Double standard
Two recent stories coming out of Washington recently have collided in my brain. Norman Mineta is retiring. And Cynthia McKinney wont be indited for hitting a police officer.
Back in April I got absolutely sick to death of hearing about Cynthia McKinney dodging a security checkpoint. It just showed the all to common mindset of politicians to think the rules set for others don’t apply to them. I was rather sickened to learn that no politician at all has to go through metal detectors like everyone else does, instead just need to wear a special identifying pin. In McKinneys case it was even more frustrating for me because she wasn’t even wearing the special pin. She felt that not only is she exempt from the same standards of the average citizen, she was also exempt from the same standards of other politicians.
Its not the first time a politician has become outraged for being subject to the same standards as everyone else. In January of 2002, Representative John Dingell was stopped at the security checkpoint of Reagan National Airport. His artificial hip had set off the metal detectors. As a result he had to drop his pants.
He wasted no time at all rushing to the press and screaming about how uncalled for it was to force people to disrobe in public. Ironically, the very same week at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Enaas Sansour was stopped and forced to remove her head covering in violation of her faith. She claims that a nun was on the same flight and wasen’t required to remove her head covering. Personally I think the comparison of her event to that of the nun isn’t as significant as the comparison of her event to that of Representative Dingell. Sansour believes that her hair is a private area that shouldn’t be seen in public in front of strangers. Dingell believes his underwear is a private area that that shouldn’t be seen in public in front of strangers.
The same arrogance happened with former vice president Dan Quayle got stopped at Reagan National Airport for carrying toenail clippers. His comment to the press told of how ridiculous the situation was when people at the airport recognized his face. The theory being that since people knew he was “someone important†that the rules for everyone else at security screening didn’t apply to him.
But I really cant be that harsh on the politicians. After all, its nearly just a natural human tendency to have a double standard. We in the BDSM community do the same thing, only backwards. We expect politicians to follow a certain rule set that we ourselves don’t follow. What I mean is that we expect politicians to keep out of our bedrooms and not tell us what our sexuality should be. Yet we ourselves tell other members of the BDSM community what our sex life is suppose to be and claim it to be “mentoringâ€.
I am sure you have seen the pattern. Some top billing himself as a trainer hits on a fresh-off-the-boat bottom. The bottom says they like activity X but don’t like activity Y. Top says that bottoms are suppose to all do activity Y. And they just know that way down deep inside the bottom yearns secretively to do activity Y but just cant admit it to themselves. It is theirfore the duty of the top to teach the bottom to enjoy activity Y.
Its what you should do. Its what you ought to do. Its the way things are meant to be. Its how you are suppose to do things. A fundamentalist Christian who tells us what our sex life out to be its ok to shoot them down Yet when a “mentor†tells a person what we should or shouldn’t be enjoying sexually instead of letting that person just be themselves, the accusations of “close minded†start flying if any attempt is made to shoot down the mentor.
This just isn’t the desperate flirting of some horndog. There is an ever growing number of professional BDSM educators that think this same way. Their argument goes something like this. They used to teach just raw technique. Nuts and bolts how-to stuff. Then they would watch people playing at dungeon parties later. The scenes they watched were technically flawless, but has no passion. No spirit. So now they teach people about emotions and feelins and the “correct†way to enjoy an activity.
Yet pure technical exercise is a valid emotional fulfillment. I myself have a kind of reputation with very long ropes. I have done stage shows using a single 100 foot length of rope, and scenes using a 600 foot length of rope. Finishing a scene involving these always fills me with a sense of accomplishment. I, through my own skill and talent, have managed to pull off this very difficult task. It gives me a sense of pride.
Larry Townsed in his book “The leathermans handbook†attributes this very same emotions to the popularity of motorcycles in the early years of the gay leather community. The only thing between you and a grizzly disaster smashed up against the metal of another car or smeared across the pavement was your own skill at operating the motorcycle. Your dependent totally on your own technical abilities and that is one hell of a ego boost.
But no. Technical skill is the “wrong†way to enjoy what you do. And more and more BDSM lecturers are teaching classes on emotions and feelings and the “right†way to enjoy what it is that we do.
We expect politicians to mind their own business and let people do what they feel like. Yet we think the same rules don’t apply to us.
Oh? And what about Norman Mineta? Born the son of Japanese ingredients, he and his family were held in an American internment camp during World War II. This guy surly has as much claim to “racial profiling†as Cynthia McKinney. And Mineta has been stopped at airport security.
On September 27 at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Mineta was traveling on United Flight 1777on his way to a meeting with the president in Chicago. He set off the metal detector and was given a through shakedown by the guards until they found a foil wrapped mint in his pocket.
He actually thanks the guards for their service and dedication. And when he landed in Chicago he went out of his way to walk over to the guards there and shake their hands and congratulate everyone on doing such a fine job. Sure a far cry different from the accusations of “How dare you do this to me! Dont you know who I am?â€
And in case you don’t know who he is, Mineta is the head of the United States Department of Transportation. He quite literally made the rules regarding airport security. So I guess there are some politicians out there who are willing to go by the same rules they set for others.