event in your list.
Transit:
#8 and #25 buses will bring you there.
Please check Translink schedules for details
The last scheduled buses, at the nearest timing points are scheduled for:
8 and N8 runs through 3am southbound
25 last buses at roughly 12:30
News
US Leather Foundation gets tax-exempt status
The Leather Foundation, Inc., a San Diego-based charity providing services to the local leather community, announced that the federal Internal Revenue Service has just approved its application for tax-exempt status. The foundation runs several funds to support local leather, kink and pansexual community.
Link
Mosley tells of his BDSM career to Parliament
Auto racing official Max Mosley spoke to British Members of Parliament about privacy and his 45 years practicing BDSM, after being exposed in a video-taped session with several pro Dommes last year.
Link
Editorial
by Dr. Suse
There is an interesting argument fluttering about in the cyber world, and the real life one, that a woman who participates as a sub in a full power exchange relationship with a man is turning her back on 'the sisterhood' and feminism in general. I tend to find this concept contradictory to the mandates of modern feminism for, feminism and its mandates are largely what allow functional and healthy BDSM relationships to exist and flourish—even BDSM relationships where a woman submits to a man.
Most people will agree that “what happens in the bedroom, stays in the bedroom” with the obvious caveat that what's happening in the bedroom is safe, sane, and consensual. Where issues arise is in how the relationship itself is enacted. A woman who chooses to live as a 24/7 slave is looked down on for her choice, and a man who agrees with her choice is a misogynist pig. This seems somehow unfair for both.
Before indulging in the topic of M/f let's consider other relationship dynamics. M/m for example, without the development of feminism, this kind of relationship would have an even more difficult time developing and existing than it already does, especially if the relationship wants to be public in any fashion. Feminism has a great focus on allowing equality amongst all relationships. Men who choose to submit, be it to another man, or to a woman, are deemed lower and undeserving of the social privileges given to heterosexual males. A man who submits is no man at all. The patriarchy hurts everyone.
The ideas of choice and equality are the keystones of feminism. So then why is it that certain consensual, chosen relationships are deemed inappropriate, and 'against the cause'? If it is chosen, if it is agreed on, and if it is communicated and works for the couple at hand, there is nothing going against either of the feminist keystones. What one has to consider is the ability for mentally healthy adults to make choices, together, that work for their partnered pair, or partnered multiples. A number of rather very functional people live in M/f Master/slave relationships, they even have children, and their lives as well as their stability levels, are solid and happy. Equality is not about one's presentation to the outside world, it is about finding a role and a niche that one is happy and content with. It is about knowing what will make you happy, and not having your happiness chosen for you by another's determination of what should be .
Feminism is something to be thankful for. A woman who wants to submit to a man, a woman who chooses to submit to a man 24/7, has chosen her role, and should she desire to no longer fill it, she has as much choice as any other woman to leave it: that is thanks to feminism. Thanks to feminism steps have been taken to encourage the development of same-gendered pairs, to include gender variance into our vocabulary, and to fight for women to have the choice to choose their lots in life. Feminism shouldn't under any circumstances be misconstrued as the right to abolish certain relationship types in the name of equality and choice—contradictions just aren't any fun after all. So let's say it again, equality and choice—definitions of these words may abound but one cannot argue that, without the choice to find our own paths to happiness there is little in the way of equality. And a woman and a man who choose to have a relationship with the male as the leader of the home and the woman under his command has just as much equality as the rest of us through the very fact that it is her choice to be there, in his care.
Masthead
Published monthly by Metro Vancouver Kink Society. Co-edited by Peter Tupper, vice-president and communications coordinator, and by Dr. Suse
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