I am really slow. It took me this long to realise that my post Self-Esteem for Bottoms took inspiration from your comment. For which thanks!

Good point. My childhood was too innocent. Question: The Gimp?

I think that when people read what you write in your blog they automatically reference the only “BDSM-related” information to which they have access…The Gimp, online images from sex-toy ads, and “Dominatrix” characters from bad TV shows…and immediately imagine bizarre people and practices that they can’t even begin to understand. I think if they had some way of understanding that “power exchange” doesn’t mean “dress me up like a French maid and beat me with a rolled-up copy of the Wall Street Journal while I cluck like a chicken” then they might be able to relate better to your feelings about power and sexuality.

They probably never stop to think that there is a power dynamic to their sexual desires as well…how many “normal” people “like to be on top”, after all? Or prefer their partner to be the one who initiates sex? Their desires are no different than yours or mine, they just express them differently. Or, I suspect, in many cases they don’t express them at all. ;)