SEATTLE, WA
Seventeen splinter groups have emerged as a result of a single person, Amanda Burton, a submissive from Anchorage, Alaska, suggesting that “we need to do something about consent in the community.”
Burton, whose post started the explosion of controversy, is still in shock. “I just read a story about someone getting hugged without permission and I thought we might come up with a rule about that or something.” As someone new to the scene, she was surprised by the controversy. “I’ve only been to one play party,” she explained, “and I had a great time. Most of the people here seem pretty cool.”
According to Bob, a frequent reader and sometimes writer on the adult website Fetlife, “there was originally only two groups: one for and one against ‘doing something about consent,’ but quickly things spiraled out of control.”
Almost immediately a group was created in opposition to the “idea of creating groups about consent,” followed by a small group of vocal opponents who “refused to be silenced by any of the first three groups.”
From that point on, according to Bob, accounts vary wildly. But one thing is certain, “failing to belong to at least one group, brands you as someone who doesn’t care about consent.” One splinter group, simply called “I don’t care about consent,” is apparently in a state of turmoil as none of the members can agree about why they don’t care about consent.
Since Tuesday, 4 groups have disbanded, the result of internal conflict and power struggles, but 13 new ones have emerged, including one which is protesting the idea of “branding of suspected consent violators” and another supporting it. According to Bob, what was remarkable was that the group protesting it was created first. “The idea didn’t even exist until someone decided it needed to be protested. Of course once there was a protest, a group formed immediately to support the idea.”
Perhaps the most unusual group to emerge is a group claiming that most consent violations can be traced back to President Obama.
“The affordable care act has created a sense of entitlement and entitlement is the source of all consent violations,” the Fetlife group description states. “We believe that smaller government is the solution to all our problems, including consent violations. Rand Paul 2016!!!!!”
At the current rate of growth, it is expect that by 2016 there will me more than 200,000 groups dedicated to discussion of consent.
Fetlife user Bob find the whole debate distressing, “It’s hard to masturbate to this stuff, which is mostly what I use Fetlife for.”
photo credit: Fibonacci Blue cc
