UnfortunateImplications

I'm writing a D/s erofic about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Is that racist? Is it unfortunate implications? Will minority people be offended? I mean to arouse, not offend.

I spent a while debating with myself whether this was acceptable-then I realized what D/s stands for. Definitely not acceptable.

You will have some people who find unfortunate implications in even the most innocent of things. If you try to avoid saying things about white's superiority over blacks (and vice versa), and concentrate on their relationship as people, I think you'll do fine. The racist-laden background of the time, people can understand.

Edit: If you mean S&M.. this might be a doozy.

edited 30th Mar '11 9:22:38 PM by QQQQQ

It's told through Jefferson's eyes, and he sees Sally at first as a mental inferior for being a slave, but it's pretty unequivocally shown that he's wrong in this, and she's pretty damn intelligent.

I'm sure it'll be alright then. Some might still like to call implications regardless, since you're starting off with a biased viewpoint.

...But it's still BDSM, and Jefferson's still the Dom. Even though I avoid the fuck out of racial terms and references, it's still lurking there in the background.

Then the women and men will likely find something to complain about also. Oh well. Go ahead and write it anyways. It might turn out good.

I say just run with it and not worry about offending anyone, especially Je... **is shot**

Leigh— are you making porn, porn with plot, or plot with some sexual elements? If it's one of the first two, don't even worry.

If it's the third one, you should still be fine. The key is to make it clear that one relationship does not define the norm. You need to show something that basically tells the reader "This is not a one-way street."

Maybe have some of Jefferson's servants gossiping about it in disgust, or use Deliberate Values Dissonance to your advantage.

What's D/s?

What if you subvert it and make Sally the dominatrix?

Or you could have the dom actually be very unwilling and it's the Sub who is telling him to "hit her harder with that tire iron". You can go even further and show that they do have a life outside of their fetish.

Sexual life does not say anything about someone's day to day life. To change the interaction just to make it less "unfortunate" is just as unfortunately implicated as thinking sexual activities do reflect day to day lives.