Eh, live and let live. As long as what they’re doing doesn’t hurt anyone, I don’t get why everyone’s upset. Not saying I’d be friends with them, but these kinds of moral judgments tend to get really complicated really quickly.
I don’t think they’re looking for attention. They’re just taking their fetish to the next level for them, in a perfectly legal way. It was fun and sexy for him to boss her around in private but doing it where others can see? Woah mama!
Same for people who have sex where they might get caught even though they could do it at home, or base jump in the middle of a city even though they could do it on a cliff. The public-ness of it adds to the thrill.
When we see something like this, society should make certain that the “puppy” is in this of her own free will. But having once assured that… <shrug>. It’s a weird world out there.
I thought this was a post-50 Shades of Grey world where everyone went to the hardware store for their duct tape, baling wire and jumper cable sex toy needs. People see your leash and suddenly the world needs a fainting couch.
I realise we may be cutting with a very fine knife here but isn’t that pretty much the definition of ‘looking for attention’? Doing something outrageous where other people can see you so they can be outraged about it? Methinks they doth protest too much.
Personally I’m somewhat uncomfortable with the whole dom/sub thing anyway but I’m not entirely sure I could articulate why.
Why can’t the reason be, “I’m tired of having to hide what I like doing. Let’s just do it, and to hell with society.”? I’d bet they would still do it even if their walks outside resulted in zero comments or notice. It’s not about making other people outraged so much I’d say. For that sort of thing just the knowledge that it is in the public sphere is all that’s needed.
Granted there are some attention seekers which don’t fit the above but there’s no reason to assume that these people are like that. I guess there’s no reason to assume that they’re not attention-seekers either, but personally I’d rather just let them do whatever legal stuff they want without labeling them negatively unless I personally met them.
So why do it in a mall then? If you’re doing something out of the social mainstream in a very public place then that suggests strongly to me that your doing it precisely because you want the attention, and its disenguous to act surprised when you then get that attention.
“I’m just going to pop down to the mall honey, do you have the leash and collar?”
This obviously isn’t something you just do casually, it takes a little preperation.
True, it may be more accurate to say that its something they were very specifically aware of what they were doing and the likely reaction they would get and that it took a little effort to set it up.
Am I outraged at what they did? Not really, though I do find it distinctly odd. But for them to pretend its just normal behaviour and not attention-seeking, I think not.
But I’ve already spent too much time considering their antics, so this will be my last post in this thread.