Whips and boots

Tonight, rae and I are getting ready for a BDSM event on Saturday night. It's actually a dual-sort of event, a flea market in the day time, where you can buy all sorts of kinky accessories and essentials, and a "play party" later in the evening.
This will be rae's first real public debut to the local bdsm scene. As a Gorean, I am not huge on public play parties and the like, but it's nice to get out once in a while to talk with others without having to edit your language and behavior.
Some BDSM'ers find Goreans a bit too "edgy" for them. For a lot of BDSM'ers, the philosophical aspect, the emotional depth of Gor, runs too deep. There's never a time, for example, that rae is not my slave, except when we are at work. Even then it's just in stealth mode. Also, it's very gender-oriented. Gorean philosophy dictates that women are naturally submissive and men naturally dominant. Since the BDSM culture has a lot of dommes (most of you would probably know them as dominatrixes), they tend to not be too comfortable with that line of thought. But the alternative lifestyle scene requires you have a lot of mental flexibility. It took me a long time to get used to seeing men bowing and scraping at the feet of women half their size. That just ain't me. But it's them, and as long as they are being true to themselves and happy, no complaints. There's very much a "I'll respect your lifestyle if you respect mine" attitude in the local BDSM scene, which I'm glad of.
But there are some jarring differences between Goreans and BDSM lifestylers. I won't get into the core, major differences, but they are rather broad. But I'll deal with the ones that particularly make attending events interesting. Goreans don't, in general, use limits, safe words and the like. But that's because, for one thing, she's mine and I'll use her as I wish, and for another, once you know each other in and out, you don't need them. She knows me well enough to know that I'm not going to ask her to do anything that puts her in jeopardy. If anything, I probably tend toward coddling her. Also, there's little need of a "safe word" since neither of us will "play" with anyone else. We know each other's dance quite well, and she's never found it difficult to tell me when something's wrong. I usually know before she's ready to say it, just by reading her body language.
Gorean slaves, in general, do not act "bratty"...or do things to incite their Masters to punish them...something some, but certainly not all, BDSM girls often partake in.
In fact, I'm different from many Goreans simply for the fact that I, and rae, enjoy erotic pain play. Many Goreans will only pull out the whip if the slave has made a grave error. But none of us fit perfectly into any label...I am no different.
She might contest it, but I think rae's a bit nervous about tomorrow.
She's been to the flea market before, but last time there was a big party she wasn't feeling well so we did not attend. This is a debut of sorts for her.
Rae's been working all week on hand-making a set of chainmail slave bracelets and a chainmail collar and leash. She's done with all of them now, really, the last thing she's going to do is set them off with little dangling bits of hematite.
Tomorrow, she will be gorgeous.
About once a week, she and I have what she calls "dress-up night". She comes to me and begs to know what look would please me that night....and I tell her slutty, or naughty, or innocent, or exotic, and she goes and creates that look for me and serves me.
Tomorrow I've commanded her to make herself up like she did when she first knelt to me and offered herself to me.
How can I describe her in her elegant sensual look?
Think Inara from the television series Firefly, and Phaedre from the Kushiel's Dart books.
No, I'm not exaggerating. I think I'll take pictures...just because no one will believe it otherwise.
She really has nothing to be nervous about.
In the afternoon, our goals are to buy me a new single-tail, or signal whip. For the uninitiated, a signal whip is 3-4 feet long, about half the length of a bull whip, and us usually used in cracking competition, thus the term signal whip.
Generally, the more plaits of leather used to braid the whip, the higher the quality. They usually run in 8, 12, 16, or 20 plait whips. I'm hunting for a good 16-plait, 4-foot signal whip.
Rae has a goal too. There's a guy who attends these things whom everyone just calls "The Shoe Guy" who sells every kind of woman's shoe imaginable. She's already contacted him and he's going to set aside a pair of soft mat black leather boots that will go up to about rae's mid-thigh, about where a woman's stocking tops would be, and lace up the front.
We have some breathing room on money, so I'll probably pick up a good paddle too.
I figure a lot of those reading this have never been to a bdsm event or have any clue what one is like, so Sunday or Monday, when I have the time, I'll recap the event so you have an idea what exactly goes on. What you see on television, usually, is grossly distorted. For one thing, television and movies almost never portray the man as dominant. It's seen as "okay" if it's some woman in a corset whipping some guy, but it's "wrong" if it's some guy breaking out the flogger on a girl...no matter how much she's enjoying or begging for it, society in general can't wrap it's brain around it.
In truth, most of the couples at play parties are male-dominant and female-submissive. And in the DC area, probably in large part due to the fact that it's "chocolate city", there's a very large percentage of black male dominants and white female submissives.
That's a visual I really doubt america ever really wants to see. No matter how non-racist the country claims to be, the US of A isn't ready to see a black man with a white woman over his knee, panties around her ankles and red-bottomed.

A thought: When it's socially acceptable for the entertainment media to show women beating men, belittling men, humiliating men, but not the other way around...is that really gender equality?

the only movie I've seen that even comes close to actually showing a dominant/submissive relationship was The Secretary, with James Spader. However, both characters in that have some issues they are working through. But it's hollywood and it's a drama so they have to. Having them both be perfectly stable, like many D/s couples, wouldn't make for good drama. But it's the only movie I've seen that takes the topic seriously and also has a male in the dominant role.
It must be late because I'm rambling. I'll fill you in on what a bdsm party's like after this weekend.