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| Don't look so surprised. You're all my whipping boys |
In the old days - when you were watching the telly, you could spot the bad guy a mile away because he smoked. Good guys didn't light up. In 2015 smoking is no longer socially acceptable, not even for bad guys, only losers smoke these days. I've said it before and I'll say it again: most mainstream media abuse BDSM to paint a not so pretty picture of the bad guy.
New Clues, Same Old Baddy
A while ago I wrote about Elementary, a Sherlock Holmes based TV show where an ambitious successor-to-be kills his CEO and dresses him up in latex, so the company he intends to run, can avoid a 100 million dollar pay out because of supposedly indecent behaviour.
Recently I was watching Mr. Robot - a TV show about computer hackers who live in a world dominated by a single colossal corporation: Evil Corp. And yes the show has a baddy who desperately wants to advance his career. Hint, sometimes you can recognize the baddy by his hair (spoilers after this).
The bad guy concocts some elaborate scheme to imprison his boss so he can take his job. Unfortunately ambition doesn't always equal brains and he is passed over for promotion. He needs to vent his anger and pays 300 dollar to some homeless guy to beat him up. Not a pretty way to relieve stress. Pretty odd, but then again people probably would say the same thing about what we kinksters do, if they knew what we were up to.
In the next episode Mr. Thwarted Ambition comes home to find his wife dressed up in seductive lingerie with a blindfold lying on the bed. Quirky you think.
" I am not in the mood"
"I don't care"
"Is it safe for the baby?"
After which he duly obliges and ties her up as the camera fades.
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| False depictions of kink proves he is the bad guy. |
Fifty Shades did not bring a surge in acceptance of the alternative life style, it merely is vanilla suburbia looking at the freaks in the circus and most television shows are happy to emphasize that point of view.
Any healthy relationship includes negotiation - give and take - especially if you are in a kinky one. But a slave girl who orders her master to tie her up - pregnant - while he is not in the mood, seems far fetched. Unfortunately you can draw up a long list of scenes in TV shows where kink is used as a metaphor to show how evil the antagonist really is. That image is being drip-fed over and over again to a global audience - I'm wondering how much TV David Cameron watches - so no matter how much you crave it, the Fifty Shades revolution isn't gonna happen any-time soon.
Hiding Behind Success
So are there any positive role models on TV these days? Overtly no. But if you look a little deeper there are quite a few. Annalise Keating, the law professor in "How To Get Away With Murder" is one example. I'll always remember her for that red leather jacket. I'll remember her mum even more!
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| Professor Annalise Keating |
Another one is Jessica Pearson from the TV show Suits. Gorgeous woman, fierce, with brains, beautiful eyes and a temper yet firmly in charge of the law firm that has her name on the door. Having said that, I still don't care much for lawyers (exceptions do apply...) And yes I finally understand the merits of a skilled casting director. Below are some images that illustrate my point. Just don't tell TV executives about it, they might pull the plug on the show if they knew.
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| We all know who's the boss. |
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Told you so. Just remember Jessica Pearson is a fictional character.
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