BDSM emblem
The BDSM emblem is a special identifier from the BDSM field .
The tripartite design was created by an anonymous designer using the pseudonym Quagmyr as a subtle insider symbol for followers of BDSM. It is based on the description of a ring that the protagonist "O" wears in the classic BDSM novel The Story of O by Pauline Réage .
The symbol is used in numerous variants , especially in the United Kingdom and the United States, and has been a common identification mark for followers of BDSM there since the 1990s .
Literary template
The ring used as a template is similar to a signet ring and is described in the literary template as follows:
"... The man now held out a small wooden chain with nothing but identical rings and asked her to choose a ring that would fit her left ring finger. They were strange iron rings, edged with gold on the inside; the wide, heavy ring, similar to the setting of a signet ring, but high domed, carried a gold wheel with three spokes in niello work , which were curved in a spiral, like the sun wheel of the Celts. "
This wheel is also called triskele , "tripod".
Origin and controversy
The Emblem Project is, according to its own information, a non-commercial US project that produces and sells the BDSM identification mark, commonly known simply as “Emblem”. The idea for this arose in 1994 in an AOL discussion forum, when they were looking for an identification mark that should be inconspicuous, decorative and only known within the SM subculture. The first prototypes were sold in 1995. The emblem has been known especially on the Internet since around 1997.
The project, which was initiated and operated by an individual, was repeatedly criticized for its license and cost conditions. The legal position in the use of the symbol has long been controversial, Quagmyr is accused by several sides of Copyfraud .
As a result of the controversy, the emblem served as a template for several similar symbols that are based on it and vary its basic design. These are used internationally in many countries as a recognition symbol of the BDSM scene.
distribution
The SMart Rhein-Ruhr eV association also has a modified form of the symbol in its logo.
In German-speaking countries, the emblem has been available in specialist retailers in the form of a wide variety of pieces of jewelry since 2000 at the latest, but it has not yet become generally accepted, here the ring of the O is mostly used.
The basic form of the emblem, the triskele, is used in some right-wing extremist circles as a substitute for the swastika , which is banned in Germany . Some German sadomasochists therefore fear that the use of the symbol could bring them closer to right-wing extremists.
The BDSM flag is another variation on the geometric motif originally used in the novel.
Individual evidence
- ^ Pauline Réage: Geschichte der O , Jean Paulhan (preface), p. 86, Joseph Metzler Verlag, Darmstadt, 1967
- ↑ cf. z. B. The Myth of the BDSM Symbol and the Fleecing of Our Community ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ cf. z. B. Arne Hoffmann The lexicon of sadomasochism. The Inside guide to dark eroticism: practices and instruments, people and institutions, literature and film, politics and philosophy. , P. 368 ff. ("SM-Emblem"), Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf 2000, ISBN 3-89602-290-3
literature
- Regine Deforges, Pauline Reage, Dominique Aury: “The 'O' told me. Backgrounds of a bestseller ", Charon-Verlag , 2000, ISBN 3-931406-25-3 (" The story of O "," Return to Roissy "and interviews in one volume)