Soooo….

I frequently come to the defense of BDSMers in Savage Love—”they’re not hurting anyone who doesn’t want to be hurt,â€� “so long everything’s consensual, it’s nobody’s business,â€� and, er, “some of my best friends,â€� etc.—but I can’t defend this.

Three Men Charged in Dungeon Castration

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Three men have been arrested on charges of performing castrations on apparently willing participants in a sadomasochistic “dungeon” in a rural house, authorities said Friday…. Sheriff’s investigators said Richard Sciara, 61, Danny Reeves, 49, and Michael Mendez, 60, admitted performing at least eight surgeries, including castrations and testicle replacements, on six consenting clients over the past year. None of the three is licensed to practice medicine, officials said…

Detectives who searched the home Wednesday found medical supplies that included scalpels, sutures, bandages, anesthetic and artificial replacement testicles, sheriff’s officials said.

Also seized were videotaping equipment, and video recordings of the surgeries, sheriff’s officials said. Photos and videos made at the “dungeon” were apparently featured on a locally produced sadomasochistic Web site, officials said.

“This right here beats anything I have ever seen,” Sheriff Tom Alexander told the Asheville Citizen-Times, which reported that victims may have come from as far away as South America.

Each man faces 10 felony counts—five each of castration without malice and conspiracy to commit castration without malice—as well as eight misdemeanor counts of performing medical acts without a license.

Castration without malice?

I’ve got to give credit to the lawmakers who had the foresight to make castration without malice a crime. I mean, had non-malicious castrations—friendly castrations? just-between-chums castrations?— been a problem in North Carolina in the past? Or did someone in North Carolina’s legislature see this coming and act well in advance? Or… eesh… does this law have something to do with slavery?

For the record, there are some men out there who want to have their balls cut off. Some are sadomasochists, some are not. But I don’t think it’s a desire that anyone ought to accommodate—there’s no way it can be regarded as safe or sane, and even if someone agrees to it—hell, longs for it—castration is so extreme that consenting to it proves that you’re not mentally fit to consent to anything.

But for some men, giving up their testicles is the ultimate act of sexual surrender. Most men with castration fantasies don’t go through with it, as for most castration fetishists the thrills are to be found in anticipating/fearing that surrender. They may act out castration scenarios, but they want to live to enjoy their fantasies another day, so they hang on to their balls.