Clarisse Thorn, a volunteer for the Leather Archives and Museum and a personal inspiration for me, is working on a project I find extremely interesting. She’s trying to collect oral histories of people who enjoy what BDSM’ers would call kinky sex but she’s trying to collect them from people who do not consider themselves part of the BDSM community. If you read me regularly, you probably know that this is both a challenge and something I view as critical to the success of sexual freedom efforts writ large.

To that end, she’s produced not one but two separate press releases for the project. One is intended to reach out to an audience that are not even particularly cognizant of the BDSM community as an identifiable, if nebulous, entity. The other is intended to reach an audience that is more or less aware of the BDSM subculture, and has perhaps participated in it, but who no longer consider it among their closer associations (kind of like me).

While the project itself is worth your attention, and so I’d encourage you to check it out, what’s more interesting to me right now is this two-pronged approach. Therefore, I’d like you to examine the following excerpts from both of the press releases with me. As you read these, please pay very close attention to the tone and terminology used in each.

Full disclosure: I was asked for pre-publication advice on these press releases and while the final product is hers (and so Clarisse deserves the credit), I offered significant input regarding the language ultimately used. And if it’s not obvious, I also have a (personal and totally non-financial) vested interest in this project succeeding.

Two versions of a press release

First, let’s look at the press release written for people who are already at least marginally involved with the public BDSM community, or with “The Scene.”

The Leather Archives & Museum, a cultural center in Chicago devoted to preserving the history of alternative sexuality, wants your help documenting the experiences of BDSMers who do not currently participate in the public BDSM subculture. If you enjoy kinky sex but do NOT attend adult sexuality workshops, dungeon play parties, sex parties, or educational meetups, then the goal of this project is to learn about your experiences through an interview. (Other projects have different goals; if you’re interested in the Leather Archives and frequently participate in public BDSM events, feel free to get in touch and ask about our other work!)

Interviews will be recorded and stored at the Chicago location of the Leather Archives & Museum. They are not being collected for a specific purpose at this time, but may be used for future museum exhibits and will be made available to researchers and scholars who use the museum’s collections for study.

Next, let’s look at the press release written for people who are completely disconnected from any semblance of an alternative sexuality community, but who practice some form of sadomasochistic sex in their personal lives. This, I hypothesize, is the larger group and the one more difficult to reach.

The Leather Archives & Museum, a cultural center in Chicago devoted to preserving the history of alternative sexuality, wants your help documenting sexual practices that are not widely discussed. Do you enjoy giving or receiving a little pain during sex, such as spanking, biting, or scratching? Do you fantasize about being overpowered or overpowering your partner, including using ropes, handcuffs, or other restraints? Do you role-play during sex? We want to learn about your experiences through an interview.

We are seeking interviewees whose sex life includes various “alternative” practices. Interviewees who do NOT often participate in adult sexuality workshops, sex parties, or educational meetups are especially encouraged to respond.

Comparison

Right off the bat, you can clearly see some differences in the way each press release was written. While both introductory paragraphs address a reader’s basic questions (the who, why, what, and how, a press release must), they do so in dramatically different ways.

The one for BDSM’ers is straightforward, directly identifying the audience (“BDSMers who do not currently participate in the public BDSM subculture”) and their proclivities (“enjoy kinky sex”). The one for more, how shall I say, sexually skittish folk uses questions (“Do you enjoy…?”) to elaborate on a rather vague premise (“sexual practices that are not widely discussed”).

The one for BDSM’ers includes an explicit exclusion (“…do NOT attend adult sexuality workshops…”) while the one for a more mainstream crowd only includes invitations (“We want to learn about your experiences…”). Meanwhile, the exclusion necessary for the project is postponed to the second paragraph. It’s also tweaked slightly, with qualifiers such as “often” tossed in and easily misunderstood phrases such as “dungeon play parties” omitted.

Of course, these differences are deliberate. They’re carefully designed to mirror the language used by the intended audience. This has benefits, and is in my opinion the best way to position the project for success, but it creates its own obstacles, too. In the latter release, it’s far more difficult to gauge effectiveness because the language is so mirky, an experience that will be familiar to anyone who’s tried communicating about sex with a partner who feels uncomfortable speaking about the subject.

Other differences, however, aren’t so obvious. While both press releases identify the Leather Archives & Museum as “a cultural center in Chicago devoted to preserving the history of alternative sexuality,” the press release for the more mainstream audience doesn’t suggest the activities mentioned are “various ‘alternative’ practices” until the second paragraph. The first press release, on the other hand, makes no mention of specific sexual activities, choosing instead to describe desired participants by citing community venues and a cultural identity. This highlights how participation in or the disavowing of a subculture is a key component of someone’s self-identity; while the sexual activities of both groups may be the same, their differing social circle is part of how they establish their self-perception.

There are probably more insights we can glean from examining these, but I’ll leave things like this for now. (For the autodidacts among you, here’s a text file with the full versions of both press releases.) I hope that those of you who consider yourselves community leaders and/or organizers take these subtleties to heart when you publicize your events, develop classes, or act as spokespeople for your own interests.