HOUSTON — A professional dominatrix from Texas is under fire from the media after it was discovered she used the words “slave” and “slavery” in a classified ad seeking clients.
The Nov. 11 Backpage.com ad, which has since been removed, annouced that Mistress Nina van Pain was “looking for a new slave boy to wash her undergarments (sic) and clean her dungeon.” The ad stated there were various “slavery packages” available, from one hour to an entire weekend.
“There’s no excuse to use the word ‘slavery’ like that,” said Joan Walsh, an editor at Salon.com. “The word — and I’m intentionally not using it gratuitously — can only be used by certain people, in a certain context. An ad for domination services is not an acceptable place for that — that word.”
“Calling yourself Mistress van Pain and then offering to let others be your bond servant, for lack of a better word, only makes light of the real pain and indignity of American slavery,” Walsh said.
Walsh was joined in her condemnation of Mistress van Pain by dozens of other journalists.
MSNBC host Martin Bashir, no stranger to emphatic statements, said the ad’s use of the words “slave” and “slavery” were “literally sickening,” adding that he had vomited on himself. He suggested that someone show Mistress van Pain “a thing or two about pain and suffering” by locking her a room with him for 72 hours, forcing her to smell his acrid breath and listen to him grunt.
Jonathan Capehart, blogger for The Washington Post, said the English language was unable to capture his fury, so instead of his usual post, he uploaded a photo of a building collapsing.
Mistress van Pain has not released a statement, but sources say the language of servitude and slavery is not uncommon in the BDSM (Bondage, Domination and Sadomasochism) community.
“These people need to be stopped,” Walsh said. “If we don’t police language, who will? The cops? Fat chance.”