Photo by Flickr user massdistraction. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Holly of The Pervocracy raises an excellent point about a recent, highly… uh… stylized Psychology Today cover photo on “seven taboos that are perfectly natural.”

By using a model so conventionally sexy, they dodge the question of why the kink itself is sexy. Everyone already knows why a slinky blonde in vinyl with a whip is hot; it’s a lot more provocative to explore why a short pudgy dude in cotton underwear with a whip is hot. She said it here.

I mean think about it. In the “no-sex” class world a stereotyped hottie with a whip is just a slightly different verse of the same old “prove yourself worthy or I say no” song we straight men teach ourselves to believe every partner sings.

The erotic appeal of pudgy boy in y-fronts and a whip, though, cuts right to the heart of actual, you know, kink.