AN INTRODUCTION

This Web site is the culmination of a semester-long project for an investigative reporting class at San Francisco State University. Our assignment was to spend the semester investigating and writing about a local community that is underreported on in the media.

I found out about one of the East Bay's professional BDSM houses in the summer of 2009, after some friends invited me to a party near my house, saying, half-jokingly, that it was “some kind of sex party!” Prurient interests aside, I was really curious to see what this party was about. I went.

As my friends and I approached the house and opened the gate, I saw a mellow but sizeable gathering of folks—some who I recognized from work, shows, and other places around town, but might never have placed at a party that, at the time, I knew of only as “some kind of sex party.”

Soon after arriving, I was invited inside for a “tour.” From the outside, the house looked like many of the homes in the neighborhood, but its exterior offered no indication of the world inside it. As I was ushered from room to room, I was shown shelves filled with sex toys and other bondage equipment. One room had a severe-looking metal bed with silver rings running along the frame, which I later learned is used for stringing up rope, and people.

I was definitely at a sex party—sort of. More specifically, it was a BDSM party, and it seemed to be more of a gathering of friends in the BDSM scene than the wild party I had imagined.

More surprising than a bedroom full of bondage gear was running into a long-time acquaintance at the party, who told me that she worked at the house as a professional dominatrix. In fact, this was a full-on, seven days a week-style house of bondage, where men can make appointments with any of the all-female staff to fulfill various kinky cravings. A few hours earlier, I had no idea such a business was operating in my city. Now I was learning that I had friends employed there.

I started asking questions, because I am slightly nosy and innately curious: What do you do here? Who do you do it to? I was fascinated, and she met my interest with openness. And that was the beginning of my project, which involved many, many more questions. With the help of my friend, who graciously introduced me to some of her co-workers, along with the owner of the house and business, I was able to gain consistent access to this house full of fascinating ladies.

My intention was to tell a story—not a whole story, but a small story comprised of a few patches of time and information made up of my visits, observations and research.
I hope that readers who know little or nothing about the world of BDSM, or those who have negative or conflicted views of the community, will read these stories and come away feeling that they can relate in some way to the people in them. I hope those within the BDSM community might see some of themselves represented in some of the words I have written.

Of course, with any community made up of diverse individuals, it's impossible to sum up any person or thing in a few thousand words, or maybe even a thousand pages.


Thanks to everyone who contributed to this project, particularly the women who work at the house, who were awesome enough to answer my sometimes very personal questions and to even let me hang around afterward and take more notes.

-Cassie Harwood