Fish out of water
I just recently found out that there has been an end to the “miss ann” case out of indianopilis. The newsgroup I found out about it on was full of the standard knee jerk reactions about what an evil and opresive society we live in. About how totalarian the government was that they were able to shut her down even though the BDSM acts she was doing were not againt the law.
Now before you jump on that bandwaggon too, take a look at this pic of a gimp on a leash. Setting aside for the moment the question if the activities in that phooto obey the law ort break the law, is what is show there “right”?
I actualy remember the case and have been trackign it back and forth for years now. The question being raised was not if profesional domination was or was not againt the law, the question was a matter of zoning. Can you run a business in a resedental zone? None of the other dominatrixes in indionapalis were targeted for invistagation. They were not operating in resedential zones. So its sort of hard to make a case that this was government opresion of BDSM.
What bothred me the mopst about the case was the double standard on the part of Miss Ann herself. See, her legal defence is to claim she is not a dominatrix at all. She claims her business is (are you ready for this?) a museum that showcases various torture devices from the colinoial period of america and that she does improvetional theater reinactenments.
At least that is what she says in court. To the media she is more than happy to admit to being a dominatrix in order to try and drum up a bit of “oh woe is me, Im so opressed” sympathy. Unfortunatly it never got off the ground. The NCSF even came out with a statement againt what she did. ….. the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, a nationwide legal support group, said that Donaghy is picking the wrong fight; that while the NCSF supports the legal establishment of domination businesses in proper zones, residential neighborhoods are the wrong place for it. “Donaghy is denying the obvious by stating that her work is not sexually oriented,†said Susan Wright, national spokesperson for the NCSF.
The issue here isnt sexual opresion by the government. Its a matter of location. This past weekend I was at a kink event and it was strictly enforced that all people must be on their best behavior while in the public areas of the hotel. Once past the checkpoint and in the doors of the convention hall itself things could get a bit more racy. But it was made clear to everyone that there was a time and a place for everything.
Is leading a gimpgirl around on a leash a bad thing? Who cares! If thats what turns you on then go for it. Is walking them through a public park in broard daylight a bad thing? I would argue yes. Is running a profesional dominatrix service a bad thing? Nope. At least I dont think it is. Is running it in a resedental zone a problem? Probably. But only duye to the fact that customers are comming to the property. It has been established in Voyeur Dorm v. City of Tampa that if your conductiing business totaly online and dont have any actualy physical customers comming to the address, then local zoning cant be enforced.
Somethign tells me this isnt the end however …… the article proclaiming the case closed also states that Miss Ann might sue for emotional distress.