TV show NCIS portrays masochists as victims of abuse and looking for penance through pain rather than consenting adults born this way. It's all about the ratings baby.
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| "Very, very weird" (Image: NCIS) |
Fool me once... Well, you know how it goes. Looking East to salvage my illusion that kink on TV can serve as goodwill ambassador, I was naive. In what would be the penultimate episode of this series, even Japan's anime series Prison School doesn't respect those who are alternatively inclined.
By chance I ran into a recent episode of NCIS. Occasionally I receive messages from men who assume I'm a domme. So silly. But let me prove to you for once and for all that I'm really a guy. The reason I no longer watch NCIS is because the character of Ziva left the show. Trust me, no woman can come up with that logic, so I have to be a guy.
Of course Ziva was cool, kind but no walk-over, secret agent, caring, smart and highly skilled in the martial arts. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon "Dark Secret", which is episode 12 of the current season (15) of NCIS. A young woman is found dead in her home. She apparently committed suicide, but when the team investigates the case, the ugly truth is revealed. Actually the real truth behind it is even worse, especially if you are into kink.
Two 15 year old girls, abused by their teacher, decide to confront him in a shack in the woods. Unfortunately "when he saw we brought rope, it excited him. He let us tie him up." Next the girls bring out a camcorder and the teacher panics. He dies from a heart attack.
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| "... the pain was [long pause] incredible..." (Image: NCIS) |
Years later, one of the girls works as a Navy Lieutenant JAG lawyer. In her spare time she rents an apartment to play out her masochistic fantasies. The expert opinion of the NCIS in-house shrink reads: "The physical abuse that she seeks out..." I'm sure I don't have to point out how bad it is that the show speaks of "physical abuse" rather than masochism. All in all, the beginning of another bloody mess.
The abuse of kinksters for ratings goes on: "... suggests she is punishing herself for something." So if you are into kink, it's because something bad happened to you, rather than who you are?
I don't know what happened to the ratings of NCIS after Ziva left, no doubt they took a nosedive, but it still is a popular show. In the span of a little over 40 minutes, NCIS manages to portray masochists as four time loosers.
An abusive teacher getting excited, being tied up by under-age girls, translation: abusive creeps enjoy bondage. Next the NCIS psychologist, a [female] authoritative figure, states masochism equals physical abuse. Discarding the whole nature versus nurture debate, the show claims kinksters are being made, not born. That notion also introduces - subliminally, I agree - the idea that BDSM can be cured, which implies it is a mental illness. And finally there is the idea that masochism can serve as penance, harking back to the Christian traditions of self-flagellation and mortification of the flesh.
Yes, we all have dark secrets hiding in our cupboards, but when NCIS does a show by that name, the real dark secret is the abuse of people who engage in consensual BDSM, being portrayed as freaks and mentally deranged loosers, for the popularity of a TV show and the profits of the network that broadcasts it.
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