First Comic Previous Comic Random Comic Next Comic Current Comic
First Comic Previous Comic Random Comic Next Comic Current Comic

Well, since Max isn't holding forth, I might as well do so here.

Most people would classify "Adam's apples", "blindfold play" and "being in a loving monogamous relationship" as three completely different types of proclivities - perhaps a preference, a fetish, and an orientation, respectively. I don't think that's really a matter of subject, though, as much as it is a matter of intensity. I can certainly imagine someone who obsesses over men's larynxes to such a degree that it amounts to a fetish, or someone who merely prefers monogamy, but can live without it.

Different people can have different fetishes for different reasons. Both Max and Simon, for example, would relish a scenario in which they're blindfolded and aren't sure who's doing what, but for completely different reasons.

Simon is a sub at heart, and thus, such an activity would fall under that heading. For Simon, submitting to a blindfold is an act of trust in his dom or doms. He is giving up his own perception. Simon also takes pride in the extent of his ability to withstand scenes. There is a certain ego thrill in facing and defeating an instinctive fear, in being willing and able to do something that very few other people are and can. So, for him, those are the two drivers - submission to a dom, and a gonzo appetite for powerlessness.

Max, in contrast, would never view a blindfold as submission. Indeed, it hardly matters which party is the one wearing the blindfold. Max is also a glutton - an even bigger glutton - but for pleasure, not for pain. She celebrates anonymous sex as a subcategory of group sex, which is a subcategory of plentiful sex, sex in abundance. What Max fetishizes is her own promiscuity, and the ultimate expression of promiscuity is a scenario in which you express an eager willingness to boink literally anyone.

That's one of the reasons Max and Simon reacted to Trent's grey-area-rape so differently. Simon viewed it as a betrayal of a sacred trust, Max viewed it as momentarily colouring outside of the lines.

The moral of the story, I guess, is that you can't assume people's preferences, fetishes, and orientations are the same or have the same underlying causes, even if they manifest in the same way. Everyone, as Jamie says, is different, and thus any attempt to cram everyone into the same "Perfect, Properly-Lived Life" box is doomed to failure.

(Tuesday afternoon, INT: EB and JH's living room)

EB: What is it with you and anonymity, anyway?
MH: Hey, I'd be happy to hold forth on the subject of my fetish for facelessness, but then you gotta talk about your fetish for Adam's apples, and Jamie's gotta talk about his fetish for relationships.
JH: I'd hardly call it a fetish. I'd say I have a fairly normal relationship with the concept of relationships. I mean, there are plenty of people who'd say that should be the standard for everyone.
MH: But you're not saying that.
JH: Honestly, I probably would have said that, at an earlier point in my life. I guess I've grown to accept that people are different, and therefore what they need is different. Even if I like who I am and I agree with what I believe, I am not the model of the perfect human being.
JH: The world would not be a better place if everyone were like me and agreed with me. And, of course, the same goes for you.
MH: Mm, well, we'll have to agree to disagree on agreeing to disagree.
EB: I... don't have a... fetish for Adam's apples...