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The weapons inspection team massing in Baghdad under the indomitable Hans Blix is possibly the first such unit to be graced, if that's the word, with an experienced torturer. The Washington Post set the ball rolling last Thursday with a story by John Grimaldi to the effect that Harvey John "Jack" McGeorge of Woodbridge, Va., then in New York waiting to be sent to Iraq as a munitions analyst, is a figure of consequence in the world of BDSM, aka bondage, domination and sado-masochism.
Co-founder and past president of Black Rose, a Washington-area pansexual S&M group, and the former chairman of the board of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, McGeorge is also a founding officer of the Leather Leadership Conference Inc., which "produces training sessions for current and potential leaders of the sadomasochism/leather/fetish community," according to its Web site.
Grimaldi noted that "several Web sites describe McGeorge's training seminars, which involve various acts conducted with knives and ropes." McGeorge was interviewed in person by Blix and joined the team as a temporary staff member in December 2001.
Don't you love the way "community," once used to evoke the organic virtues of medieval village life, has now widened its ambit to dignify almost any association. "The cannibal community," etc., etc.
Why now do we have the expose of McGeorge as one well versed in the wisdom of the lash?
In the arms inspection community, McGeorge's selection over supposedly better qualified experts had caused rage and, presumably, the leaking to the Post of McGeorge's baroque sexual pursuits. He is a former Marine and Secret Service specialist who offers seminars on "weaponization of chemical and biological agents" for $595 a session.
McGeorge went to ground after telling the Washington Post that "I am who I am. I am not ashamed of who I am -- not one bit." Amidst the uproar after Grimaldi's initial story, Blix stood by his man and said he had spurned a resignation offer from McGeorge. The United Nations said all inspectors had been briefed on local cultural practices in Iraq, which, of course, do include state-sponsored torture in that nation's prisons.
In England, homeport for spankers, the McGeorge stories were swiftly stigmatized as efforts to sabotage Blix's mission.
Meanwhile, the BDSM community rallied around their man. The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom issued a "call to action" urging sympathizers to "Please support the S&M community and Jack McGeorge by dropping a note to the various news agencies covering this story . . . Many millions of Americans engage in S&M, according to a 1990 Kinsey Institute report. These people are doctors, lawyers, teachers and news reporters, as well as professionals like Jack McGeorge. As a former Chairman of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, McGeorge ably assisted our national advocacy organization in fighting this sort of discrimination and persecution."
The NCSF bulletin noted helpfully that letters to the press are "an effective way to convey a positive image of alternate sexual practices such as S&M, swinging or polyamory. You can help to correct negative social myths and misconceptions about these types of practices."
The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom does have its critics. Bill Dobbs of Queerwatch remarked to me Monday that "NCSF has often acted in an opportunistic and unprincipled manner, typically slamming those more marginalized or under great pressure in the pursuit of respectability for itself."
Of course the S&M-leather-fetish crowd, or community, suffers all kinds of discrimination and oppression, and NCSF deserves credit for gathering people together to advance sexual pleasure. That said, Dobbs argues that the tactics and strategy of the group merit consideration and they reveal something of the political values and character of those in command, like Jack McGeorge.
It seems that on McGeorge's watch NCSF came to the defense of some 'dungeon parties' held on a regular basis in Baltimore. Baltimore zoning and other authorities were bringing the wrathful law down on the party promoters. NCSF's defense? Why bother these parties? They are nothing like the topless or strip clubs in Baltimore that the law was written for.
So here was NCSF trying to paint itself as "good" at the expense of others that it would paint as "bad." Topless bars and strip clubs are an endangered species across the country, so why drag them into the mess?
So, scourge McGeorge not for his tastes, but for his political cowardice in defending those tastes.
And for political courage, let us hail a group of youths who "have an interest in BDSM," a Girl Scout Gold Award project. The organizers are firmly to the left of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, since NCSF is always making a point of fighting for adults-only sexual freedom. This news comes courtesy of Lavender Magazine of Minneapolis, Minn. Queer Youth Exist was created by two high school students, Hedge and Katze, as their Girl Scout Gold Award project.
The two see BDSM and fetish culture as alluring to the younger crowd. "They're attracted to the young goth BDSM culture -- to the shiny clothes, attractive people, great music and club nights," claims Katze. "It's a fun culture, and people want to be part of it, even if they don't practice BDSM. They want to separate themselves from the Abercrombie and Fitch jock crowd -- they want to be with older people who are in their culture scene."
We'll probably have a presidential candidates 40 years down the road, saying that as a kid in the Twin Cities she "experimented with BDSM" and it was first-class training in the art of firm government."
Alexander Cockburn is coeditor with Jeffrey St. Clair of the muckraking newsletter CounterPunch. To find out more about Alexander Cockburn and read features by other columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2002 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
Co-founder and past president of Black Rose, a Washington-area pansexual S&M group, and the former chairman of the board of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, McGeorge is also a founding officer of the Leather Leadership Conference Inc., which "produces training sessions for current and potential leaders of the sadomasochism/leather/fetish community," according to its Web site.
Grimaldi noted that "several Web sites describe McGeorge's training seminars, which involve various acts conducted with knives and ropes." McGeorge was interviewed in person by Blix and joined the team as a temporary staff member in December 2001.
Don't you love the way "community," once used to evoke the organic virtues of medieval village life, has now widened its ambit to dignify almost any association. "The cannibal community," etc., etc.
Why now do we have the expose of McGeorge as one well versed in the wisdom of the lash?
In the arms inspection community, McGeorge's selection over supposedly better qualified experts had caused rage and, presumably, the leaking to the Post of McGeorge's baroque sexual pursuits. He is a former Marine and Secret Service specialist who offers seminars on "weaponization of chemical and biological agents" for $595 a session.
McGeorge went to ground after telling the Washington Post that "I am who I am. I am not ashamed of who I am -- not one bit." Amidst the uproar after Grimaldi's initial story, Blix stood by his man and said he had spurned a resignation offer from McGeorge. The United Nations said all inspectors had been briefed on local cultural practices in Iraq, which, of course, do include state-sponsored torture in that nation's prisons.
In England, homeport for spankers, the McGeorge stories were swiftly stigmatized as efforts to sabotage Blix's mission.
Meanwhile, the BDSM community rallied around their man. The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom issued a "call to action" urging sympathizers to "Please support the S&M community and Jack McGeorge by dropping a note to the various news agencies covering this story . . . Many millions of Americans engage in S&M, according to a 1990 Kinsey Institute report. These people are doctors, lawyers, teachers and news reporters, as well as professionals like Jack McGeorge. As a former Chairman of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, McGeorge ably assisted our national advocacy organization in fighting this sort of discrimination and persecution."
The NCSF bulletin noted helpfully that letters to the press are "an effective way to convey a positive image of alternate sexual practices such as S&M, swinging or polyamory. You can help to correct negative social myths and misconceptions about these types of practices."
The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom does have its critics. Bill Dobbs of Queerwatch remarked to me Monday that "NCSF has often acted in an opportunistic and unprincipled manner, typically slamming those more marginalized or under great pressure in the pursuit of respectability for itself."
Of course the S&M-leather-fetish crowd, or community, suffers all kinds of discrimination and oppression, and NCSF deserves credit for gathering people together to advance sexual pleasure. That said, Dobbs argues that the tactics and strategy of the group merit consideration and they reveal something of the political values and character of those in command, like Jack McGeorge.
It seems that on McGeorge's watch NCSF came to the defense of some 'dungeon parties' held on a regular basis in Baltimore. Baltimore zoning and other authorities were bringing the wrathful law down on the party promoters. NCSF's defense? Why bother these parties? They are nothing like the topless or strip clubs in Baltimore that the law was written for.
So here was NCSF trying to paint itself as "good" at the expense of others that it would paint as "bad." Topless bars and strip clubs are an endangered species across the country, so why drag them into the mess?
So, scourge McGeorge not for his tastes, but for his political cowardice in defending those tastes.
And for political courage, let us hail a group of youths who "have an interest in BDSM," a Girl Scout Gold Award project. The organizers are firmly to the left of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, since NCSF is always making a point of fighting for adults-only sexual freedom. This news comes courtesy of Lavender Magazine of Minneapolis, Minn. Queer Youth Exist was created by two high school students, Hedge and Katze, as their Girl Scout Gold Award project.
The two see BDSM and fetish culture as alluring to the younger crowd. "They're attracted to the young goth BDSM culture -- to the shiny clothes, attractive people, great music and club nights," claims Katze. "It's a fun culture, and people want to be part of it, even if they don't practice BDSM. They want to separate themselves from the Abercrombie and Fitch jock crowd -- they want to be with older people who are in their culture scene."
We'll probably have a presidential candidates 40 years down the road, saying that as a kid in the Twin Cities she "experimented with BDSM" and it was first-class training in the art of firm government."
Alexander Cockburn is coeditor with Jeffrey St. Clair of the muckraking newsletter CounterPunch. To find out more about Alexander Cockburn and read features by other columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2002 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.