Consent Models

One of the things you'll hear discussed over and over again in the Kink community is Consent. Everything we do revolves around the concept of Consent, and you'll rarely encounter any kind of Kink Education that doesn't have at least a quick mention of Consent, Respect, and Negotiation, which are all very inter-related concepts. 

One of the ways we talk about Consent is to present various Consent Models to give a structure to how we discuss the concept. There are a lot of different models in use, and they all really come down to saying the same thing - "be sure that everyone involved in your kinkplay understands what's included and the risks they are taking, and agrees to participate without any coercion."

Chaos Rope - Now Online!

About a year ago, I announced a new class I could teach live, Chaos Rope. I've taught that class a couple of times since then, polishing it up until I was happy with it. So now, I get to announce that I've converted it to an online format for everyone to access! Please look through it at your own pace and enjoy!

Chaos Rope: Bondage Without A Pattern

New Education Series

Community Essentials with Meronym is taking a big step! We have committed to renting out space for an regular education series! We'll be renting out the classroom space at our local kink community center, The Mark, for presentations. Every other month, we'll present a different class. I'm hoping to use this as a way to test out new classes and refresh classes that haven't been presented in a while.

I've been teaching under the name Community Essentials with Meronym for several years now. But my classes have mostly either been outside of Nashville, or in kinksters' homes locally. Starting this summer, however, I'll be teaching classes where anyone (over 18) can attend.

Toybag Class

This weekend I got to present Building Your Basic Toybag: Without Breaking the Bank at my local kinky community center. This one's a fun, slightly shorter class where we talk about acquiring all the things for a starter toybag with general applications on a smaller budget. It's primarily aimed at newish folks, but we sneak in a lot for experienced folks by talking about more inventive ways to use things we already have.

Resource List for Essentials of Kink-Aware Care

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Scene Negotiation Checklists

There are a lot of scene negotiation checklists out there on the internet. None of them are perfect. All of them are starting points for improved, more in-depth negotiations. If you're an experienced kinkster planning a simple scene, they probably aren't really needed. 

But if you're newer to negotiating for yourself, they can be a great tool. Not just for the negotiation itself, but for preparing to negotiate. Going through some of these checklists while thinking about what you really want - and don't want - with your upcoming partner in your mind, can really help you understand yourself better. And the better you understand how you feel about different things, the better you can communicate that to your partner.

And for experienced kinksters or settled partners, using a negotiation checklist can help you open up your mind to kinds and modes of play beyond what you usually do. They can be an 'ideas menu' to work through together.

I've collected a few sample checklists for BDSM/Kink play here as negotiation tools. You may find that whole sections of them don't apply to you or your scene, while others may make you rethink what you thought you wanted to do. None of these belong to me; this is just a reference list. If you have a checklist that you like that's not on here, please let me know!

Updated Slidedecks and Upcoming Classes

This last month, I've been cleaning up and updating several of our classes, in preparation for some teaching opportunities we have scheduled in June!

I've dusted off and completely rewritten Essentials of Kink-Aware Care, which is a half-day class for healthcare providers. It's been a few years since we've had a chance to present to our care providers, and it's such an important topic to get information out there. In partnership with a local trans-care clinic, we'll be presenting that in early June.

I'll be presenting Building Your Basic Toybag at our local kink community center a few weeks after that. This is one of the presentations you can find here on this blog. For this one, though, the slide deck and the blog presentation look substantially different, but I couldn't just update one, so I did both. And that meant also updating the sample toybag Amazon wishlist that goes with it, too.

Next up is Dungeon Essentials, which I'll be headed out of town to teach. It was my first class that I taught back in 2010, but it's still evolving every time I teach it. This time, I updated some colors and formatting, and added one slide. The version on this blog doesn't have the updates; those who see it live will get those!

Other classes coming up in the fall include Making a Scene and Octopus Attack. Come see me if you get a chance!