After a number of vice squad crackdowns on Manhattan S&M clubs, some outraged dominatrices are bonding together to defend their profession, which they say has been wrongly maligned as prostitution. The Post sent a reporter over to Dungeon Alley (a cluster of S&M clubs in Midtown) and Chelsea's Le Salon De Sade, where the dominatrices "were dressed to the hilt with no one to flog. " De Sade's owner Mistress Johanna says, "It's never bee worse. Business is down 70 percent. We've had all these busts, and now the economy is out of control. The uncertainty is torturing us." Investigators say that the raided clubs were essentially prostitution houses, but a lawyer hired by over a dozen dominatrices and dungeon owners insists
"everyone was operating under the belief that what they were doing was legal." Besides retaining an attorney, the group is forming a union and even a political action committee (DomPAC!) to lobby lawmakers for legal protection.
A few observations: pro dommes (and the few pro submissives out there) have suffered from the vague wording and aggressive enforcement of prostitution and adult business laws. The "legal protection" they're seeking is clarification that what they are doing -- BDSM with no direct sexual contact -- falls on the right side of the law. Of course, some pro dommes do break the rules, and one imagines that organizing will produce more effective peer pressure to strictly obey the law for the good of all; the more it appears that prostitution is going on, the more all pro dommes will face intimidation and possible arrest. Finally, one wonders what else these pros can do to reduced demand in what - even in NYC - is a limited marketplace. A PR campaign? Whatever their plans, I wish this effort the best of luck.
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